AIAttention is an AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) analytics platform that measures how often and how prominently AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Qwen mention your brand. It provides an AI Attention Score (0-100), competitor detection, citation tracking, and trend analysis to help you optimize your brand's visibility in AI-generated answers.

What is an AI Attention Score?

The AI Attention Score (AAS) is a proprietary metric from AIAttention that quantifies your brand's visibility across AI models on a 0-100 scale. It considers mention frequency, ranking position within AI responses, and consistency across multiple AI providers. A score of 100 means your brand is mentioned first in every AI response for your tracked prompts.

What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing your brand's presence in AI-generated answers. Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on search engine rankings, AEO focuses on ensuring AI chatbots and answer engines recommend and mention your brand when users ask relevant questions. AIAttention is purpose-built to measure and track AEO performance.

What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is a broader term that encompasses optimizing content for all generative AI systems, including AI search engines (like Perplexity and Google AI Overviews), AI chatbots (like ChatGPT and Gemini), and AI assistants. AIAttention tracks your brand's GEO performance across all major generative AI platforms.

Which AI models does AIAttention track?

AIAttention monitors 12 AI models across 7 providers: OpenAI (ChatGPT series), Google Gemini, Perplexity, Anthropic Claude, Alibaba Qwen, DeepSeek, and Moonshot Kimi. Each monitoring run queries all selected models with your configured prompts and analyzes the responses for brand mentions, ranking position, and competitor presence.

How does AIAttention detect competitors?

AIAttention uses AI-powered analysis to identify all brands and entities mentioned alongside yours in AI-generated responses. It tracks competitor mention frequency, calculates an estimated AI Attention Score for each competitor, and ranks them so you can see your competitive position in AI visibility.

How is AIAttention different from traditional SEO tools?

Traditional SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz track your website's ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). AIAttention tracks something entirely different: how AI chatbots and answer engines mention your brand in their generated responses. As AI increasingly replaces traditional search, AEO monitoring is becoming essential alongside SEO.

Research Report2026-04-226 min read

Best YouTube Creators for Learning AI Agents & Automation 2026

Which AI agents creators do ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity recommend in 2026? We measured 72 AI queries across 4 learning intents. Every intent has a different #1.

By AIAttention Research

Quick answer: Based on 72 AI queries (4 learning intents × 3 models × 6 runs) against ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, the top creators for AI agents and automation in 2026 are Matthew Berman (local LLM #1), Matt Wolfe (AI news #1), Liam Ottley (no-code automation #1), and Riley Brown (Cursor / coding-agent #1). No single creator wins more than one intent — this is the most fragmented creator category we've measured.

If you're learning AI agents or automation in 2026, the right YouTube channel depends entirely on how you're learning. Below is the full data from three AI models answering four different learning-intent questions.

Top 10 Creators by AI Visibility (Aggregate)

Rank	Entity	Type	Weighted Score	Mentions
1	Matthew Berman	Creator	13.35	19
2	Matt Wolfe	Creator	11.26	19
3	Nate Herk	Creator	9.73	22
4	N8n	Tool	9.36	21
5	Cursor	Tool	8.25	9
6	Liam Ottley	Creator	6.68	8
7	Make.com	Tool	5.50	6
8	Yannic Kilcher	Creator	5.47	12
9	AI Explained	Creator	5.24	10
10	The AI Epiphany	Creator	5.22	10

Weighted score uses exponential decay at rate 0.75^(rank-1). Data aggregated across 6 sampling runs with ChatGPT (web), Gemini (web), and Perplexity (web).

An unusual finding for a creator category: 4 of the top 10 entities are tools, not people. AI recommends N8n, Cursor, Make.com, and (eventually in the rankings) LM Studio alongside individual creators. This reflects the current state of AI-agent education: the tools themselves have YouTube channels that function as content creators.

Winners by Learning Intent

Four intents, four different #1 creators. This is the largest intent differentiation we've measured across any category.

Learning Intent	#1	#2	#3	#4
Non-coder automation	Liam Ottley (5.00)	Nate Herk (4.33)	Matt Wolfe (4.01)	Sabrina Ramonov
Local LLM setup	Matthew Berman (6.84)	The AI Epiphany (5.00)	Two Minute Papers (4.33)	LM Studio (4.07)
AI agents & automation news	Matt Wolfe (6.17)	AI Explained (4.88)	Matthew Berman (4.27)	Nate Herk (3.82)
Cursor / coding-agent workflows	Cursor (tool, 12.50)	Riley Brown (3.32)	Fireship (3.19)	Cole Medin (3.05)

Four distinct audiences, four distinct creators. If you're learning AI agents, pick the intent you care about first, not the "top creator" in aggregate.

The ChatGPT vs Gemini Split — Strongest in This Category

In every AI creator category we've measured, ChatGPT and Gemini recommend different creators. This split is widest for AI agents.

