New AI visibility index finds most brands invisible to AI search

Marketing agency Fractl released an AI Visibility Index measuring how often brands surface in AI-generated answers versus how they rank in traditional search. The analysis ran 96 industry-specific prompts 15 times each against GPT-4o, Gemini 2.5 Flash, and Claude Sonnet 4.6, collecting more than 8,500 unique brand references across eight industries, then compared the results against Ahrefs data on domain rating, organic traffic, and keyword rankings.

Most brands tracked close to expectations: over 90% showed AI visibility in line with their existing search authority. But a meaningful minority didn't. Roughly 5% of brands, an estimated 471, ranked well in traditional search yet rarely appeared in AI answers. About 4%, or 377 brands, did the opposite: strong AI visibility despite unremarkable SEO metrics. Only 11% of brands appeared consistently across all three models tested.

The report also found that third-party coverage, roundups, reviews, and independent "best of" lists, correlated more strongly with AI visibility than a brand's own site content. In travel, AI answers consolidated around Booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia. In insurance, models favored digital-native carriers like Lemonade over established incumbents.

For a small team relying on organic search for distribution, the takeaway is that ranking well on Google no longer guarantees showing up when a prospective customer asks an AI assistant for a recommendation instead. Earning citations in independent coverage, not just optimizing owned pages, is emerging as the more reliable lever.