AI visibility is the measure of how often, how prominently, and how positively your brand appears in AI-generated responses. When a user asks ChatGPT "what's the best CRM for small businesses" or asks Perplexity "which running shoes have the best arch support," AI visibility determines whether your brand shows up in that answer.
Why AI visibility matters in 2026#
The shift from link-based search to AI-generated answers has accelerated faster than most brands expected. ChatGPT now has over 900 million weekly active users. Google's AI Overviews appear in 47% of searches. Perplexity processes millions of queries daily. Each of these interactions represents a moment where AI either recommends your brand or recommends your competitor.
AI search traffic converts at 14.2% compared to 2.8% for traditional Google organic. The reason: users who receive a direct recommendation from an AI model arrive with higher purchase intent. They weren't browsing a list of ten blue links. They were given a specific answer.
How AI visibility differs from SEO#
Traditional SEO focuses on keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and click-through rates from Google's search results. AI visibility operates on different signals. AI models evaluate:
- Entity recognition: Does the model know your brand exists as a distinct entity?
- Topical authority: Does your content demonstrate deep expertise in specific subjects?
- Structured data quality: Can the AI extract clear, machine-readable information from your site?
- Citation worthiness: Does your content contain specific facts, data points, and claims worth referencing?
A site ranking #1 on Google for a given keyword can still be invisible to ChatGPT. The reverse is also true. BrandCited tracks both dimensions so you can optimize for the full search landscape.
How to measure AI visibility#
AI visibility is measured across several dimensions:
Mention frequency counts how often your brand appears in AI responses to industry-relevant prompts. Higher frequency indicates stronger brand presence in the model's training data and real-time retrieval.
Citation quality evaluates whether the AI mentions you as a primary recommendation, a secondary option, or a passing reference. Being named first carries more weight than appearing in a list of five alternatives.
Track your AI visibility for free
See how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and 4 other AI platforms mention your brand.
Sentiment analysis determines whether the AI describes your brand positively, neutrally, or negatively. Some brands appear in AI responses but with outdated or negative framing that hurts rather than helps.
Competitive share of voice compares your mention frequency against competitors for the same set of prompts. If your competitor appears in 60% of responses and you appear in 15%, the gap is clear.
BrandCited calculates a composite AI visibility score from 0 to 100 using all four dimensions. The score updates weekly so you can track progress as you implement optimizations.
Seven platforms dominate AI-generated search in 2026:
- 1ChatGPT (OpenAI) - The largest consumer AI platform with 900M+ weekly users
- 2Claude (Anthropic) - Growing fast in professional and enterprise contexts
- 3Gemini (Google) - Integrated into Google Search via AI Overviews
- 4Perplexity - The leading AI-native search engine
- 5Grok (xAI) - Integrated into the X/Twitter ecosystem
- 6DeepSeek - Strong presence in technical and research queries
- 7Llama (Meta) - Powers AI features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp
Each platform has different citation behaviors. ChatGPT tends to cite well-known brands with strong web presence. Perplexity pulls from recent content and favors sources with clear structured data. Gemini leans on Google's Knowledge Graph. Monitoring all seven gives you the complete picture.
How to improve your AI visibility#
The most effective improvements fall into five categories:
Structured data: Add JSON-LD schema markup for Organization, Product, FAQ, HowTo, and Article types. AI models use structured data to extract reliable facts about your brand.
llms.txt file: Place an llms.txt file at your domain root. This file tells AI crawlers what your site covers, how your content is organized, and what you want to be known for.
Citation-ready content: Write 60-word summary blocks at the top of key pages. AI models prefer concise, factual statements they can extract and cite directly.
Entity clarity: Make sure your brand name, products, team members, and location are consistently referenced across your site. Inconsistent naming confuses entity resolution.
Content freshness: Update your most important pages regularly. AI models weight recent content higher than stale pages, especially for competitive queries.
BrandCited audits all five categories and gives you a prioritized action list so you fix the highest-impact issues first.
