Businesses are being advised to start focusing on optimising for AI answer engines, not just search engines.
This comes as research shows that despite many companies continuing to rank in traditional search engines, they are not appearing in AI-generated answers – a port of call where an increasing number of consumers and business buyers are now relying on.
Businesses Losing Potential Customers
The research, compiled by AI visibility agency LLM Listed, analysed 500 UK business websites across sectors, including:
- Legal services
- Financial services
- Software
- Healthcare
- Professional services
- Ecommerce
It was tested whether companies appeared in responses generated by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity when users asked commercially relevant questions within their industry.
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The key findings show:
- 87% of companies failed to appear in AI-generated recommendations for their primary commercial search terms.
- Only 8% appeared consistently across all major AI platforms.
- 76% were outranked by competitors in AI-generated responses.
- 91% showed no evidence of an AI visibility strategy.
- Less than 15% had content specifically designed to support AI discovery and citation.
‘AI Visibility Monopoly’
The study also found that large enterprise brands were substantially more likely to appear in AI-generated answers, while smaller and mid-sized businesses struggled to gain visibility despite often having stronger expertise within niche markets.
Researchers have described this as an ‘AI Visibility Monopoly’, where a small number of brands dominate recommendations while competitors become increasingly difficult for buyers to discover.
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