AEO Diagnostics: Create an AI Discovery Advantage

By Scott Hebner | March 13, 2026

In this episode of Next Frontiers of AI, Scott Hebner sits down with Stas Levitan, CEO of LightSite AI, to examine the critical importance of AEO diagnostics. When optimizing B2B AI-mediated buyer journeys, visibility metrics can tell you what happened, but not what to fix. Determining what fixes to apply requires an understanding of WHY brand visibility is what it is. That is where AI Engine Optimization (AEO) diagnostics become essential. The strategic challenge is not only diagnosing gaps across your owned channels but across the full chain of signals that ultimately determine a brand’s AEO position.

The conversation explores three underexamined fronts in the emerging discipline of AEO, especially AEO diagnostics. First are the hidden technical factors: how LLM bots crawl sites, what they extract, what they miss, and how machine-readable signals materially shape AI understanding and citability. Second is the clarity of your narrative: whether AI systems can understand who you are, what problem you solve, and why your differentiation matters in a contextual buyer conversation. Third is validation and trust: how well can AI engines verify your claims and determine whether your brand is credible enough to rely on, not just from.

In this podcast, Scott and Stas argue that AEO must evolve into an AEO diagnostics discipline. The implication is clear: winning brands will be those that can diagnose weaknesses across technical structure, narrative clarity, and trust validation across the entire AEO influence chain, not just owned channels where most of the market remains focused today. In the era of AI-mediated buyer journeys, it’s AEO diagnostics that will determine which brands become visible, or invisible, to potential buyers.

Learn more here.