The AI visibility gap: Why engines recommend different brands

Asking four different people the same question and you’ll get four different answers. All of them are shaped by what each of them knows, and where they think to look. Same goes with AI engines. 

The same prompt, run through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview, can come back with different answers, different brand recommendations, from different sources, and sometimes no clear answer at all.

We ran ‘Best AEO learning resources’ on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overview, and here’s what we got:

AI visibility isn't one size fits all

ChatGPT may recommend you. Perplexity may stay silent on the same question. Claude might cite a competitor instead. Google AI Overview might leave you out of the answer even if you rank first.

According to Forrester's survey, 94% of B2B buyers now use AI during their most recent purchase process, comparing providers and researching products. And for B2B SaaS specifically, that research doesn't happen evenly across engines.

Here’s where the decision makers are:

In tackling AEO, it is important that you understand how AI answer engines work, how they think, and where they search.

In achieving AI visibility, the next question is how your brand actually performs inside that system, where the gap is, and where to take action.

Here’s what we know

Each engine runs on different logic entirely, some check their own memory first, some search every time, and none of them look in the same place. That's the real reason the same question comes back with four different answers.

Sources: LawrenceHitches, Storyzee, Singularity Digital, Discovered Labs

Know your numbers

Understanding how your brand performs across AI search engines comes down to knowing where you stand, where you are still invisible to AI, and what more you need to do.

That means you need to track how often your brand comes up in AI answers, where you rank against your competitors, where AI gets the citations from, how frequently your own domain gets cited, and what the answers are actually saying about you.

Tracking this by hand means running the same prompts across different engines, every week, because the numbers keep changing.

Track it automatically

Running these checks by hand, every week, across four engines, isn't something most teams have the capacity for.

There are different automated tools available at different prices, covering different ranges, such as Otterly AI, Profound, Peec AI, Rankscale, and others.

In a single dashboard, Subsig tracks how often your brand comes up across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and all the numbers mentioned above, starting at $0/month. Equipped with an AI agent that turns those numbers into actionable steps and roadmap to help you improve your AI visibility.

Want to see where your brand actually stands? Start here.

Ready to have professionals take care of it for you and get your brand to become the brand AI recommends? Book a call here.