Is there a tool that tells me what topics I should write about to show up in AI answers?
Yes. Several tools find content gaps for AI answers. We compare Promptwatch, AthenaHQ, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush, Profound and others on topic research, with prices.
Yes, a handful of tools do this, and they work in three different ways. Some compare the prompts you care about with the pages you already have and show the gaps. Some provide prompt or keyword data so you can see what people ask. And some turn those findings into a task list or a draft. Which one suits you depends on whether you want research, a plan or the writing itself.
The three kinds of topic tools
Gap analysis: you choose the prompts that matter to buyers, the tool checks which of them your site answers well, and the gaps become topics. This is closest to "what should I write about to show up in AI answers", because the output is tied to the engines.
Demand research: the tool shows what people ask, with volumes or modeled prompts. Useful for finding ideas, though modeled data is only as good as the model.
Workflow and production: the tool turns an action into a brief or an article and may publish it.
What to look for
- Does it start from real prompts, not just classic keywords?
- Does it show what the engines searched for (query fan-outs) when answering?
- Does it score coverage of each topic on your own site?
- Does it show which third-party sources get cited, so you know when the answer is "get listed there" rather than "write a post"?
- Can it help you ship the content and measure whether it worked?
Tools compared
| Tool | Topic and gap features | Starting price (from our catalog) |
|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Content gap analysis with coverage scores, Answer Gap Report, Prompt Volumes, Prompt Explorer, query fan-outs, Topic Insights, Action Board, Content Agent | Free Explore plan; paid from $95/mo |
| AthenaHQ | Action Center with assignable tasks, content optimization agent | Starter $295/mo |
| Profound | Prompt Volumes dataset of real query demand | Enterprise custom (earlier estimate about $40k a year) |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Query-level AI visibility; a modeled index of 496M+ prompts plus Custom Prompts | Custom Prompts included on paid Ahrefs plans; Index from $199/mo |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | Keyword-to-prompt mapping | $99/mo per domain (not re-verified) |
| AirOps | Content workflows and brand kits | Solo, Pro and Enterprise; plan prices not shown on page read |
| Goodie AI | Page grading with edit recommendations | Core $295/mo |
| HubSpot AEO | Prioritized recommendations: create a page, fix a gap, reach out | $50/mo |
| Rankscale | Page audits; Pro+ includes 5 prompt researches a month | From $20/mo |
A few cautions from our catalog entries. Ahrefs Brand Radar models its prompts from keyword data, and an independent January 2026 test found it undercounted ChatGPT mentions, so treat it as directional research. Semrush's AI Toolkit prompts are described by critics as approximations, and its recommendations can be generic. Pricing for several tools changes often, so confirm before buying.
What Promptwatch does for topic research
Promptwatch is the strongest fit for "what should I write about", because it starts from AI answers and ends at published content in one workflow.
- Prompt Volumes shows search volumes, difficulty scores and citation rates across AI search, Google and Bing, so you can pick prompts worth targeting.
- Prompt Explorer suggests prompts from Search Console, ranking keywords, People Also Ask or any page you point it at.
- Query fan-outs per model show the sub-questions the engines actually asked, which makes natural article outlines.
- Content gap analysis scores how well your site covers each topic, and the Answer Gap Report is the view agencies such as Monks use for client content roadmaps.
- Topic Insights shows where pages underdeliver for their topic, by joining crawler logs, citation clicks and AI-referred visits.
- The Action Board turns this into a prioritized list, with a Discovery agent suggesting up to five evidence-backed actions each week.
- Citation analytics shows when the right move is an outside source: Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and offsite mentions point to where the engines already look.
Then you can write. Content Creation produces a draft from a brief, Content Refresh suggests diff-style updates to existing pages, and the Content Agent (Business plan and up) plans, writes and publishes on a schedule with a review inbox. Publishing goes to WordPress, Webflow and Framer. Afterward, Citation Trends and visitor analytics tell you whether the page worked.
Plan details: Essential ($95/mo) includes content gap analysis; Professional ($245/mo) adds 5 AEO articles and a knowledge base; the automated Content Agent starts on Business ($579/mo).
Who should pick which
- You want a topic list tied to AI answers, plus drafts and measurement: Promptwatch.
- You prefer an action queue and accept credit billing: AthenaHQ.
- You live in Ahrefs or Semrush and want directional ideas next to keyword data: their AI add-ons.
- You mostly need production at scale and already track visibility elsewhere: AirOps, or Goodie AI for page-level edits.
- You need an enterprise dataset on query demand: Profound.
A realistic caution
A tool can show where the gaps are. It cannot promise that an article will earn a mention. Test a small batch of topics, give them a few weeks, and let the citation data decide what to repeat.