The Chicago AI Visibility Index — 25 Brands Ranked by AI Search Presence

BrandCited scanned 25 Chicago tech brands across 9 AI search engines. 24% scored below 40 — the threshold below which AI platforms will not cite a brand regardless of traffic, funding, or market position. The average score was 45/100. Sprout Social led the index at 73/100.

AI visibility is not an extension of SEO. A brand can rank on page one of Google and score zero on BrandCited because AI platforms weight structured entity signals, crawler permissions, and content trust differently from keyword-based ranking algorithms.

How did BrandCited build the Chicago AI Visibility Index?#

BrandCited tested 25 Chicago brands across 9 AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, Llama, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. Each brand received a score from 0 to 100 across 8 categories: crawler access, structured data, content quality, content authenticity, entity presence, technical implementation, trust & authority, and answer prominence.

Brands were selected from Crunchbase regional listings, G2 category filters, and local tech media. No brand paid to appear. No scores were adjusted after scanning. The index reflects the state of AI visibility as of 2026-05-26.

Run a free AI visibility scan for any brand at BrandCited.

What did the Chicago AI Visibility Index reveal?#

BrandCited found that 24% of Chicago brands fall below the 40-point citation threshold — meaning AI platforms treat these brands as invisible sources, even on direct brand queries. The pattern is consistent: brands that skip structured data and entity clarity score below 40. Brands that invest in these foundations score above 70.

• Average score: 45/100 — below the 70-point threshold for consistent AI citation
• 24% of brands scored below 40 — placing them in the effectively invisible tier
• 96% scored below 70 — missing citations on the majority of relevant AI queries
• Top score: 73/100 — Sprout Social showed strong crawler access signals across all tested engines
• Lowest score: 15/100 — Honeycomb Insurance scored in the effectively invisible tier, with llms.txt Presence flagged as the primary blocker

The average of 45/100 places Chicago below the global average of 54/100 tracked by BrandCited across all indexed cities. See how BrandCited tracks AI visibility across all cities.

Full Chicago AI Visibility ranking#

What are the top Chicago brands doing right?#

The brands above 70 in the Chicago index share a consistent set of technical decisions. BrandCited's audit shows these are not brand recognition advantages — they are infrastructure decisions any brand can replicate.

Sprout Social — 73/100

Sprout Social leads the Chicago index with a score of 73/100. BrandCited found strong crawler access and trust and authority signals signals across all tested AI platforms. The remaining gap is breadcrumb schema.

Bectran — 58/100

Bectran leads the Chicago index with a score of 58/100. BrandCited found strong trust and authority signals and technical implementation signals across all tested AI platforms. The remaining gap is heading structure.

SpotHero — 56/100

SpotHero leads the Chicago index with a score of 56/100. BrandCited found strong technical implementation and trust and authority signals signals across all tested AI platforms. The remaining gap is llms.txt presence.

What is holding most Chicago brands back from AI citations?#

Structured data was the worst-performing category across all 25 brands in the Chicago index. The three issues below appeared most across the dataset. BrandCited identifies all of these automatically in a free AI visibility scan.

Issue 1: llms.txt Presence

What it is: This issue was found across multiple Chicago brands. AI platforms use this signal to decide whether a source is authoritative enough to cite.

Why it matters: Without fixing this, even well-known brands score below the 40-point citation threshold. BrandCited data shows brands that resolve this issue gain an average of 12 points on their next rescan.

Add an <Organization> schema block to your homepage with name, url, description, foundingDate, and sameAs pointing to your Crunchbase, LinkedIn, and Wikipedia profiles.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Your Brand",
  "url": "https://yourbrand.com",
  "description": "One sentence that answers: what do you do and for whom.",
  "foundingDate": "2020",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/yourbrand",
    "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/yourbrand"
  ]
}

Issue 2: Organization Schema

What it is: This issue was found across multiple Chicago brands. AI platforms use this signal to decide whether a source is authoritative enough to cite.

Why it matters: Without fixing this, even well-known brands score below the 40-point citation threshold. BrandCited data shows brands that resolve this issue gain an average of 12 points on their next rescan.

Add FAQ schema to your top 5 landing pages. Use question-answer pairs that mirror the prompts your buyers type into ChatGPT and Perplexity.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [{
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "What is [Your Brand]?",
    "acceptedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "Your brand is a [category] platform that [core value prop]."
    }
  }]
}

Issue 3: Reviews & Ratings

What it is: This issue was found across multiple Chicago brands. AI platforms use this signal to decide whether a source is authoritative enough to cite.

Why it matters: Without fixing this, even well-known brands score below the 40-point citation threshold. BrandCited data shows brands that resolve this issue gain an average of 12 points on their next rescan.

Create a dedicated "About" page with first-person language, a named founding team, a clear mission statement, and date-stamped content. AI engines weight author entity signals heavily when deciding whom to cite.

<!-- Author entity block -->
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Founder Name",
  "jobTitle": "CEO",
  "worksFor": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Your Brand" },
  "sameAs": ["https://linkedin.com/in/foundername"]
}
</script>

How does your brand compare?#

BrandCited tracks AI visibility across 9 platforms and flags every issue by impact score. If your brand appears in the Chicago index, you can claim your listing and get a full breakdown of where citations are being lost. If your brand is not in the index, run a free scan and get your score in under 30 seconds.

The brands at the top of this index did not get there by accident. They built structured signals that AI engines can read, parse, and trust. That work is repeatable for any brand in any market. See the full BrandCited methodology and pricing for continuous monitoring.

Run a free AI visibility scan at BrandCited — your score across 9 AI platforms, every issue ranked by impact, in under 30 seconds.

Frequently asked questions#

The Chicago AI Visibility Index is a data report published by BrandCited that ranks 25 local tech brands by their visibility across 9 AI search engines. BrandCited scans each brand and scores them across five technical categories. The index is updated as new scans are completed.

BrandCited tests each brand across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, You.com, Bing AI, Meta AI, and Google AI Overviews. It scores crawler access, structured data, content quality, trust and authority, and technical implementation. Each category contributes to a 0–100 score. Brands scoring above 70 are consistently cited. Brands below 40 are invisible to AI platforms regardless of their market presence.

1. 1Sprout Social (73/100), 2. Bectran (58/100), 3. SpotHero (56/100) lead the Chicago index. BrandCited found these brands have invested in structured data and entity signals that AI platforms rely on for citation decisions.

Traditional SEO tools track keyword rankings and backlinks on Google. BrandCited tracks whether AI platforms cite your brand in generated responses. A brand can rank first on Google and score below 30 on BrandCited because AI engines weight structured data, entity clarity, and source trust differently from crawl-based ranking algorithms.

BrandCited identifies your specific gaps and ranks them by impact. The most common starting points are adding Organization schema to your homepage, creating FAQ schema on key landing pages, and building author entity signals into your content. BrandCited shows you exactly which fixes will move your score the most. Run a free scan to see your current gaps.

Brand recognition does not equal AI citation. AI platforms cite sources they can parse, verify, and trust — not sources they have heard of. BrandCited data shows that structured data quality and entity clarity are stronger predictors of AI citation than traffic, funding, or years in market.