NEW YORK, Aug. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The proprietary answer engine optimization (AEO) practice marks the first time a Moburst founder has stepped out of the boardroom to run a standalone unit, signaling how central AI search has become to the agency’s future.
Thirteen years ago, when the App Store was still a new frontier, Moburst built one of the industry’s first App Store Optimization practices, handing early-adopting clients a clear advantage before anyone else understood the game. Today, the global leader in digital marketing and AI-powered solutions recognizes the same pattern unfolding on a much larger battlefield and is making its most significant move yet to stay ahead of it.
The numbers explain the urgency: 26% of consumers now bypass traditional search engines entirely and query generative AI platforms directly for recommendations, while 68% of searches end without a single click-through to a website. Brands that spent a decade optimizing for Google are discovering they’re invisible in the conversations replacing it.
Moburst’s answer to that problem is Answerburst, a dedicated sub-brand built to get clients named, recommended and cited in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, along with every other LLM that now stands between a brand and its customer.
What distinguishes the launch is not only the methodology, but also the leadership behind it. Co-founder and COO Lior Eldan is personally stepping in to lead Answerburst, the first time since Moburst’s founding that one of its principals has left the boardroom to operate a standalone unit.
“AEO isn’t SEO rebranded; it’s the sum of a brand’s entire digital footprint as an LLM interprets it,” said Eldan. “A model doesn’t just crawl a website. It reads the brand’s PR coverage, Podcasts, YouTube, social, Wikipedia, Reddit threads and more – all at once. Moburst already runs every one of those service lines for our clients, which means we’re one of the few agencies positioned to influence the entire footprint rather than a single channel. That lets us decode what’s truly driving visibility on each individual model and architect a strategy around that brand, instead of deploying a one-size-fits-all playbook.”
Eldan has identified this kind of inflection point before. In Moburst’s early days, he helped build its early App Store Optimization practice while mobile discovery was still being invented, turning that head start into a lasting edge for the agency’s clients. He’s making the same bet on AI visibility now, backed by an agency with far more scale and infrastructure than it had then.
“When a founder steps away from running the agency to personally build and lead something new, that’s not a program, that’s a statement,” said Gilad Bechar, co-founder and CEO of Moburst. “For 20 years, visibility meant ranking in search results. Today, it means becoming the answer. Yet most companies are still optimizing for search engines that fewer people rely on, while AI models are already deciding which brands to recommend, with or without their input. The last time the ground shifted this dramatically, Lior built our ASO practice from the ground up. Answerburst brings that same founder-level instinct to a far bigger stage.”
Answerburst is powered by proprietary technology built inside Moburst’s Growth Labs innovation unit. The platform Visibility by Moburst continuously monitors a brand’s AI visibility across every major LLM, tracks shifts in its broader digital footprint, and then runs a data-driven analysis of movements within the brand’s peer group to pinpoint actions that will improve its Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). From there, it activates a full range of capabilities to move the needle: satellite website launches, website optimization, video and content production, PR and podcast outreach, customer review responses, guest posting and more. Every lever serves one outcome: getting AI models to recognize the brand as the trusted answer in its category. Powering it all is a dedicated Growth Labs research team that consolidates these signals into a proprietary Index of Influence, reverse-engineering what actually moves rankings across every LLM.
AEO cuts across nearly 30 service lines, every client relationship and every dataset Moburst manages, which is exactly why the agency is putting a founder behind it. Moburst has already driven growth for more than 1,000 brands and generated more than $2 billion in client revenue by staying ahead of shifts in how consumers discover brands online. As search shifts from delivering links to delivering answers, Answerburst is built to ensure Moburst clients are the brands AI chooses to name in this new frontier.
For more information about Moburst and its award-winning full-service digital strategies, visit www.moburst.com.
About Moburst
Moburst is a full-service mobile-first digital agency that propels companies into category leaders through AI-powered marketing. Our methodology is driven by a proprietary AI program, with dedicated experts embedded in every department to pioneer intelligent solutions that deliver unparalleled client growth.
Trusted by global leaders from startups to enterprises like Google, Uber, Samsung, and Reddit, we deliver end-to-end results across the full marketing stack. Our expertise spans data-driven strategy, full-funnel organic growth (ASO/SEO/AEO), award-winning creative, digital transformation with dev teams, and intelligent media planning and buying execution.
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Brianna Koenig
Uproar by Moburst
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