When someone asks ChatGPT "What's the best project management tool?", it names 2-4 brands. If you're not one of them, that customer never knew you existed. There's no page 2 to scroll through, no link to stumble on. You're either in the answer or you're not.
That's AI visibility - your brand's presence in AI-generated responses across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Grok.
What AI visibility actually measures
AI visibility isn't a single number. It's a composite of five signals:
- Presence - Does AI mention you at all for relevant queries?
- Position - Are you the first brand named, or the last?
- Sentiment - Does AI describe you favorably, or with caveats?
- Accuracy - Does AI get your features and positioning right?
- Consistency - Do you show up across platforms, or only on one?
A brand can have 60% visibility on ChatGPT and 15% on Perplexity. Knowing the breakdown matters more than any single aggregate score.
Why this isn't just SEO with a new name
Search visibility and AI visibility often don't correlate. You can rank #1 on Google for your target keywords and be completely absent from AI recommendations. The reverse is also true.
The reason: Google ranks pages based on keywords, backlinks, and technical signals. AI recommends brands based on authority, sentiment, and how well-understood your positioning is across the entire internet - not just your website.
This also means the competition is different. In Google, you fight for 10 spots on page 1. In AI responses, you fight for 2-4 recommendation slots. The margin for error is smaller.
The analytics blind spot
Here's the problem that makes AI visibility uniquely dangerous to ignore: it doesn't show up in your analytics.
Google Analytics tracks website traffic. Search Console tracks rankings. But when someone asks Claude about your category and gets sent to a competitor, there's zero data in any dashboard. No bounce rate, no missed click - just a customer you never knew about.
This is the growing dark funnel of AI-powered discovery.
How to measure it
Measuring AI visibility requires running relevant prompts across AI platforms and analyzing the responses:
- Define your prompts - What would your ideal customer ask AI? Think category queries ("best CRM for startups"), comparison queries ("Notion vs Coda"), and problem queries ("how to manage a remote team").
- Test across platforms - Each AI platform recommends different brands. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Grok all have different tendencies.
- Track over time - A single test is a snapshot. AI responses shift as models update and new content enters their training data.
- Benchmark against competitors - Your score is only meaningful relative to who else shows up.
AEOscope automates this - tracking your AI visibility daily across every major platform and benchmarking you against competitors.
What actually improves AI visibility
Forget generic advice about "creating great content." What moves the needle:
- Third-party validation - Reviews on G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot directly influence AI recommendations. Volume, recency, and sentiment all matter.
- Media mentions - Coverage in publications AI models trust builds brand authority that your own blog can't replicate.
- Clear positioning - AI needs to categorize you. If your messaging is vague, AI won't confidently place you in any category.
- Consistent brand signals - The same positioning language across your site, reviews, press, and social profiles helps AI build a coherent understanding of what you do.
The brands that start tracking AI visibility now build a compounding advantage - more visibility leads to more traffic, more reviews, and more coverage, which further improves visibility.
AEOscope shows you exactly how AI talks about your brand - and your competitors - across every major platform.
