AI Visibility: Actual, Not Anecdotal or Accidental
Turns out AI's not just answering questions - it's dropping names
“I’m no longer using Google to search things up, I use ChatGPT. I then ask Google to verify the sources”*
“A new client found me thanks to asking for someone with my expertise in CoPilot.”
“I asked him how he found me and he searched Gemini for the top 10 people to help him with his sales and marketing and I came up!”
“We searched ChatGPT for the top 10 UK bespoke Chesterfield makers. Found our dream handmade leather sofa, and picked up a new content client in the process as the owner needed our help!”
"I asked my new client who is UK based where they heard about me and they said they asked ChatGPT who recommended me!”
* this is known as 'hybrid search behaviour'
It started with a trickle, now it’s free flowing. Searches on the LLMs (Large Language Models) are more than a ‘thing’. They are today’s reality.
The percentages for AI searches vs Google searches (and the other less dominant engines) vary hugely depending on which platform you are asking and which organisation has conducted the survey.
Traditional search engines claim Google still dominates with 90% of search traffic. However one survey found 71% of people use AI tools for some of their searches, another one found that less than 0.2% of search volume goes through AI.
The LLMs may be preferable as they don’t carry ads (as of time of typing!)
So you can see, there are no hard and fast answers.
But if you look at the casual and in passing conversations around business Whatsapp groups, networking events and masterclasses, one thing is for sure:
Business owners are seeking out people to engage with by using AI search tools.
How are they finding these experts, consultations, businesses and coaches?
Via their digital footprint.
You may have heard of terms such as cross-channel visibility or omni-channel visibility.
This means getting visible everywhere: social media platforms, podcast show notes, speaking profiles on conference organiser websites, mentions in blogs and of course, the press (news articles, radio or TV show social media feeds, online publications).
So now more than ever is the right time to engage with your visibility strategy, and this is where we come in.
By being mentioned on a leading newspaper’s website, this will give you not only ‘SEO juice’ but now ‘AI Findability’ alongside a big boost of credibility and visibility.
Some stats from MuckRack’s 2025 report ‘What is AI reading?’:
“More than 95% of links cited by AI are from non-paid media” meaning AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini tend to quote content that isn’t paid for ie advertising, so organic content wins.
“More than 89% of links cited by AI are earned media”. "Earned media" is press coverage or mentions you haven’t paid for, for example being quoted in a BBC, Telegraph online article or featured in Forbes via PR.
This shows that AI searches reference PR-driven exposure rather than advertising, meaning getting press coverage makes you more likely to be mentioned by AI.
“27% of links cited by AI are journalistic”. This means just over a quarter of all links AI tools use come from actual journalism, eg news sites and editorials pieces. These are written by journalists and published on reputable platforms.
So you heard it here first! Time to really expand your visibility and get omni-present. Don’t get left behind, future-proof your visibility.