AI search. Reviewed October 29, 2026
AI mention rate
Also called: AI visibility, AI share of voice, Answer share
AI mention rate is the share of AI assistant answers to a set of buyer questions that name a specific business, measured by asking the same questions repeatedly over time.
In practice
A fair test is 30 to 40 questions a real customer would ask, such as who is the best roofer in a city, run across several assistants more than once, because answers change between runs. The rate is mentions divided by answers.
Most local businesses start at zero. The first mentions usually come from a roundup or directory that names them, not from their own site.
Related terms
- AI citationAn AI citation is a link or named source inside an AI assistant's answer, and it is the AI-search equivalent of ranking on page one.
- Generative engine optimizationGenerative engine optimization is the work of getting a business named or cited in answers written by AI assistants, through clear facts on its own site, structured data, and mentions on sites the assistants trust.
- AI searchAI search is any search where an assistant such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI Mode writes the answer and names a few businesses or sources, instead of returning ten links.
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