AI Visibility Report 2026 — 518 Businesses Audited Across 4 AIs
The AI Visibility Report 2026 is the first study based on real data from 518 audited businesses across 20 countries, run against the 4 major AI models: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. The headline finding: 91% of businesses are practically invisible to AI, with an average score of 38 out of 100.
Each audit fires real commercial prompts at the 4 AIs and analyses whether the business shows up in the answer, in what position, with what tone, and next to which competitors. Data comes from Surfeo, the platform that measures your brand's visibility in AI. No make-up. No rounding in our favor.
What you'll find inside:
- What percentage of businesses are invisible to AI
- Which AI recommends most businesses, and which is strictest
- Which sectors have the best and worst visibility
- How visibility varies by country
- What businesses can do to improve
What percentage of businesses are invisible to AI?
Of the 518 audited businesses, 91% have a visibility score below 60 out of 100. That means AI rarely mentions them when a user asks about their services.
Only 4 businesses out of 518 score above 80. If you want to know how to appear in ChatGPT step by step, this data is the answer.
Distribution of AI visibility scores
| Range | Level | Businesses | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–19 | Invisible | 75 | 14.5% |
| 20–39 | Very low | 217 | 42.1% |
| 40–59 | Low | 178 | 34.5% |
| 60–79 | Medium | 42 | 8.1% |
| 80–100 | Good | 4 | 0.8% |
Global average score: 38 out of 100.
More than half of the businesses (56.6%) don't even reach 40 points. They sit in total or near-total invisibility. This confirms what studies like Seer Interactive's already suggested: traditional SEO doesn't predict AI visibility.
Which AI recommends most businesses: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Claude?
One of the clearest takeaways: being visible in one AI doesn't mean being visible in the others. Each model pulls from different sources, weighs different signals, and produces answers that barely overlap.
Mention rate by AI
| AI | Mentions you | Avg. position | Total prompts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | 36.7% | 6th | 452 |
| ChatGPT | 24.8% | 3rd | 3,953 |
| Gemini | 23.1% | 8th | 904 |
| Claude | 3.6% | 1st | 332 |
Perplexity is the most generous AI: it mentions over a third of audited businesses. That tracks — Perplexity actively searches the live web and cites multiple sources.
ChatGPT mentions less often (25%), but when it does, it ranks you 3rd on average — among the first names in the answer. ChatGPT pulls mostly from Bing, and 87% of its citations overlap with Bing results according to Seer Interactive.
Gemini mentions a similar share (23%) but buries you at position 8. Gemini leans heavily on Google Maps, Google Business Profile, and Google reviews for local businesses.
Claude is by far the strictest: only 3.6% mention rate. Claude didn't have live web search during these audits, so it only names businesses it already knows from training.
What this means for your business
Optimizing for a single AI isn't enough. If you only show up in ChatGPT but not in Gemini or Perplexity, you're losing two thirds of the potential AI-driven traffic. You need a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategy that covers every source.
Which sectors are most visible in ChatGPT and other AIs?
Not every sector starts from the same line. Some have structural advantages (owned content, authority, presence in specialist directories) while others depend on portals that AIs cite directly — leaving individual businesses out.
Sectors with the best AI visibility
| Sector | Businesses audited | Mention rate | Avg. score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 4 | 42.5% | 50/100 |
| Law firms | 7 | 30.0% | 41/100 |
| Architecture | 7 | 27.3% | 38/100 |
| Dental clinics | 6 | 26.7% | 46/100 |
| Restaurants | 8 | 21.3% | 37/100 |
Why do these sectors do better? They share one trait: they publish their own authoritative content. Law firms write about legislation. Education centers maintain detailed program pages. Dental clinics publish about treatments. That's exactly what AI looks for to ground its answers, as the research on E-E-A-T and authority in AI explains.
Sectors with the worst AI visibility
| Sector | Businesses audited | Mention rate | Avg. score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate | 5 | 6.0% | 17/100 |
| Psychology | 4 | 12.5% | 28/100 |
| Consulting | 16 | 16.3% | 30/100 |
| Funeral services | 11 | 18.5% | 38/100 |
| Graphic design | 3 | 19.2% | 35/100 |
The real estate case is the most extreme. With an average score of 17/100 and only 6% mention rate, it's the most invisible sector we've audited. The reason: when someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini about a real estate agency in a given city, the AI cites large portals directly (e.g., Idealista, Fotocasa, Zillow, Rightmove, depending on the market) and skips individual agencies. It's a structural problem that's hard to solve without a very active content and brand strategy.
Consultancies have a different problem. There are so many that AI lacks a clear criterion to recommend one over another. The ones that do show up tend to have specialist published content (reports, case studies, technical articles).
How does AI visibility vary by country?
