Everything we know about AI visibility

We read 126 AI answers about 21 plumbers, HVAC firms and roofers. AI names a franchise 5.5% of the time — but it reads the BBB and Reddit before it reads your website.

We ran AI visibility checks on 7 U.S. plumbers, HVAC companies, and roofers. Average score: 30/100. Here's why ChatGPT names the shop down the road — and how to fix it.

We ran AI visibility checks on 8 U.S. cosmetic dental practices. Average score: 32/100. Here's why ChatGPT names the practice across town — and how to fix it.

We ran AI visibility checks on 32 U.S. med spas. Average score: 30/100. Here's why ChatGPT names the spa down the road — and how to fix it.

When ChatGPT or Perplexity names a competitor and not you, it isn't random or pay-to-play. Here's why AI engines pick them — and how to get into the answer.

We ran AI visibility checks on 25 U.S. personal-injury firms. Average score: 28.8/100. Here's why ChatGPT names other lawyers — and how to fix it.

A free step-by-step way to check whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude recommend your business — the exact prompts, how to score yourself honestly, and why one screenshot lies.

Perplexity recommends businesses by citing its sources. A practical 2026 guide to getting into the pages Perplexity retrieves and quotes.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is making your business the answer AI engines give. What AEO means, how it differs from SEO, and how to start.

ChatGPT now recommends businesses by name. A practical 2026 guide to how AI engines decide who to recommend — and the steps to become one of them.

We asked ChatGPT and Perplexity about 168 local businesses two ways: by name, and the way a customer actually asks. Named by name: 98.8% of answers. Asked "who do you recommend?": 19.8%. 58% of these businesses appeared in none of their four buyer-intent answers — while the AI described them warmly when prompted with their name.

AI-visibility benchmark for personal injury law firms: 42 real firms across 20 US metros. Average score 26/100, median 21, and — unlike any other category we measure — not one firm cleared 60. The best-performing PI firm scored 53. And it's wide open: 159 different firms share the recommendations, the most-named holds only 1.9%.

We counted every business AI named across 173 local-business audits (1,024 answers). Own-business mentions: 470. Competitor mentions: 1,748 — a competitor is named at least 3.7x more often than you are. 43% of businesses are out-named by a single rival. And no rival owns the answer.

We ran AI-visibility audits on 45 local businesses that marketing and SEO agencies showcase in their own portfolios. 38% scored under 20/100, and 40% appeared in 2 or fewer of 6 AI answers about their category. The work agencies are proudest of is largely invisible to AI.

AI-visibility benchmark for med spas: 64 real med spas across 14 US metros. Average score 28/100, median just 17, 56% score under 20. And the category is wide open — 189 different med spas share the recommendations and the most-named holds only 2.2%. Nobody owns the AI answer yet.

We analyzed 511 ChatGPT web-search answers about 172 real local businesses. The business's own website was cited in just 28% of them. AI recommends from review aggregators and 'best-of' directories — Birdeye, BBB, BestProsInTown, Reddit — not your homepage.

We audited 152 US local businesses across four verticals. Average AI visibility: 27.3/100. Home services is the only vertical where AI names national franchises at all.

We asked AI the identical questions about 20 real businesses, two weeks apart. Every single one came back different. Half the scores moved; 57% of the named competitors were new.

We ran 1,120 recommendations across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini & Perplexity. The engine with the most users named the business least — just 16%. See the data.

We asked 4 AI engines the same 25 buyer questions, 3 times each. 69% of the brands they recommended did not survive every repeat. Here's the full data.

We audited 10 established US local businesses across 9 cities. Average AI visibility: 20/100 — and in 6 of 10, AI recommended a competitor more often. Data.

AskedAbout vs Scrunch AI: a $79 one-time AI visibility audit + fix plan instead of a $250/mo enterprise AI-visibility platform. Free 60-second check first.

All 17 AI-visibility tools whose own pricing page we read on 2026-08-01 are subscriptions. Cheapest twelve months: $240. Median: $960. Dearest entry tier: $3,540. Zero publish a one-time purchase — the only one-off in the table is our own $79 audit, listed with its limits. Seven of the seventeen pricing pages open on the annual rate, not the monthly one.

Compare AI visibility tools — Profound, Otterly.ai, AthenaHQ, Ahrefs Brand Radar — vs AskedAbout's $79 one-time audit. No subscription required.

AskedAbout vs Profound — a $79 one-time AI visibility audit instead of a $99/mo-and-up subscription (Profound's Lite tier, read 2026-07-31). See where AI ranks you. Free check, no demo.

Profound's cheapest self-serve tier is $99/mo billed yearly. We read the public pricing page of 18 AI-visibility tools on 2026-07-31: the cheapest ongoing tracker starts at $20/mo, the cheapest printing a four-engine list is $29/mo, and one option is $79 once with no subscription. Full table, named method, our own tool's limits included.

AskedAbout vs Ahrefs Brand Radar: a $79 one-time AI visibility audit instead of Brand Radar, which ahrefs.com/pricing prices from $199/mo standalone (read 2026-08-01). Free check first.

AskedAbout vs HubSpot AI Search Grader: a deeper, independent AI-visibility read across 4 engines + a $79 fix-plan audit — not a marketing-suite lead magnet.

AskedAbout vs Otterly.ai — a $79 one-time AI visibility audit instead of a monthly monitoring subscription. See where AI ranks you. Free check, no recurring bill.

AskedAbout vs Peec AI: a $79 one-time AI visibility audit instead of a $95+/mo agency-grade monitoring subscription. Free check, no recurring plan.

AskedAbout vs AthenaHQ: a $79 one-time AI visibility audit + fix plan instead of a monthly GEO optimization subscription. Free check, nothing recurring.

Your clients are about to ask why ChatGPT recommends a competitor. Run the audit, hand them the report, win the GEO retainer. 5 white-label audits for $249.

Customers ask ChatGPT “best plumber / HVAC / electrician near me.” See if AI names you, which local competitor it names instead, and how to fix it. $79, 4 engines.

Your clients ask ChatGPT “best med spa near me.” See if you're in the answer, which competitor AI names instead, and how to fix it. $79 audit, 4 engines.

Patients now ask ChatGPT which dentist to book — and it names 2–3 practices, not twenty. See if yours is one of them. Free 60-second check.

We audited 5 personal-injury firms — AI named a competitor more often than the firm itself in 3 of 5. See what it says about yours. Free 60-second check.

Buyers ask ChatGPT for the best tool in your category and get a 3–5 name shortlist. See if your SaaS makes it — and who's taking your slot. Free check.