What is AI visibility?
AI visibility is whether AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features mention, recommend or cite a business when people ask about what it sells. It is measured by asking those tools the questions buyers ask.
Cited from the66th.com/glossary/ai-visibility
How AI visibility works
An AI answer can include a business at three levels. It can mention the business by name, recommend it as a good choice, or cite one of its pages with a link. We record each level separately, because a business can reach one without the others.
Measuring it means asking the tools a fixed list of buyer questions and recording, answer by answer, which level the business reached.
| Level | What the answer does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Mentioned | Names the business in a list | "Options include Example Roofing and two others." |
| Recommended | Suggests the business as a good choice | "Example Roofing is a strong pick for asphalt roofs." |
| Cited | Links to a page as the source | A link to example.com/roof-replacement-calgary/ |
Where AI visibility comes from
For Google, it comes from Search. Google's guide to generative AI features says those features are rooted in its core ranking and quality systems, and a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear in them.
Other tools run their own crawlers. OpenAI says its OAI-SearchBot surfaces websites in ChatGPT's search results, and sites that block it do not appear in ChatGPT search answers. Google now reports part of the picture: its Generative AI performance reports in Search Console show how often your URLs appeared in its AI features.
What it means for your business
When a buyer asks an AI assistant who to hire or what to buy, the answer names a few businesses. AI visibility tells you whether yours is one of them, and for which questions. It matters for services and products people research before they buy.
Google says optimizing for its AI search is still SEO, so the work starts with a site that ranks and pages that answer buyer questions clearly. Measuring and raising visibility across every AI tool is the work of our generative engine optimization service.
Common mistakes
- Checking once by asking one question. One answer is a sample of one; a fixed question list asked every month shows a trend.
- Counting a mention as a recommendation. Record how each answer describes the business, because a mention with a caveat can steer buyers away.
- Treating AI visibility as separate from search. Google's AI features draw on its Search index, so a page Google does not index cannot appear in them.
Related terms
Sources: Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, 10 July 2026; OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI crawlers; Google Search Central Blog, Hillel Maoz and Moshe Samet, Introducing Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, 3 June 2026.