ChatGPT gravitates to established general tech YouTubers: ThePrimeagen, Fireship, Lex Fridman, Andrew Ng, Sebastian Raschka, Two Minute Papers. These are researchers and broad tech communicators who happen to cover AI.
Gemini recommends niche AI-agent specialists: Matthew Berman, Liam Ottley, Mikey No-Code, Nick Saraev. Smaller channels, tighter topical fit.

The two AI models are answering what look like different questions. If a creator only appears on one, they're invisible to half the "which creator should I follow" queries.

Creator-Specific Observations

Matthew Berman — owns local LLM teaching. Wins that intent decisively (#1 with 6.84, 1.4× second place) and is top-5 in news. The rare creator who bridges "technical depth" and "newsworthy update cadence."

Matt Wolfe — intent-narrow, not cross-intent. Wins AI news (#1 with 6.17). Ranks #5 in non-coder (4.01). Absent elsewhere. A common misread: calling him "the AI Attention educator." He's actually the AI news aggregator.

Liam Ottley — no-code automation specialist. #1 in non-coder with 5.00. Gemini-dominant (ChatGPT rarely mentions him). High-signal niche.

Nate Herk — cross-intent visibility (ranks in 2 of 4 intents). Strong Perplexity presence. Sometimes confused with Nate Dame (a different SEO creator entirely); AI models occasionally merge them.

Riley Brown — #1 pure-creator for Cursor / coding-agent workflows (excluding the Cursor tool itself). Small channel, tight niche, strong visibility where it counts.

Cole Medin — #4 Cursor workflows. Rising visibility in AI-agent coding content.

Sabrina Ramonov, Nick Saraev, Mikey No-Code, AutomationMadeEasy — each owns a fragment of no-code automation territory. Mid-tier but with high-intent audience.

Two Minute Papers, Sebastian Raschka, Andrew Ng, Lex Fridman — authority signals, not YouTube-native AI agents teachers. Appear when AI is asked about "trusted sources" but not "practical workflows."

Top Citation Sources (Where AI Gets This Data)

When Perplexity returns citations for AI-agent queries, the heavy-hitters are:

Domain	Citations
youtube.com	135
reddit.com	31
linkedin.com	9
weweb.io	3
ryandoser.com	2
cursor.com	2

Reddit is proportionally much more influential here than in any other creator category — AI models use r/LocalLLaMA and r/ChatGPT threads as category signals. If you're building a creator brand in AI-agent education, appearing in Reddit discussions matters more than publishing long-form articles.

Tools Appearing Alongside Creators

AI models mix tools (N8n, Cursor, Make.com, LM Studio, Zapier) with individual creators in every single response. This is unusual — it happens rarely in SEO creator or backpacking tent queries. For AI agents, the tool IS the recommendation as often as a person is.

This has a practical implication: if you're a tool in this category, your YouTube channel IS your AEO distribution strategy. If you're a creator, you compete directly with branded tool channels, not just other humans.

How We Measured (Methodology)

Queries: 4 intents × 3 AI models × 6 sampling runs = 72 total queries
Prompts tested:
1. "Which individual YouTube creators or channels have the best AI automation tutorials for non-coders? Exclude software tools, company channels, agencies, and docs sites."
2. "Which individual YouTube creators or channels are best for learning local LLM setup and self-hosted AI tools?"
3. "Which individual YouTube creators or channels are the most up-to-date for AI agents and automation news?"
4. "Which individual YouTube creators or channels are best for practical Cursor and coding-agent workflows?"
Entity extraction: every creator and tool name in each response
Position weight: rank 1 = 1.0, rank 2 = 0.75, rank N = 0.75^(N-1)
Aggregation: weighted score summed across 6 runs, each intent scored separately

Data captured from the web UIs of ChatGPT (GPT-5.3), Gemini (Gemini 3 Flash), and Perplexity (Sonar) — the answers real users see.

Full methodology at our scoring methodology page.

Key Takeaways

4 intents, 4 different #1 creators. No single "best" creator for this category.
Tools compete with creators in every AI recommendation. N8n, Cursor, Make.com rank above most individuals on aggregate visibility.
ChatGPT vs Gemini disagree more here than in any other creator category. Different creator pools for the same questions.
Matthew Berman has the deepest single-intent dominance (local LLM).
Reddit is proportionally the biggest citation source for this category — community threads shape AI's AI-agent creator opinions.
Riley Brown, Cole Medin, Liam Ottley, Mikey No-Code are the small-channel specialists AI surfaces when asked for practical workflows — don't confuse with popularity leaders.

How to Track Your Own Creator Visibility

If you're a creator, tool, or education platform in AI agents / automation — start a free AIAttention project to see exactly how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity describe you. Free tier covers 1 tracker, 5 prompts, weekly monitoring.

Related reports:

Data from AIAttention's AI Agents Educators research program (6 sampling runs, 2026-04-16 to 2026-04-17). Rankings evolve as AI models are updated. Updated rankings published quarterly.

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