Online discovery and commerce are transforming. People increasingly use AI systems to help them learn about product categories and evaluate what to buy. They rely on models as decision engines, rather than information tools. AI has become the new front door for product discovery, and these AI responses are influencing consumer perception well before anyone visits a website or reads a review.
Large language models already handle about 5.6% of desktop search traffic in the United States, and traditional search may lose 20% to 50% of its web traffic in the near future. As consumers increasingly use ChatGPT, Claude, and other systems for shopping, comparison, and purchasing, $750 billion in consumer spending could flow through AI search by 2028.
Enterprises need a plan, but most teams are flying blind. Only 16% of companies even track how they show up on AI platforms.
Bluefish, a LIFT Labs portfolio company, built the infrastructure to close the gap. They help enterprises understand how often they are recommended, selected, and acted on in AI responses. They also determine whether those appearances help or hurt consumer perception, and what actions can influence the outcome. Bluefish is used by global brands like Adidas, Tishman Speyer, and other large enterprises across financial services, consumer goods, automotive, and beauty.
The AI Internet Demands New Tools
Bluefish’s AI analytics suite answers a simple but pressing question: What do AI answers say about your brand? And how can you take action to optimize for growth? The process starts with millions of carefully structured prompts run across major AI engines like ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity to capture the full range of model responses. By repeating nuanced variations of these prompts at scale, the company identifies persistent patterns that reveal how models perceive and communicate about your brand. Clients gain full transparency into the prompts, responses, and cited sources behind all recommendations, and can even build custom prompt methodologies tailored to their industry or consumer base.
From there, Bluefish applies its proprietary analysis platform to classify results across brand visibility, accuracy, safety, AI commerce and more. It also highlights where a brand’s own content influences AI answers and where third-party sources overpower the official narrative. If a negative Reddit thread or a critical YouTube video begins influencing AI responses, Bluefish flags it, potentially in time for a brand to mitigate downstream effects.
Bluefish uses all that information to generate recommendations for optimization such as updating site architecture for AI crawlers, strengthening earned media strategies, improving product descriptions, or building a presence in communities like Reddit and YouTube.
Behind Bluefish’s Rapid Rise
Sherman founded Bluefish with Andrei Dunca and Jing Feng in 2024. All three leaders have long track records in adtech and enterprise software. Sherman previously co-founded PromoteIQ, a retail media platform acquired by Microsoft in 2019. Dunca co-founded LiveRail, later acquired by Facebook. Feng held senior roles at Microsoft, PromoteIQ, and LiveRail.
They began obsessing over the new rules of online discovery ushered in by the AI boom and built tools to help enterprise marketers address the issue. Two years after launching, Bluefish announced that they raised $24 million in venture capital and had signed some of the largest brands in the world as clients.
“It is rare to have a chance to redesign how an entire industry works,” Sherman said. “Enterprise marketing will change dramatically as the AI internet grows, and we want to build that system in a better way.”
Bluefish’s impressive growth continued when they joined the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator in the fall of 2025. One of the immediate surprises was how quickly the program opened doors.
“Within days, we met with leaders from three major divisions,” Sherman said. “That level of access would have taken months or years outside of the program.”
Building the Enterprise Marketing Layer for the AI Era
Bluefish is entering a rapid expansion phase. They are focused on onboarding Fortune 500 customers and deepening the analytics capabilities of its platform.
The founders believe the next stage of consumer experience will involve AI agents capable of researching products, comparing options, and completing purchases on behalf of users. Brands will need to optimize not just for human discovery but for autonomous agents.
Sherman likens the current moment to dumping a puzzle onto a table. Many pieces, no clear image yet but unmistakable excitement in figuring out what emerges next. He sees Bluefish as a central system to help enterprises understand and take action in AI Commerce.
“We want to be the enterprise marketing platform for AI, helping the world’s largest brands,” Sherman said. “We are still early in this shift and there is a massive opportunity to define how brands engage customers on the AI internet.”
