The short answer
AI visibility is how often AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews name your business when people ask the questions you could be the answer to. It's measured across many questions: how often you're named, whether your website is cited, how high you appear, and who's named instead.
AI visibility, in plain words
When someone asks ChatGPT “where should I get my teeth whitened in Manchester?”, it writes a short answer and names a few clinics. AI visibility is how often your business is one of them, for the questions your customers really ask.
You'll also see it called AI search visibility or LLM visibility (an LLM, or large language model, is the technology behind ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude). They all mean the same thing: being seen in AI answers, not only in search results.
Why it matters for a local business
- AI answers come first. Google shows AI Overviews above its results, and ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity answer directly. Many people read the answer and stop there: in a Pew Research study, people clicked a search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, and in 15% when none did.
- Only a few names make it in. A list of search results has ten links; an AI answer names a handful of businesses. If you're not one of them, the customer doesn't see you.
- Your competitors can be named for your questions. AI doesn't only decide whether you're named, but who's named instead.
How AI visibility is measured
There's no industry standard yet, so ask any tool what it measures. Most measure some mix of these, across many questions and answers:
| Measure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Mention rate | The share of answers that name your business |
| Citation rate | The share of answers that link to your website as a source |
| Position | How high you appear when the answer is a list |
| Share of voice | Your share of all the businesses named in the answers, compared with your competitors |
| Sources | Which sites AI used: your own, or guides, directories and review sites about you |
Our UP Score (0 to 100) combines four of these: mention rate counts 40%, citation rate 25%, position 20%, and answers that cite a source about you 15%. The methodology page explains the details and the limits.
What AI visibility looks like in practice
In October 2026 we asked ChatGPT the questions customers ask about 97 local businesses in ten cities, 959 answers in all. Many of them are well known in their city.
| Band | UP Score | Businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Stuck | 0–19 | 23 |
| Low | 20–39 | 24 |
| Moving | 40–59 | 25 |
| Rising | 60–79 | 19 |
| Up | 80–100 | 6 |
The type of business made the biggest difference: restaurants, cafés and hotels were named about twice as often as law firms, dentists and estate agents.
Why your AI visibility changes
AI answers aren't fixed like a ranking. The same business can be named in one answer and missing from the next, because of:
- The question. “Best dentist in Manchester” and “emergency dentist open Saturday” get different names.
- The AI assistant. ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Copilot and Perplexity search different sources.
- The language and the city. A question in Russian or Armenian can get different businesses than the same question in English.
- Chance. Ask the same question twice and the answer can change.
That's why one question tells you little. Measure many questions, and compare over weeks, not days.
How to check your AI visibility
You can check it yourself in ten minutes:
- Write down 10 questions your customers ask. Mix “best [your service] in [your city]” with specific ones: prices, opening hours, who you're best for.
- Ask them in a private window, logged out. So past chats and your own searches don't change the answer.
- Note who's named, and which sites are cited. Are you there? Who's named instead? Which guides or directories does AI use?
- Repeat in another assistant. ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews at least, Copilot if your customers use Windows.
Or let us do it: a free stuckUP check asks AI your customers' questions and gives you an UP Score, who's named instead, and what to fix.
How to improve it
The short version, with a guide for each step:
- Let AI read your website. Make sure robots.txt and your firewall allow AI search crawlers. AI crawlers explained.
- Answer your customers' questions on your pages, plainly and with specific facts. The AEO guide.
- Be on the sites AI trusts for your kind of business and city, with the same facts everywhere. The GEO guide.
Not sure how these fit together? GEO vs AEO vs SEO explains the difference.
Questions
Is AI visibility the same as SEO?
No, but they're related. SEO is about ranking in a list of search results. AI visibility is about being named inside AI-written answers. Good SEO helps, because AI assistants search the web before they answer, but it isn't enough on its own.
What is a good AI visibility score?
It depends on the tool, because there's no standard. On our UP Score (0–100), 60 or more is Rising and 80 or more is Up. In our October 2026 index the average local business scored 41.
What is AI share of voice?
Your share of all the business recommendations in the AI answers to your customers' questions. If AI names 50 businesses across your questions and 10 of them are you, your share of voice is 20%.
How often should I check my AI visibility?
Every month is enough for most businesses. AI answers change from run to run, so compare across several questions and weeks rather than reacting to one answer.
Sources
Narek Nikoghosyan · Founder and CEO
Narek Nikoghosyan is the founder and CEO of stuckUP, the AI visibility checker for local businesses.