How does AIQ differ from social listening or media monitoring tools?

The three categories track different things. Social listening tools (Brandwatch, Sprout, Talkwalker) capture what people post on social platforms. Media monitoring tools (Cision, Meltwater, Critical Mention) capture what journalists publish in mainstream and trade press. AIQ captures what the AI engines say when a user asks about the brand. The first two measure inputs to the AI engines; AIQ measures the output. The reason that distinction is now critical: the AI engines synthesize across all three input categories – earned media, social posts, Wikipedia, Reddit, the brand’s own owned content – into a single narrative for the user, and that synthesized narrative is increasingly what shapes perception. AIQ is the only category measuring the synthesized output rather than one of the inputs.