Itera, Inc. opens an office in San Francisco, taking its marketing infrastructure for the AI search era global
Itera, Inc. (head office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Takayuki Muto) has opened an office in San Francisco, California, U.S.A. in August 2026. By establishing a base in the United States — the centre of the AI search and LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) market — we are strengthening our ability to track leading-edge technology and market movements, build local partnerships, and take LLMOcheki, our flagship product, global.
Why we opened a U.S. office
As AI search spreads through ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and others, the way consumers look for information is shifting rapidly from conventional search engines to AI engines. Our own study (900 queries across 30 categories) found that AI Overview appears in 87.8% of Google searches, that the click-through rate for the top organic result falls by roughly 46%, and that the zero-click rate reaches 59.4%.
The epicentre of that change is the United States. Placing a base in the San Francisco Bay Area — where the companies building the major AI engines, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Perplexity, are concentrated — is, in our judgement, essential to catching changes in how AI search works early and reflecting them in our measurement product.
What the U.S. office does
- First-hand intelligence on the AI search and LLMO market — Catching the movements and updates of each major AI engine as early as possible, and reflecting them in the measurement engine behind LLMOcheki.
- Building local partnerships — Developing opportunities for alliances and collaboration with AI and marketing technology companies in the United States.
- A foothold for going global — Advancing the market research and preparation needed to bring LLMOcheki and our other products to English-speaking markets.
Office details
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Itera Inc. San Francisco Office |
| Address | 2261 Market Street STE 97401, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA |
| Opened | 10 August 2026 |
| Main functions | Market research, partner development, preparation for global expansion |
Comment from our CEO
“In the age of AI search, the standards by which marketing is measured are being updated daily. Where that change happens first is, without question, the United States. Under our vision of becoming the marketing infrastructure of the AI era, we intend to stand at the front line of that change and deliver its value to marketers in Japan faster than anyone in the world. Iterate, Your Marketing.”
What comes next
From this U.S. office, we will strengthen how we monitor the movements of each major AI engine, and advance our thinking on an English version of LLMOcheki and a launch in overseas markets. We will continue to accelerate our work to establish the standard for measurement in the AI search era, and to make marketing that delivers results the norm.
About LLMOcheki
LLMOcheki is a SaaS product for measuring visibility in AI search. It quantifies how a brand is mentioned and cited across seven AI engines — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overview — using n-shot statistical methods (Wilson 95% confidence intervals).
LLMOcheki https://llmocheki.com/
Itera, Inc. https://itera.co.jp/