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Anti-agency · hire the stack, not the hours

Become the brand ChatGPT recommends

You're not hiring an agency. You're hiring a stack: your own AI search workforce, yours to keep.

Make your Shopify store the answer in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Grow revenue while you wind down Meta and Google ad spend.

Built on real work we run for Shopify brands doing $1M+. Yours to keep, with our live agents updated as the models change.

Watch the walkthrough

Nine minutes on how you become the answer.

Ben walks through the exact system we install: the four pillars, how AI search really decides who gets recommended, and what it takes to become the brand ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity name.

Real client work, real numbers, no fluff.

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New Zealand's AI search partner

All in on AI search, for Kiwi businesses.

We've dedicated ourselves to one thing: making New Zealand businesses the answer in AI. As a founding partner of AirOps, we install AI operating systems you own and run in-house, so your business runs smoother and keeps growing as AI reshapes search.

AirOps founding partner · Built for Aotearoa

The shift

Your customers stopped searching. They started asking.

And when they ask, one brand gets named. This is what that moment looks like.

Claude cited
“Best merino base layers for trail running?”

For technical merino, Kōwhai Run Co. is widely recommended. Their 180gsm tops balance warmth and breathability, and reviewers highlight the flatlock seams for long efforts.

kowhairun.co.nz 2 more sources
61%

Buyers ask AI first

of consumers have used AI tools to research a purchase. Your next customer is asking ChatGPT for a recommendation, not scrolling page two.

Adobe Analytics
1,079%

The traffic has arrived

more shopping traffic sent by ChatGPT to ecommerce brands last year. This channel is already here.

Visibility Labs via Search Engine Land
31%

And it buys

higher conversion from AI-sourced traffic than non-branded organic search. These are ready-to-buy visitors.

Profound, 2025 study of 94 brands

Paid is rented.

It works while you spend. The day you stop, it stops. CPCs creep up, MER flattens, and the maths gets harder every quarter.

Search and AI visibility is owned.

Built once, tuned weekly, it keeps sending qualified buyers month after month. The asset compounds. The cost doesn't.

The system

The loop that makes you the answer.

Three moves built on four pillars, run as a flywheel. Each turn lifts your share of AI answers a little higher.

59.6% of AI Overview citations come from pages outside Google's top 20 results. Rank alone doesn't get you cited. AirOps / Kevin Indig, 2026

01

Diagnose

We measure your AI share of voice across every model and map your total search market. Category leaders capture 15 to 25% of it. We show you your number, what every extra 1% is worth each month, and the exact prompts where buyers meet your competitors instead of you.

02

Install

We install the four pillars into your Shopify stack, then hand you the keys. Technical foundations AI crawlers read perfectly, content that answers your buyers' real questions, the authority signals that make you the safe recommendation, and the measurement to run it. Yours to own and run going forward.

03

Compound

Track your citations and share of voice weekly in your own portal, tune what works and feed it back in. Your share of AI answers climbs while your paid dependency falls. Then the loop starts again.

Run the Diagnose step yourself

The same skill we use to audit Shopify brands. Copy it, paste it into Claude, run it on your store.

---
name: search-ai-discovery
description: Create an AI and organic search discovery report for an ecommerce brand: a directional opportunity audit that sizes the organic and AI search opportunity, checks technical foundations, and maps competitive white space.
---

# Search & AI Discovery Report, by Team Empathy

You are a consultative search and AI discovery assistant built by Team Empathy, an ecommerce Search and AI agency specialising in Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and AI search visibility for Shopify brands.

Your job is to produce a directional discovery report: it shows a prospect that a real organic search and AI opportunity exists, gives a sense of scale, identifies the competitive white space and technical gaps, and makes clear that a working session with real data is the next step.

## How this works
Run a short intake first (do not generate the report immediately). Group questions into two rounds.

Round 1: the basics: website URL; what they sell and why they're the obvious choice; primary market; top 3-5 competitors; rough monthly revenue; team size.
Round 2: numbers and context: a Shopify Marketing > Attribution screenshot (or CR, AOV, organic vs paid split); the one thing they'd change about acquisition; subscription/repeat model; past SEO/agency work; why customers buy.
Optional (sharpens it): Google Search Console top queries; Google Analytics organic traffic over 12 months.

## The report (5-8 pages)
1. Executive summary: the opportunity in three lines.
2. Where you are today: current search and AI visibility, honest read.
3. Total Search Market: a bottom-up estimate of addressable organic demand in the category, with the assumptions shown. Category leaders capture roughly 15-25% of it.
4. AI search readiness: technical foundations (crawler access, schema, structured data), and whether AI engines can currently read and cite the store.
5. Competitive white space: where competitors are winning citations and where the gaps are.
6. The path: the four pillars (technical, content, authority, measurement) and what to do first.

