Contentful launches Palmata to track AI brand visibility

Contentful has launched Palmata, a product designed to help organisations assess and improve how AI answer engines portray their businesses. The launch comes as companies place greater weight on how artificial intelligence shapes brand discovery.

The product is aimed at marketing teams that want to understand not only whether a brand appears in AI-generated answers, but also what information is shaping those responses and what changes might improve them. Palmata is available in select markets and operates separately from Contentful's core content platform.

The move reflects a shift in how businesses think about online visibility. For years, companies focused on search engine rankings and website traffic. But the growing use of AI tools for product research and comparison has created a new concern: a company's first impression may now be formed inside an AI-generated response rather than on its website.

Palmata studies publicly available data to analyse a company's market, competitors, audiences, content footprint and broader digital presence. It then recommends content changes that may alter how AI systems describe the business.

Among the early users are The Atlantic, Box, Dataiku, Docusign, Marketbridge and Telus Digital. Their involvement suggests interest from both software groups and media businesses in monitoring how AI systems interpret brands, products and services.

Tricia Gellman, Chief Marketing Officer at Box, described the commercial risk facing marketers as buying journeys move further away from direct website visits. "Understanding how AI systems represent your brand is only the first step," she said. "Today's buyer journey is increasingly invisible, with prospects researching solutions through AI long before they engage directly with a company. Marketers need to understand whether they're showing up in those conversations or being left off the shortlist entirely. Palmata helps teams identify where they're vulnerable, understand what actions will improve their AI reputation, and prioritise the opportunities that matter most."

Jason McGhee, Head of Product for Palmata at Contentful, said the aim was to move beyond simple tracking. "Most AI visibility tools tell you whether you appear in an answer, but they don't tell you what to do next," he said. "We built Palmata to help marketers understand how AI systems perceive their business, why those perceptions exist, and which actions are most likely to improve outcomes. Instead of creating more anxiety, Palmata creates clarity."

How it works

At the centre of the product is what Contentful calls the Sounder Discovery Agent, which analyses signals that may influence AI-generated answers. The system carries out ongoing research into a business and its digital environment, then turns that into prioritised recommendations.

Contentful highlighted several functions within Palmata. Steering Control allows teams to direct analysis towards specific brands, products, competitors, audiences or regions. Adaptive Deep Research builds context around a company's category and market position. Recommended Actions ranks proposed steps by their likely effect, while Simulated Impact is intended to help teams compare options before making changes.

Harry McIntosh, Vice President of Engineering at Telus Digital, pointed to the need for accuracy in AI-generated descriptions. "In AI search, the question that matters is whether AI describes you accurately, because the model answers with total confidence whether it's right or wrong," he said. "Palmata's Steering Control lets us point it at the specific products, audiences and competitors we care about, so we can see exactly what AI says we do and where it learned it. That's a much clearer path from insight to action."

Jamie Bothwell, Vice President of Marketing at Docusign, said the product was useful because it reflects the complexity of larger organisations. "Palmata's Adaptive Deep Research goes beyond broad monitoring of AI answers and adapts to the complexity of our business," he said. "Rather than treating our company as a single brand, Palmata develops context around our category, audiences, and competitors that helps us understand how AI systems are representing each part of our portfolio and where we have the greatest opportunities to improve."

Wider strategy

The launch also comes at an important time for Contentful following Salesforce's stated intention to acquire the company. The proposed deal has drawn attention to the strategic role of content management as AI systems become another route through which consumers discover and assess businesses.

Contentful framed Palmata as part of a broader change in content operations. Rather than preparing content only for websites and search engines, organisations are increasingly being pushed to consider how material is interpreted, summarised and compared by AI systems across multiple channels.

Alice McKown, Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer at The Atlantic, said the distinction lies in understanding perception rather than simple presence. "Everyone is talking about visibility in AI search, but visibility alone doesn't tell you what to do next," she said. "What differentiates Palmata is its ability to show us how AI systems are actually perceiving our business, how we can optimise, and a clear set of actions backed by research and simulation."

Bob Ray, Chief Executive Officer at Marketbridge, also pointed to the broader change in how consumers seek information. "As answer engines increasingly become the first place consumers go for information, brands need a way to understand and influence how they're being represented," he said. "Palmata helps move the conversation beyond mentions and rankings toward a clearer understanding of how AI answer engines surface and describe brands."

Karthik Rau, Chief Executive Officer at Contentful, linked the product to the company's view of how digital discovery is changing. "Contentful was built on the belief that content is the foundation of every digital experience," he said. "Today, AI systems increasingly shape how businesses are discovered, understood, and evaluated before a customer ever visits a website. Palmata helps organisations navigate this shift by turning AI discovery risk into a credible plan for growth. It gives teams the clarity and intelligence they need to understand their AI reputation and improve it over time."

Mark Abramowitz, Chief Marketing Officer at Dataiku, said: "AI is now shaping brand perception before a customer ever reaches your website. The hard part is knowing what actually matters. Palmata has the potential to help us focus on that."