HubSpot's AI Engine Optimization tool falls short at 60% effectiveness

The Gist

• HubSpot's AEO tool delivers incomplete insights and lacks actionable recommendations
• Scores like 0% sentiment analysis highlight broken AI features
• $50/month pricing exceeds value compared to agentic competitors

• HubSpot's AI Engine Optimization (AEO) tool is only 60% effective compared to agentic competitors.
• The gap between '60% good enough' AI solutions and best-in-class AI tools has widened over the past 6-9 months.
• Shipping AI features that are not best-in-class can damage a brand more than not shipping AI features at all.
• The AI improvement curve is so steep that a 60% solution from April may be unusable by October.
• Non-engineers can build competitive AI tools in a day using platforms like Replit, threatening established vendors.
• Figma Make, a design-tool-turned-app-builder, failed to compete with dedicated vibe coding platforms due to its 60% effectiveness.

• Avoid shipping AI features that are not best-in-class, as they can harm your brand and lose customers to competitors.
• Invest in AI tools that provide actionable recommendations and clear value to users.
• Monitor the rapid improvement curve in AI and ensure your solutions remain competitive.
• Consider buying proven AI solutions rather than building in-house tools unless you can maintain and update them effectively.

• 60% (Effectiveness of HubSpot's AEO tool compared to competitors.)
• $50/month (Cost of HubSpot's AEO tool for additional prompts.)
• 67/100 (AEO score for SaaStr.ai website after using a custom-built tool.)
• $400M ARR (Revenue of Lovable and Replit in the vibe coding category.)
• $120-240/month (Cost of Figma Make's AI credit add-ons.)