What AI Search Visibility Actually Means
AI search visibility measures how often your brand appears when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Google AI Overviews a question relevant to your business. It's not about rankings or blue links. It's about whether AI mentions you at all.
We analysed 5,600 queries across four AI platforms to understand how this works in practice. The findings show that AI search visibility isn't one thing — it's four very different things, depending on which platform your customer is using.
How Each Platform Handles Brands: What 5,600 Queries Reveal
Each AI platform has its own personality when it comes to mentioning brands. Here's what our research found:
| Metric | Google AIO | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer length | 83 words | 422 words | 241 words | 679 words |
| Brand mention rate | 42.5% | 74.2% | 70.1% | 82.5% |
| Brands per response | 1.1 | 2.7 | 1.9 | 3.4 |
| Where brands appear | 21% in | 17.5% in | 8.5% in | 20.2% in |
| Willingness to recommend | 0.2% | 8.9% | 7.3% | 7.3% |
The range is striking. Gemini mentions brands in 82.5% of responses. Google AI Overviews mentions them in just 42.5%. A brand that looks visible on one platform may be invisible on another.
Why AI Search Visibility Matters
Brand discovery is moving inside AI interfaces. ChatGPT has over 800 million monthly users. Google AI Overviews appear on the majority of search results. When these platforms answer a question about your category, your brand is either mentioned — or your competitor is.
Each platform behaves differently. Google AI Overviews gives compressed 83-word answers and almost never recommends (0.2%). ChatGPT writes 422 words with heavy formatting and is the most likely to explicitly recommend (8.9%). Claude is concise but front-loads brands — if it mentions you, it does so in the first 8.5% of the response. Gemini writes the longest answers (679 words) and lists the most alternatives.
Traditional SEO doesn't predict AI visibility. Our research found that citation behaviour varies wildly: Gemini cites sources in 30.4% of responses, ChatGPT in 28.6%, Claude in just 8.7%, and Google AIO in only 3.1%. A strong backlink profile doesn't guarantee you'll appear in AI answers.
How AI Search Visibility Differs from SEO
Traditional SEO focuses on ranking web pages using keywords, backlinks and page speed. AI search visibility is about being mentioned, recommended and accurately described by AI models. Understanding the difference is critical — read our full comparison of traditional SEO and AI search optimisation.
| Aspect | SEO | AI Search Visibility |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Human users via search engines | Users interacting with AI chatbots and AI Overviews |
| Goal | Rank pages high on SERPs | Be mentioned and recommended in AI answers |
| Signals | Keywords, backlinks, click-through rate | Brand mentions, citations, share of memory |
| Measurement | Clicks, impressions, dwell time | Mention rate, recommendation rate, platform coverage |
Building Your AI Visibility Profile
- Audit your current visibility across all platforms. Don't assume. Our data shows a brand can be mentioned in 82.5% of Gemini responses but only 42.5% of Google AI Overviews. Check each platform individually.
- Understand query intent. AI platforms change behaviour based on what the user is asking. ChatGPT shortens responses by 33% for booking-intent queries and increases hedging 4x. Google AIO uses 4.3x more superlative language on comparison queries. Match your content to the intent your audience uses.
- Create structured, citation-friendly content. AI models rely on clear headings, bullet lists and concise facts. Gemini's citation rate of 30.4% means it actively looks for sources to reference — give it content worth citing.
- Monitor across platforms, not just one. Each platform has different brand affinities and behaviours. Our measurement framework explains how to track this systematically.
- Iterate based on data. AI models retrain regularly. Monitor your share of memory over time and refresh content to maintain visibility.
Looking Ahead
AI search visibility is already reshaping how brands are discovered. The data is clear: each platform has its own rules, its own biases, and its own way of handling brands. The brands that understand these differences — and optimise for each platform individually — will dominate the conversation. Those that treat AI search as a single channel risk being invisible where it matters most.