'AI SEO' is used for two different things: agencies that use AI to produce SEO work faster, and agencies that optimise for AI answers (AI visibility, GEO). They are not the same purchase. The first makes content; the second measures whether AI assistants name you and fixes the sources they read.
If your goal is to be recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews, buy measurement and source work, and ask for counts. If your goal is more pages faster, buy the content service and judge it like any content.
Every week we put buyers' questions for 20 local trade markets in three metros to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google's AI Overviews and Google's AI Mode and count which businesses get named. The latest window: 3,778 AI answers read, 409 businesses named, 35 days, computed 3 November 2026. The most-named cremation provider in Tampa Bay appeared in 52% of 181 answers (95% range 45–59%); the most-named excavation company in Charlottesville in 20% of 209 answers. Nobody is named in every answer. The method and every number are public on the AI Market Index. Method: each question is asked repeatedly on every engine; a business counts as named when its name appears in the answer text or its domain in the cited sources; a failed read is excluded, never counted as a miss; every count is n of N with its date.
| What to check | Measurement shop | Relabeled SEO |
|---|---|---|
| The number reported | Named in N of M AI answers, per engine, with a range | Rankings, traffic, "AI score" |
| Before money | A counted baseline | A proposal |
| The work | Facts, structured data, listings, answer pages, citations; logged by date | "Content and links" |
| Guarantees | None, in writing | Often |
| Reporting a bad month | Reported with the number | Silence |
Every "best AI visibility agency" list the engines cite ranks its own author first. This table is not a list: it is a count. We asked the sixteen questions on this site to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google's AI Overviews and Google's AI Mode between 6 October 2026 and 5 November 2026 and counted which agencies were named in the 2,518 answers we recorded. We are at zero, and we publish that too.
| Agency (as it appears on the lists the engines cite) | Named in | Share | Engines that named it |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPullRank | 415 of 2,518 | 16.5% | Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Google AI Mode |
| First Page Sage | 270 of 2,518 | 10.7% | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini |
| Siege Media | 236 of 2,518 | 9.4% | Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| Omniscient Digital | 167 of 2,518 | 6.6% | Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Google AI Mode |
| Go Fish Digital | 165 of 2,518 | 6.6% | Claude, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| Thrive Internet Marketing Agency | 133 of 2,518 | 5.3% | Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT |
| Optimist | 124 of 2,518 | 4.9% | Claude, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity |
| WebFX | 117 of 2,518 | 4.6% | Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Google AI Mode |
| NoGood | 106 of 2,518 | 4.2% | Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| Onely | 61 of 2,518 | 2.4% | Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity |
| Percepture | 60 of 2,518 | 2.4% | Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT |
| Hamster Garage | 57 of 2,518 | 2.3% | Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude |
| Rank Prompt | 50 of 2,518 | 2.0% | Perplexity, ChatGPT |
| Relevance (agency) | 46 of 2,518 | 1.8% | ChatGPT |
| Digital Elevator | 42 of 2,518 | 1.7% | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini |
| Minuttia | 39 of 2,518 | 1.5% | Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode, Gemini |
| ASN Intelligence (us) | 0 of 2,518 | 0.0% | none yet |
Method: exact-name match in the answer text; each question asked repeatedly on every engine; tools and software (Profound, Semrush, Peec, Otterly and others) excluded; a failed read is excluded, never counted as a miss; counts are of answers, so one answer naming three agencies counts once for each. Updated monthly from the same stored answers.
The explainer, with the counts on screen: how the assistants decide, what they cite, and the five things that move the answer. Narration is a generated voice; the numbers are ours.
Only when it answers a real customer question with real facts. Generic AI articles are read, not cited.
Content-focused services range widely; AI visibility retainers for local businesses cluster around $1,500 to $5,000 a month. Ours start at $2,950, by application.
Yes, with time: count your own answers, fix your listings and facts, write the answer pages, re-count monthly. Our self-serve measurement from $49 a month does the counting.
No. They read overlapping but different sources and weigh them differently, which is why we measure each engine separately.
Run the free AI-visibility scan for one pass on your business. For the counted baseline across all six engines, the Visibility Sprint is $1,500 one time, credited in full if you start a managed plan within thirty days. Self-serve measurement starts at $49 a month. Managed plans start at $2,950 a month, by application. No plan promises rankings or placement; nobody controls what an AI model says, and we say so.
By Daley Adams, Founder, ASN Intelligence LLC. Updated 5 November 2026.