Sitecore Acquires AI Search Platform Scrunch

In a strategic move to address the evolving digital discovery paradigm, Sitecore, a prominent player in AI-enhanced digital experience software, has acquired Scrunch, a specialized AI customer experience platform. This integration aims to empower brands to effectively manage their presence and influence within the rapidly expanding realm of AI-generated search results, a critical channel for consumer research and decision-making.

The acquisition comes at a time when large language models (LLMs) are fundamentally reshaping how potential customers interact with brands. Buyers increasingly rely on AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity to gather information, compare offerings, and even form initial brand perceptions, often before direct engagement with a company's website. Scrunch's technology provides crucial visibility into how brand messaging is being presented, or conversely, overlooked, across these AI-powered discovery engines.

Scrunch's proprietary Agent Experience Platform (AXP) is designed to format content in a manner that AI agents can readily interpret and utilize, ensuring brand messages are accurately represented without compromising the human user experience. Early adopters have demonstrated significant gains; Akamai reported a remarkable 364% surge in brand visibility for non-branded search queries and a 218% increase in AI citations after implementing Scrunch's AXP. Similarly, Runpod experienced a 400% uplift in paying customers directly linked to their AI search optimization initiatives.

This acquisition directly confronts a structural shift in buyer engagement. While many enterprises possess extensive content repositories, this information is frequently siloed, outdated, or not optimized for AI consumption, leading to potential misrepresentation in AI-generated answers. By integrating Scrunch's analytical capabilities and optimization recommendations with its own AI-powered digital experience platform, Sitecore intends to deliver a cohesive solution. This combined offering will facilitate the consistent and clear publication of brand content across diverse channels, ultimately driving improved traffic, conversion rates, and measurable business outcomes.

Sitecore CEO, Eric Stine, emphasized the transformative impact of AI on consumer behavior, stating, “AI has changed buyer behavior forever. We’re at a pivotal moment where companies must rethink traditional digital strategies and accept that the internet must be written for machines to understand if we want humans to experience it. With Scrunch, we enable our customers to understand how they are represented in AI-generated answers and automatically act on those insights, maximizing how they reach, engage, and serve their customers.”

Echoing this sentiment, Scrunch CEO, Chris Andrew, added, “Control of the brand narrative is shifting, and customers are increasingly trusting AI to define brands, rather than the organizations behind those brands. By joining forces, we’re helping companies meet buyers where they are, moving beyond traditional SEO to win inside AI-generated answers.” The financial specifics of the transaction were not publicly disclosed.