The State ofAI Search Visibility2026
200 brands. 268 queries. 4 AI platforms. 7,278 citations analysed. More than half are invisible.
The headline
of brands are invisible in AI category search
104 of 200 tracked brands only appear when AI is asked about them directly - never in category, comparison, or problem queries
Brands tracked
Queries tested
AI platforms
Citations analysed
Winner takes most
When someone asks AI for the best tool in a category, the same 3 brands dominate. Everyone else shares the scraps.
of AI visibility goes to the top 3
The problem-query crater
Brands appear when users search by category. They vanish when the same user describes a problem.
Category queries
"Best CRM for agencies"
Brands appear when users search by category
Problem queries
"My sales pipeline is a mess"
The same brands vanish on problem-framed queries
The platforms disagree
Ask the same question to all 4 AI platforms. They agree on the top answer less than half the time.
of queries return different top brands across the 4 platforms
ChatGPT
Claude
Gemini
Perplexity
Monitoring just one platform gives you an incomplete picture of your AI visibility
The Reddit effect
Reddit is the second most-cited source in AI answers. But it only matters on two platforms.
Reddit's share of AI citations
of citations on ChatGPT and Claude come from Reddit
The third most-cited domain overall (4.7% of all 7,278 citations). But it only matters on two of four platforms.
Reddit citations by platform
Perplexity favours editorial sources. Gemini uses opaque redirect URLs - Reddit may be cited but isn't visible.
AI trusts 20 domains
of all 7,278 AI citations come from just 20 domains
AI doesn't search the whole internet. It pulls from a concentrated set of 1,350 domains - but half of all citations come from just 20. Google's own infrastructure accounts for 25% alone. Getting featured on these sources matters more than having 1,000 pages on your own website.
Not all industries are equal
Professional services has the lowest AI visibility of any segment. B2B SaaS leads - but even there, most brands only appear inconsistently.
B2B SaaS
50 brandsAvg BVS
Invisible
Leader
GitHub
75% BVS
Marketing Agencies
50 brandsAvg BVS
Invisible
Leader
Directive
60% BVS
DTC / E-commerce
50 brandsAvg BVS
Invisible
Leader
Brooklinen
69% BVS
Professional Services
50 brandsAvg BVS
Invisible
Leader
Grant Thornton
29% BVS
AI search is the new SEO.
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The AI Visibility Leaderboard
Top 10 brands across all segments, scored against their subcategory-relevant queries
BVS = Brand Visibility Score. Percentage of subcategory-relevant AI placements where the brand appears.
Go deeper
Sector reports
Detailed findings, full leaderboards, and source analysis for each industry
“Strong SEO doesn't guarantee AI visibility. The rules are different.”
Based on 200 brands tracked across 268 queries on 4 AI platforms, April 2026
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- All 200 brand visibility scores
- 4 sector deep dives with full leaderboards
- Source citation analysis across 1,350 domains
- Complete methodology and brand list
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Check your brandMethodology
200 brands across four segments (B2B SaaS, Marketing Agencies, DTC/E-commerce, Professional Services) sourced from G2, Clutch, BuiltWith, and Chambers rankings. 268 queries across category, comparison, problem, and brand-specific types. All four major AI platforms tested: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity. 1,071 placements generating 7,278 source citations across 1,350 unique domains.
Brand Visibility Score (BVS) measures the percentage of subcategory-relevant AI placements where a brand appears. Each brand is scored against queries relevant to its specific niche (e.g. CRM brands are scored against CRM queries, not all SaaS queries). Cross-segment mentions are filtered to prevent false positives from common-word brand names.
Source citation analysis covers all URLs referenced by AI platforms in their responses. Gemini citations use Google's Vertex AI Search redirect URLs, meaning the underlying source domains are not directly visible. All other platforms return transparent source URLs. Reddit citation percentages are calculated from ChatGPT and Claude data only.
Sentiment, position, and source citations captured for every placement. Data collected April 2026. This report will be re-run quarterly with the same methodology for trend comparison.