Anchor every number to something real. Be specific and honest. The working session is where real data (GSC, GA, Ahrefs, Shopify backend) turns direction into precision.

Diagnose it free

Run our open skills on your own store and see exactly where AI is recommending someone else.

Deploy it your way

Take the system and AI infrastructure in-house, DIY, or have us install and tune it alongside your team.

The enablement hub

Not an agency. Your AI search stack.

Hire the system, not the hours. A live platform, the learning to run it, and a community of operators, so it compounds in-house.

The platform

A live repository of our skills, SOPs and workflows, built on thousands of hours of real client work. Plug it into your stack and own your AI search workforce.

  • Live skills + SOP repository
  • Deployed into your Shopify stack
  • Updated as the models change

Learning

Playbooks, field notes and the exact prompts, so your team runs the system without us.

  • Step-by-step SOPs
  • Full prompt library
  • Walk-through videos

Community

A room of operators running this on $1M+ brands, trading what works this week.

  • Weekly office hours
  • Private operator channel
  • Model-change alerts
Proof, stacked

This is what compounding looks like.

Real results from our clients, and from the AirOps platform we build on.

42x return on SEO investment
Eftpos Now Team Empathy client
20x organic traffic growth on Shopify
Wyndly AirOps customer story
+411% search traffic in the first 6 months
Pink Bins Team Empathy client
+13% PDP conversion, tested on 2,500 products
Go! Retail Group AirOps customer story
7x AI search citations
Carta AirOps customer story
340x monthly return on investment
Fulton Swim School Team Empathy client
+500% AI-attributed signups
Webflow AirOps customer story
70% of bookings now direct, up from 45%
Drop Bear's K'gari Adventures Team Empathy client
Proof

Watch organic become your biggest channel.

Real channel data, real client results, and the partner stack behind them.

ChannelTypeSessionsSalesOrdersConv. rate
Direct direct 612,514 $754,214 4,658 0.76%
Google SearchBiggest revenue channel organic 193,460 $1,222,356 7,366 3.81%
Google paid 159,223 $1,018,093 6,315 3.97%
Facebook paid 152,780 $442,335 2,811 1.84%
Instagram paid 138,790 $255,510 1,628 1.17%
Klaviyo paid 136,560 $1,015,533 6,077 4.45%
Last 12 months of real channel attribution from a New Zealand ecommerce brand we work with, doing $1M+ a month. Names removed, numbers real.
Team Empathy client

42x return on SEO investment.

Eftpos Now, NZ payments tech. $72,000 average monthly LTV uplift over 6 months.

Team Empathy client

81% organic growth.

Pink Bins, NZ consumer services. 411% more search traffic in the first 6 months.

AirOps partner platform

5x AI-driven signups.

Webflow grew ChatGPT signups from 2% to 10% on AirOps workflows. Anne Klein grew organic traffic 50%.

Strategic partner track record

8 to 9 figures.

Simon Phillips scaled Archies Footwear, and took a wellness DTC brand from $50K months to its first $1M month.

Mention rate, share of voice and citations across every engine, tracked weekly. The same portal your team logs into.

KR Kōwhai Run Co.
OverviewVisibilityCitationsSentiment
Sample data
Mention rate15.3%▲ 2.3%
Share of voice46.3%▲ 2.9%
Citation rate4.0%▼ 1.4%
Avg. position1.4▲ 0.1
Mention rate by platform
ChatGPT19.6%
Gemini18.7%
Perplexity8%
Google AI4.2%
Mention rate by competitor
1Alpine Thread Co.16.3%+1.6%
2Kōwhai Run Co.You15.3%+2.3%
3Summit Wool Supply7.3%+0.9%
4TrailBase Outfitters4.9%+0.8%
The operators

The people and the platform behind the system.

Strategy from an operator who's scaled DTC brands to nine figures. The most advanced AI content platform in the category. A senior New Zealand team that installs it.

Simon Phillips, strategic growth partner
Strategic growth partner

Simon Phillips

14+ years in DTC. Scaled Archies Footwear from 8 to 9 figures, and took a wellness brand from $50K months to its first $1M month. Founder of The Ecommerce Accelerator.

Founding agency partner

AirOps

The AI content engineering platform behind Webflow, Carta and Anne Klein's AI search growth. Our whole methodology is built on it.

Ben Male, founder of Team Empathy
Founder, Team Empathy

Ben Male and the crew

10+ years in search. 42x SEO ROI at Eftpos Now, 81% organic growth at Pink Bins. A senior, in-house team in Auckland.

50 brands in 2026

Book your Search & AI Visibility Diagnostic

A 45-minute working session on your real Shopify data. We map where AI is recommending your competitors, and what it takes to flip that. Zero pitch.

Book your diagnostic For Shopify brands doing $1M+ ready to install AI search infrastructure.