What is AI visibility?
The Doily team
Reviewed by the Doily team, Oct 2026 Updated 4 min read
Quick answer
AI visibility is how often AI engines such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity mention, cite, or recommend your business when people ask questions about your category. You measure it by running a fixed set of prompts on a schedule and recording whether you appear, where, and with which sources.
Why it matters
People now ask AI engines the questions they used to type into a search box: which plumber to call, which tool to buy, how to fix a problem. The answer arrives as a short write-up with a few names and links, and often the person never opens a results page. If your business is not in that write-up, you are not in the decision.
A rank report cannot see this. A page can sit at position 3 on Google and still be missing from AI answers, or the other way around. AI visibility is its own measurement with its own causes, so it needs its own line in your reporting.
Key takeaways
- A mention is your brand name in the answer. A citation is a link to your page in the sources. They do not always show up together.
- Measure with a fixed list of prompts, run on a schedule, and read the results per engine.
- Answers differ between runs and between engines, so one check is a sample and the trend over weeks is the signal.
- Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode have no extra technical requirements beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, so sound SEO stays the base.
Step by step
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List the questions your customers ask
Write down 15 to 30 questions in the words customers use before they hire, buy, or compare. Include category questions like best accountant for restaurants, comparison questions, and problem questions. Keep prompts that name your brand in a separate short list, because they test what engines say about you rather than whether you are found.
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Choose engines and places
Pick the engines your customers actually use. If you serve a local market, check the prompts as that city, because answers change with location. Use the same settings every time so the results can be compared.
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Run each prompt and record what appears
Note whether your brand is mentioned, whether your site is cited, which competitors show up, and what the answer says about you. Run the list at a steady interval, such as once a week, so each run lines up with the last.
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Work out your rate
Divide the prompts where you appear by the prompts you checked, per engine. A rate of 6 out of 20 on one engine and 2 out of 20 on another tells you where to look first.
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Read the sources the engines cite
The cited pages show what each engine treats as evidence in your category. Some will be your pages, others will be other sites, directories, and review pages. Those other sites are part of your AI visibility too.
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Fix the gaps and check again
Pick prompts where competitors appear and you do not. Confirm the page that should answer the question exists, is indexed, and answers it in its first 2 sentences. Then wait for the next scheduled run before you judge the change.
The numbers to track
These are the 4 numbers worth a column in your tracking sheet.
| Number | What it counts | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mention rate | Prompts where your brand name appears in the answer | Shows whether engines know you for this topic |
| Citation rate | Prompts where a page on your site is listed as a source | Shows whether your own pages are being used as evidence |
| Share of voice | Your mentions divided by all brand mentions across the prompts | Shows how you compare with competitors |
| Sentiment | Whether the answer describes you favorably, neutrally, or unfavorably | Catches wrong or damaging descriptions early |
Count each number per engine and per prompt group, such as pricing questions or local questions. A blended total hides the engine where you are missing.
How Doily helps
Doily tracks mentions, citations, share of voice against competitors, sentiment, and cited sources across up to 9 AI engines, per engine and per prompt, by country or city. Paid plans check 5 engines daily and Team adds all 9 weekly. The Free plan checks weekly.
Questions
Is AI visibility the same as SEO?
No, but they overlap. Google says its AI features rely on the same indexing and ranking systems as Search, so SEO basics still apply. AI visibility adds a measurement of what engines actually say, which a rank report does not capture.
Which engines should I track?
Start with the ones your customers use. Doily tracks 9: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Grok, and DeepSeek.
Can I guarantee a place in AI answers?
No. Google states that indexing and serving are never guaranteed even when a page meets every requirement, and the same caution applies to every engine. You can make your pages easy to find, easy to quote, and consistent with what the web says about you.
Sources
Primary sources, checked Oct 11, 2026.
