TheoryNXT launches KASPER to track brand visibility in AI shopping results

TheoryNXT, the tech incubator from Theory House, has launched KASPER, a new platform that shows CPG brands how they appear in AI assistant shopping recommendations and where they are missing. The tool is aimed at helping brands improve visibility on what TheoryNXT calls the emerging AI shelf.

Why it matters: - CPG brands now have a second battleground for discovery beyond the physical shelf: AI assistants and shopping agents that decide which products get named and recommended. - TheoryNXT says KASPER is designed to help brands measure and improve visibility in those AI-driven shopping moments.

What happened: - TheoryNXT, the tech incubator from retail branding agency Theory House, launched KASPER on July 14, 2026. - KASPER is an agentic commerce graph that shows CPG brands how they appear, or fail to appear, when shoppers ask AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity what to buy. - The platform also provides retail guidance meant to improve how brands show up in those answers.

The details: - KASPER audits a brand’s presence across two metrics: Brand Inclusion Rate and Share of Invisible Shelf. - Brand Inclusion Rate measures how often a brand appears in category recommendation prompts compared with competitors. - Share of Invisible Shelf measures where a brand ranks in AI answers and how much of the response it commands. - Each diagnostic includes a category scorecard, competitive benchmarking against brands in the same aisle and a prioritized set of Action Cards. - TheoryNXT says the Action Cards are built for brand, category and shopper marketing teams, not SEO specialists. - The company positions KASPER as a retail-native tool, not a standard search marketing dashboard. - Blake Pointer, president of TheoryNXT, said most AI-visibility tools on the market were built by search marketers. - Pointer said KASPER audits the AI shelf the way a merchandiser audits a shelf set and tells brands what to fix in the language they already use. - KASPER is now live. - CPG brands can request a demo and view category data at getkasper.ai.

Between the lines: - TheoryNXT is framing AI discovery as a new version of retail shelf management, where visibility, ranking and recommendation quality matter as much as search traffic once did. - The launch reflects a broader shift: brands that once optimized for search results now also have to understand how AI systems summarize and recommend products.

What's next: - TheoryNXT is pitching KASPER to CPG brands that want to measure their AI presence and identify fixes category by category. - The company is also directing users to learn more about TheoryNXT at theorynxt.com and Theory House at theoryhouse.com.

The bottom line: - KASPER aims to give CPG brands a practical way to compete for visibility in AI shopping results, which TheoryNXT says is becoming the new shelf that matters.