Adobe bought Semrush and Sitecore bought Scrunch. What to put in your AI visibility tool contract
Two AI visibility tools changed owners this spring. Five clauses protect your prompt history, your budget and your exit when the next one does.
The short answer
Write the contract for the day your vendor changes hands. Ask for a full export of prompt sets and raw answers with dates and engines, advance notice of price and method changes, named engine coverage with a remedy if one is dropped, and a right to leave on a change of control. The Semrush and Scrunch deals show why.
Key takeaways
- Adobe completed its purchase of Semrush in April 2026 and Sitecore announced in June 2026 that it had acquired Scrunch, so tool ownership is now a buying risk.
- Your prompt set and its raw answer history are the asset; the dashboard is replaceable, so the export clause matters most.
- Engine coverage should be named in the contract, with notice and a price remedy if an engine is dropped or the collection method changes.
- A change-of-control exit lets you leave without penalty if the tool is folded into a suite you did not choose.
- Our view: buy monthly or annual terms you can walk away from until the market settles, and keep a copy of every answer you pay to collect.
In this article
What changed in the AI visibility tool market this spring?
Two well-known AI visibility tools changed owners within six weeks. Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush on 28 April 2026 and said Semrush would be brought together with its experience, commerce and LLM optimisation products.1 On 3 June 2026 Sitecore announced it had acquired Scrunch, a platform that tracks how brands appear in AI answers, and said Scrunch's recommendations would be automated inside its own content products.2
The category these tools sit in is crowded. G2 reported in January 2026 that it listed more than 150 answer engine optimisation products, up from 7 in March 2025.3 G2 runs a software marketplace, so it has an interest in categories growing, but a listing count is easy to check.
Crowded categories consolidate. More deals will follow, and some tools will close or be folded into larger suites. None of that is bad news by itself. It does change what a careful buyer puts in writing.
Why a change of owner matters to the buyer
A new owner can change four things you rely on: price, engine coverage, how answers are collected and whether the product is still sold on its own. Each of these can happen through an ordinary product update, with no breach of contract and no warning beyond an email.
Neither announcement says the tools will stop being sold separately. Adobe's release promises continued investment in Semrush.1 Sitecore's release describes Scrunch connecting directly to its workflows and does not address standalone availability.2 That silence is normal at announcement time. It is also why the contract, not the press release, has to answer the question.
Buyers were already uneasy before either deal closed. Digiday reported in May 2026 that marketers were questioning the price of AI visibility tools because results varied between platforms and between runs.4 A change of owner adds a second source of doubt: will next quarter's numbers be measured the same way as this quarter's?
Our view: the thing you are buying is a time series of answers to your prompts. If that series breaks, because the method changed or the tool went away, the money spent on earlier months loses most of its value.
The five clauses to add
Five clauses protect that time series: data export, price-change notice, named engine coverage, method-change notice and an exit on change of control. None is unusual in software contracts. They are just rarely asked for in this category, because most AI visibility tools are bought on a card with click-through terms.
Export of prompt sets and raw answers
Ask for a full export, on request and at termination, in a documented format such as CSV or JSON. It should hold every prompt, every raw answer text, the cited URLs, the engine and model where known, the country and language, and the date and time of each run. A chart of share of voice is not an export.
Our view: this is the clause that matters most. With raw answers you can re-score history in another tool or by hand. With only scores, you start again from zero.
Price-change notice
Ask for written notice before any price change takes effect, long enough to run a renewal decision. Sixty to ninety days is a common ask in software contracts. Also ask that a price rise during a committed term gives you the right to cancel without penalty.
Named engine coverage
List the engines by name in the order form, not "major AI platforms". For each one, record how answers are collected: an official API, a licensed AI-answer data provider or a browser capture. If an engine is dropped, or the collection route changes, you should get notice and a matching price reduction.
For reference, the AI answer monitor we run at Sigzen AI covers six engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Google AI. It uses official APIs where they are offered and a licensed AI-answer data provider otherwise. Whatever tool you buy, ask for the same disclosure.
Method-change notice
Ask the vendor to tell you before it changes how it runs or scores prompts: how many runs per prompt, on how many days, how a mention or citation is counted. A method change should come with a short overlap period where old and new methods run side by side, so you can see the break in the series.
Exit on change of control
Ask for the right to terminate without penalty within a set window after the vendor is acquired or merged. Pair it with a transition period in which the export clause still applies, and with deletion of your data on request afterwards.
| Clause | What to ask for | What it protects |
|---|---|---|
| Data export | Prompts, raw answers, citations, engine, country, timestamps | Your history, if you leave |
| Price notice | Written notice before any rise; cancel if raised mid-term | Your budget |
| Engine coverage | Engines named, collection route stated, remedy if dropped | What you are paying to see |
| Method notice | Notice and an overlap period before scoring changes | Comparability over time |
| Change of control | Exit without penalty, export still applies, then deletion | Your right to choose again |
Our checklist, not legal advice. Have your own counsel review any contract before you sign.
What should you ask before you sign?
Ask questions whose answers you can check, and get them in writing. A short vendor questionnaire, sent before the demo, saves a lot of time.
Six questions for any AI visibility vendor
- Engines
Which engines, by name, and how is each one collected?
- Runs
How many times is each prompt run, and on how many separate days?
- Raw data
Can we export every answer and citation, not only scores?
- Prompts
Who owns the prompt set we build with you?
- Changes
How much notice do we get of price or method changes?
- Ownership
What happens to our contract and data if you are acquired?
The second question deserves care. Answers vary from run to run, so a single run per prompt gives you a noisy number. Our audits run each prompt on three separate days for that reason. Our buyer's spec for an AI visibility score sets out what a defensible number needs.
The fourth question is often overlooked. If a vendor's team helped write your prompts, the contract should say the prompt set is yours. It took real work to build, and it is what makes next year's numbers comparable with this year's.
Tool, agency or both?
Consolidation affects agencies too, because many of them resell or white-label the same tools. If you buy a retainer, the export and method clauses belong in that contract as well. Our retainer checklist covers what a monthly service should deliver.
Price is the other variable. Tool and agency prices in this category range widely, and many are not published at all. Our survey of published GEO prices shows what is on public price lists. Our own prices are on our pricing page.
Our view: until the market settles, prefer monthly or annual terms you can walk away from, keep your own copy of every answer you pay to collect, and treat any multi-year discount as a bet on the vendor's next owner.
