AI search results tell the first version of every brand’s story, shaping consumer perception and decision-making well before someone clicks. Accurate and favorable answers upstream mean more conversions downstream.

Ally—the largest all-digital bank in the US— knows how important a first impression can be based on AI search responses. That’s why it uses Scrunch to monitor AI search performance and protect its brand reputation.

“Scrunch shows us where AI is getting its information and where the gaps are. That helps us focus our content and PR efforts where they can make the biggest difference, helping customers and prospects find accurate information about Ally.”
—Cassie Cope, Director of GEO

Brands need a window into AI’s narrative

Ally is no stranger to innovation. The bank helped pioneer large scale all-digital banking.

So, when AI platforms like ChatGPT began to emerge as the new broker between companies and their customers, Ally was ready to build on a strong SEO foundation to win in AI search.

But Ally encountered the one problem that all companies face: LLMs don’t share much data about what users are querying. As a result, Ally had limited visibility into what AI was saying about its brand.

That’s when the team discovered Scrunch. After evaluating a handful of competitors, the Ally GEO team selected Scrunch as its tool of choice to help it win in AI search.

What stood out about Scrunch was more than just the tool itself. The Scrunch leadership and support team added value beyond the tool, forming a collaborative partnership to uncover insights and turn them into action.

Today, across its tracked prompts, Ally is the most mentioned bank in unbranded AI search, with the highest share of voice versus competitors.

“As an all-digital bank, Ally has always focused on meeting customers where they are. AI search is the next major shift in that journey, and we’re taking a proactive approach to ensure consumers see the most accurate and helpful information about Ally.”
—Jim Bentubo, Sr. Director of AI, GEO and Partnership Strategy

Outdated answers were shaping Ally’s brand

Ally began benchmarking its AI presence against key competitors in the financial services space.

Using Scrunch, Ally tracks brand presence in AI search—mention rate, answer position, sentiment trends, and citations.

The tool provides a bird’s eye view of the competitive landscape, from share of voice in AI answers to exactly which brands are competing for the same prompts.

The goal? To make sure AI was surfacing Ally’s key products—like checking and savings accounts—and turn AI visibility into high-quality AI referral traffic.

Ally found that it already had strong brand visibility in AI answers. But being mentioned in an AI response isn’t the same thing as being recommended.

As a bank with no brick-and-mortar branches, one watch-out often cited by LLMs had been an inability for customers to deposit cash into their accounts.

In late 2025, Ally launched a partnership that allows customers to deposit cash into their Ally accounts at thousands of retail locations.

At launch, Ally crafted an article for its content marketing hub, Conversationally, and pitched an article to Investopedia, a publication that LLMs often cite for its tracked prompts.

Both of those initiatives helped fuel AI search, informing Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT responses when people ask about adding cash to their Ally account.

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