Spain accounts for 79% of the audits (410 of 518), expected given Surfeo launched focused on Spanish-speaking markets. The sample includes data from 20 countries — so what follows is a snapshot of small and mid-size businesses, with Spain as the largest cohort.
Average AI visibility score by country
| Country | Audits | Avg. score |
|---|---|---|
| Colombia | 10 | 41/100 |
| USA | 18 | 40/100 |
| Chile | 19 | 39/100 |
| Spain | 410 | 38/100 |
| Argentina | 18 | 38/100 |
| Mexico | 17 | 32/100 |
The gap between countries is smaller than expected. No country averages above 41 points. That confirms invisibility to AI isn't a local or regional issue — it's global.
Mexico has the lowest score (32/100). The sample is small (17 audits), but the signal is consistent: audited Mexican businesses tend to have less presence in the sources AIs consult.
How does AI talk about the businesses it mentions?
When AI mentions a business, it isn't always positive. We analysed the tone of every mention.
| Sentiment | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Neutral | 86.9% |
| Positive | 13.1% |
| Negative | 0% |
The vast majority of mentions are neutral: the AI names the business without judgment, as part of a list or a factual recommendation. 13% have an explicitly positive tone.
Zero recorded mentions were negative. That makes sense: language models are designed to avoid direct negative recommendations. If the AI doesn't view a business favorably, it simply leaves it out.
Key data
The problem isn't that AI speaks badly about you. It's that AI doesn't speak about you at all.
5 conclusions from the study
1. Classic SEO doesn't predict AI visibility
Ranking well in Google doesn't guarantee ChatGPT will recommend you. Only 10% of the websites that rank first in Google overlap with the ones ChatGPT recommends, per Search Engine Land. They're different channels evaluating different signals. We break it down in SEO vs GEO.
2. Every AI searches different sources
ChatGPT pulls from Bing. Gemini from Google Maps and Google reviews. Perplexity from Reddit and live web sources. Optimize for one and the others ignore you. A complete Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategy has to cover all of them.
3. Original, authoritative content is the strongest signal
The best-performing sectors (education, law, dental) share one thing: they publish their own specialist content with real data. The Princeton GEO Study (ACM KDD 2024) found that adding statistics to your content boosts AI visibility by 41%, and citing external sources boosts it by 115%. E-E-A-T authority is critical for AI.
4. Intermediary portals are a problem for many sectors
Real estate, restaurants, repair shops… In sectors dominated by large portals (Yelp, TripAdvisor, Zillow, Idealista), AI cites the portal and skips the individual business. Standing out requires building presence beyond the portal. We analyse this in depth for creating content for AI and schema markup for AI.
5. 91% of businesses don't even know they're invisible
Maybe the most important data point. Most companies don't measure their AI visibility because they don't know the channel exists. Meanwhile, AI is already recommending their competitors. There are clear signs you're losing customers to AI.
How to improve your visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity
First: measure. If you don't know how AI sees you, you can't improve. Surfeo audits your business across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude in 2 minutes. Free, no card.
Then, work the signals that move the needle:
- Publish content with original data — Statistics, case studies, reports. AI cites content it can't find elsewhere. The Princeton GEO Study shows adding original statistics boosts visibility by 41%.
- Earn brand mentions off your own site — Press articles, partnerships, specialist directories. According to Ahrefs (75,000 brands analysed), brand mentions have 3x the impact of classic backlinks.
- Look after your reviews — Especially on Google. Gemini doesn't recommend businesses below 3.5 stars, and it reads the review text, not just the rating.
- Get featured in "best of" lists — Per First Page Sage, appearing on sector listicles accounts for 41% to 64% of the weight in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity decisions. Our Reddit and ChatGPT recommendations guide covers one of the best channels.
- Diversify your sources — Don't lean only on Google. Build presence on Reddit, Wikipedia, specialist directories, and sector media. Our best AI visibility tools for SMBs round-up helps you track all of them.
- Optimize your site for AIs — Add schema markup and make sure your robots.txt allows AI crawlers. Also worth watching Google AI Overviews — they pull from many of the same signals.
Frequently asked questions about AI visibility
About this report
This report is based on real data from 518 audits run with Surfeo between February and April 2026. Each audit fires real commercial prompts at 4 AIs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude) and analyses whether the business shows up, in what position, with what sentiment, and next to which competitors.
Data updates as more businesses run audits. The sample skews toward small and mid-size businesses, with a large share of Spanish SMBs and meaningful cohorts across Latin America and the US. If you want your business in the next edition, check your visibility for free at surfeo.ai.
Want the next report? Audit your business with Surfeo and we'll let you know when the next edition drops with refreshed data.
Last updated: May 2026
Keep reading
- What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)? — The framework behind every number in this report.
- Best AI visibility tools for SMBs — How to track the metrics in this report for your own business.
- SEO vs GEO — Why ranking on Google isn't enough anymore.
