90% Of Brands Have Zero AI Search Mentions, New SEO Study

This put up was sponsored by Victorious. The opinions expressed on this article are the sponsor’s personal.

A 12 months into the shift towards AI search, the advertising and marketing business is stuffed with assured takes concerning the elements that affect AI visibility. However we’ve seen little or no information to help generally held assumptions.

We needed to see what correlations we might discover between conventional search efficiency and AI mentions and citations. So we constructed a research to see if we might uncover evidence-based suggestions from the information.

The Research Methodology: Evaluating Conventional Search vs. AI Search Efficiency

To check how manufacturers carry out in conventional search versus AI search, we would have liked a dataset that captured each alerts for a similar firms throughout the identical time frame.

We constructed it out in 4 phases.

Step 1: Decide The Model Set.

We chosen a consultant cross-section of 177 manufacturers throughout 5 verticals: healthcare, SaaS, monetary companies, ecommerce/retail, and authorized companies.

Step 2: Seize The AI Visibility Sign.

For every model, we examined vertical-specific prompts throughout eight AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and Meta AI. That gave us 107,011 AI responses to investigate.

For each response, we recorded two issues: whether or not the platform named the model (point out), and whether or not it linked to the model’s area as a supply (quotation).

Step 3: Pull The Natural Efficiency Information.

For a similar 177 manufacturers, we tracked domain-level natural efficiency in Semrush through the first quarter of 2026, together with visitors developments and Authority Scores.

Step 4: Cross-Reference The Two Datasets.

We joined the AI visibility information with the natural information so each model had three comparable measures: point out fee, quotation fee, and Authority Rating. That construction allow us to take a look at the connection between conventional rating alerts and AI visibility, and whether or not these elements had been roughly associated throughout the totally different verticals.

Why We Tracked Point out Charge & Citations Individually

One metric doesn’t seize AI visibility, so we tracked each point out fee and quotation fee as separate alerts. For instance, a model may be talked about usually and cited not often, or cited usually and barely talked about. Monitoring each individually, fairly than collapsing them right into a single “AI visibility” rating, ended up being central to the nuances we might pull from the totally different verticals.

Discovering 1: Most Manufacturers Have No AI Mentions At All

Of the 177 manufacturers in our dataset, solely 18 had any AI point out fee above zero in Q1 2026. Which means 89.8 percent of the brands we tested were largely absent from AI search throughout the eight platforms we measured. They weren’t talked about. The manufacturers weren’t surfaced in relation to solutions, as sources, or examples.

This runs counter to a whole lot of the present business chatter, which treats AI visibility as a race that’s already properly underway. Our information reveals a really totally different image. For an awesome variety of manufacturers, the race hasn’t but begun.

The truth that solely 18 of the 177 manufacturers in our analysis registered any AI mentions in any respect signifies that manufacturers keen to take AI visibility critically now will likely be competing in opposition to a small variety of incumbents of their vertical, not in opposition to all the class.

Discovering 2: AI Visibility Patterns Range By Vertical

As soon as we broke the information down by vertical, three distinct patterns emerged.

Talked about & Cited: Healthcare, SaaS & Monetary Companies Manufacturers

Manufacturers inside these three verticals had been persistently talked about and cited, however for various causes. Healthcare manufacturers profit from clear entity identifiers similar to names, areas, specialties, and community affiliations, which reinforce the alerts that AI platforms use to guage experience and authority. SaaS manufacturers are generally featured on third-party platforms similar to G2, Reddit, and LinkedIn, the place merchandise are mentioned by customers and reviewers. Monetary Companies advantages from sturdy editorial media presence on platforms like MarketWatch, Bankrate, and NerdWallet, that are frequent sources AI platforms flip to for monetary questions.

Monetary Companies was additionally the one vertical the place quotation barely exceeded point out, which suggests AI platforms belief the content material barely greater than it trusts particular manufacturers but.

In every case, the manufacturers that present up have one thing AI platforms can connect the model id to: structured information, third-party validation, or editorial protection. The manufacturers that don’t present up often lack a number of of these.

Talked about Extra Than Cited: Ecommerce & Retail Manufacturers

Ecommerce posted the widest hole in our dataset. AI platforms acknowledge these manufacturers however pull their supply materials from some place else, often marketplaces, aggregators, and overview websites fairly than the manufacturers’ personal domains.

For these manufacturers, recognition comes from market presence and client familiarity. The larger problem for ecommerce manufacturers is giving AI platforms content material value citing on their very own area, as a substitute of leaving the sector to Amazon, Reddit, and overview aggregators.

Cited However Not often Talked about: Authorized Companies

Authorized companies posted the inverse sample as ecommerce manufacturers. AI platforms recurrently supply content material from authorized websites, however they not often credit score the agency behind the article.

Closing that hole means constructing the entity alerts that join a bit of content material again to a recognizable agency.

Findings 3 – 4

Every AI platform attracts from a distinct set of sources.

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot present preferences for particular varieties of content material. The full report breaks down mention rates by platform and vertical, so you’ll be able to concentrate on the AI platforms your consumers really use.

Personalization could also be compounding early AI visibility.

Google’s Private Intelligence replace pulls alerts from a person’s Gmail and Pictures into AI Mode responses, biasing outcomes towards manufacturers the person has already encountered. If that impact holds, manufacturers that win a person’s first AI interplay on a subject might compound their visibility sooner than later entrants. The total report walks via what we’re watching in Q2 to check this.

Key Takeaway

If you happen to take away nothing else from this information, keep in mind that you haven’t misplaced first-mover benefit. With solely 18 of the 177 manufacturers we measured incomes mentions AI search, there’s nonetheless white area in your vertical ready to be claimed.

You may read the full Q1 2026 Quarterly Search Report on our web site.

Picture Credit

Featured Picture: Picture by Victorious. Used with permission.

In-Publish Photographs: Photographs by victorious. Used with permission.