What is AI visibility? A glossary of the terms in plain words

AI visibility is how often AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot name your business when people ask them the questions your customers would ask. Below are the terms that come up when you measure it, explained in plain words, with a note on how CheckAI uses each one where that helps.

Assistants and their answers

AI assistant / answer engine

A service that answers a question in written sentences rather than only showing a list of links. "Answer engine" is another name for the same idea, used mostly in marketing. ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot are the four that CheckAI asks.

ChatGPT search

The part of ChatGPT, made by OpenAI, that looks things up on the web while answering and may link to pages presented as sources. When someone asks ChatGPT for a bakery in Zürich, the answer can name bakeries and link to pages as sources. Our data In our checks every ChatGPT answer came with source links.

Google AI Mode

A separate mode in Google Search where Google generates a conversational answer and the person can ask follow-up questions. It can show place cards for local businesses inside the answer. In our setup it was the only one of the four assistants that accepted a country setting; CheckAI sets it to your business's country.

Google AI Overview

An AI-generated summary that Google may show on a search results page. It is not the same as Google AI Mode: it appears within a search results page alongside other results. The CheckAI report shows, per search term, whether Google displayed an AI Overview and whether it named you or linked your site.

Gemini

Google's AI assistant, available in its own app and website. It is different from Google's AI features in Search. Our data In our checks Gemini named the most businesses per answer of the four, but only about 30% of its answers carried a source link.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft's AI assistant. It may draw on Bing search results. For search context, CheckAI shows your Bing position next to your Google position. Our data In our checks it wrote the longest answers of the four.

Logged-out answer

An answer given to someone who is not signed in to the assistant, without earlier chats or account-based saved preferences. CheckAI asks all questions logged out, to approximate what a new customer might see on their first visit.

Personalization

Changes to an answer based on who is asking: their account, earlier conversations, settings or location. Two people asking the same question may therefore get different answers. Logged-out answers reduce this effect, but they do not show what any particular person sees.

Measuring visibility

AI visibility

How often AI assistants name your business in answers to customer questions, usually written as a share of answers. It is measured over many answers, because one answer is a single sample. In CheckAI it appears as "named in k of n answers", overall and per assistant.

Prompt / customer question

The question sent to the assistant. "Prompt" is the technical word; CheckAI says customer question, because the point is to ask the way a new customer would, without your business name and including the location: "Which tax adviser in Munich helps freelancers?" (see the accountants test for questions asked this way). For a free check, CheckAI drafts six questions from your homepage, and you can edit them before they are sent.

Mention vs recommendation

A mention means the answer mentions your business by name. A recommendation means the answer suggests choosing it. An answer can mention you without recommending you, for example in a list of options or with a warning, so CheckAI counts mentions ("named") and shows the full text of every answer so you can read the context.

Position

Your place among the businesses named in an answer, in the order they first appear. If a bike shop in Bern is the second business mentioned, its position is 2 (a real example is the bike shops test). CheckAI averages position only over the answers that name you.

Share of answers (named in k of n)

The number of answers that name you, divided by all answers received. Named in 3 of 24 answers is 12.5%. Answers that did not come back are left out of both numbers.

Share of voice

The share of all business mentions in the answers that are yours. If 24 answers together contain 120 business mentions and 3 of them are you, your share of voice is 2.5%, while your share of answers is 3 of 24, or 12.5%. Share of answers asks "how often do I appear?"; share of voice asks "what share of business mentions is mine?" CheckAI leads with share of answers and lists every business named instead, with counts, so you can make that comparison yourself.

Likely range

An estimated range for the underlying share of comparable answers in which you would be named, based on the answers counted so far. CheckAI uses a 90% Wilson interval, a standard formula for shares from small samples. Named in 3 of 24 answers gives a 90% Wilson interval of about 5% to 27%; counting more comparable answers generally narrows the range.

Normal variation / detectable change

AI answers vary from run to run, so a measured share can move even when the business has not changed (see why ChatGPT's answers can change). Our data When the same question went to the same assistant later the same day, the list of named businesses was identical in none of 42 pairs. CheckAI compares two checks using a two-proportion test with a 10% significance threshold: a change from 3 to 7 of 24 does not meet that threshold, while a change from 3 to 8 of 24 does.

Sources and search

Citation / source

A web page an answer links to or lists as a source. A citation shows what the answer pointed to, not why a business was named. CheckAI counts each website once per answer and shows how many answers linked to it.

Cited domain types

CheckAI groups cited websites into five kinds: editorial and other (a catch-all including editorial sites, blogs and unclassified websites), directories and review sites, communities (Reddit, YouTube and similar), competitors (sites of businesses named in the answers) and your own site. The grouping uses domain lists and the names found in the answers, so an unusual site can land in the wrong group. Seeing which kind dominates can point to where information about your field is found.

Classic search position

Your place in the standard Google or Bing search results for a term, using the country and language settings checked. CheckAI checks a few terms and shows your position if you are in the top 10, or "not in top 10", next to the AI answers.

Google Trends

A Google service that shows how interest in a search term changes over time, on a scale from 0 to 100 relative to the highest point. CheckAI shows 12 months of weekly interest for your name and a few terms. Small brands often show 0, which can mean search volume is too low to register on Google's relative scale, not necessarily that nobody searched.

Working on it

Generative engine optimization (GEO)

An emerging term for work aimed at being named or cited in AI-generated answers. Some people say answer engine optimization (AEO) or large language model optimization (LLMO) for much the same thing. There is no single agreed method yet, and much of it overlaps with ordinary SEO and public relations. CheckAI measures where you stand; it does not change your website or write content.

Entity / brand name ambiguity

An entity is a thing an assistant can identify, such as a business, a person or a place. Ambiguity arises when your name is a common word or is shared with another business, so an answer may use the name without meaning you, or mix you up with someone else. In CheckAI, you can add other names your business uses, and its domain can also count as a match. Open each answer to check that a match really means you.

Tracking

Asking the same questions again at regular intervals and comparing the results. CheckAI repeats your questions every week or every two weeks, sends an email after each check and says whether a change meets its statistical test threshold. Repeated checks give you results to compare over time. To start by hand, see how to check if ChatGPT recommends your business.

How every number is counted is explained step by step on how we measure.