If you ask an AI search engine like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity directly what your company does, it can tell you flawlessly in almost every case. However, if a potential customer asks a broader query, such as “Who is the best supplier for X?”, your brand is almost always left out in the cold.
This is according to a new quarterly study by SEO agency Victorious. The study tested 175 brands across eight well-known AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. The results reveal a striking gap between brand recognition and brand visibility:
- 96% recognition: When asked directly about a specific brand, the AI was able to explain exactly what the business does and sells in 96% of cases.
- 89% invisibility: During exploratory and comparison queries from buyers, a staggering 89% of brands were never mentioned by the AI.
Why well-known brands are still forgotten
AI models may know the facts about your business, but when formulating recommendations or comparisons, they rely solely on sources they deem most relevant at that specific moment.
The data shows that third-party mentions are decisive. Companies with fewer than 2,000 external brand mentions on crawled web pages appeared in just 3% of AI recommendations. When making recommendations, AI does not rely primarily on your own website, but rather on what external sources, trade media, reviews and independent comparison sites write.
What does this mean for your SME?
For you as a business owner, this means traditional SEO is no longer enough to stay visible. Optimising just your own website is insufficient to get recommended by AI.
Practical steps to boost your AI visibility:
- Build external mentions: Ensure visibility on external platforms, such as trade blogs, local news sites and industry comparison tools.
- Focus on brand authority: AI evaluates brand authority. Make sure customer reviews and testimonials can be found on independent sites.
- Keep your information consistent: Ensure your company details, services and value proposition are listed consistently across all online channels.
By actively managing your external presence, you can prevent AI from knowing your business well yet constantly recommending your competitors instead.
Source: Search Engine Journal
