Probe Intelligence
Probe Intelligence (PI) is the layer between raw VS probe responses and competitive intelligence.
What VS probes produce
A VS probe records six binary signals per response: mentioned, listed, list position, recommended, top pick, cited, and sentiment. These signals are precise and quantifiable — they produce VS scores. But they don’t answer a different, equally important question: what did AI actually say about the brand’s competitive landscape?
What PI extracts
After VS probes complete for a measurement run, PI runs a secondary pass using Claude to analyse the full text of probe responses. Claude extracts:
Entity types: Brands, people, places, categories, services, and products mentioned in AI responses.
Entity contexts: How each entity was positioned — recommended, compared, alternative, cited, warned against, mentioned neutrally, or described as a parent or subsidiary of another entity.
This produces the Relationship Map — a structured view of how AI platforms position the brand relative to the competitive field.
What the Relationship Map reveals
The Relationship Map surfaces patterns that aggregate VS scores cannot:
Displacement — which competitors AI mentions instead of the brand, and on which platforms. If Brand A appears in 80% of responses where Brand B was expected, Brand B has a displacement problem specifically with this competitor.
Asymmetry — when AI mentions Brand A while discussing Brand B, but not the reverse. Asymmetric relationships indicate competitive position: being mentioned alongside a leader means something different than being the leader.
Platform specificity — which platforms most often surface which competitors. A brand may be well-represented on ChatGPT but consistently displaced on Perplexity by the same competitor. Platform-specific competitive patterns inform where Generative-pillar work should focus.
Operational properties
PI runs silently after VS measurement completes. It does not block VS scoring — if PI fails for any reason, VS results are unaffected. PI results are not guaranteed to be available immediately after a VS run; they may take additional minutes for large measurement batches.