Year-4 Benchmark Study | AIVO Research — Original research analyzing how 20 brands appear across AI platforms based on 12544 AI responses and 3,527 citations.
Research Scope
AI visibility for events peaks 4 weeks before the event — not during it. Across 12,544 unbranded AI queries on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews tracking a major US marketing conference (Year 4) over 10 weeks, mention rate doubled from 19% at T-6 to 40% at T-3, then plateaued. The earned-media window opens at T-5 and shuts at T-2: content published at T-5 reaches 3 engines; content published at T0 reaches 1. Conference roundup articles drive 69% of AI citation volume — one well-placed roundup equals 5–10 news articles. Three engines split into three discovery profiles (Gemini = pre-event ramp, Google AI Overviews = post-event accelerator, Perplexity = flat year-round, ChatGPT = anomalous swing). Zero of 7 verified competitors use schema markup — a category-wide structural opening for first movers.
Quality of placement matters more than quantity of mentions. Virgin Voyages and Regent Seven Seas achieve the highest position scores despite appearing in fewer AI responses than competitors like Royal Caribbean. This paradox reveals that brands can win in AI visibility through strategic positioning rather than pure volume—a fundamental shift from traditional marketing metrics.
Top brand leads with a position score of N/A, demonstrating that quality of placement matters more than quantity of mentions.
Strategic Implication: Brands focusing solely on mention frequency miss the strategic opportunity to own premium positions in AI responses.
Review sites accounts for a significant share of all citations, representing both an opportunity and a dependency risk for cruise brands.
Strategic Implication: Brands not actively managing their presence on key citation sources are ceding narrative control to third parties.
Significant performance variance across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity means brands can achieve quick wins by platform-specific optimization.
Strategic Implication: A unified AI visibility strategy across platforms is essential—point solutions leave value on the table.
0 brands are effectively "invisible" in AI responses despite strong traditional brand recognition, while 0 brands have emerged as AI visibility champions.
Strategic Implication: Traditional SEO and brand equity do not automatically translate to AI visibility—purpose-built strategies are required.
Three immediate actions will position your brand for AI visibility success:
Understand where your brand currently stands in AI visibility relative to competitors.
Focus on platforms and topics where small optimizations can yield significant visibility gains.
Develop content strategies specifically designed for AI citation and recommendation.
All cruise brands ranked by Position Score (higher is better), color-coded by strategic category. Position Score measures how prominently a destination appears when mentioned in AI responses.
appears in the most AI responses (highest share of voice), yet ranks lower by position score. Meanwhile, appears less frequently but achieves the highest position score (), demonstrating that quality of placement matters more than quantity of mentions.
Complete ranking with position scores, share of voice, and total mentions for each brand analyzed.
Brands are sorted by platform variance (highest first). High variance indicates optimization opportunity—where small changes on underperforming platforms can yield significant gains.
shows the highest platform variance (± points), indicating inconsistent optimization across AI engines. In contrast, has the most consistent performance (± points). High variance brands have a quick-win opportunity— analyzing what works on their strongest platform and replicating those strategies on weaker ones.
| Brand | Variance | ChatGPT | Google AI | Perplexity |
|---|
accounts for approximately 0% of all third-party citations. Understanding citation sources reveals opportunities to shape your brand narrative.
leads with 0% of citations, followed by and . These three sources alone shape a significant portion of AI travel recommendations. Meanwhile, brand-owned domains have limited citation presence Destinations should prioritize getting featured on high-authority third-party sites.
No brand-owned domains in top citation sources.
Opportunity to improve owned-content SEO.
queries show the highest visibility (%), while queries have the lowest (%). Some brands dominate specific segments while remaining invisible to others.
queries show the highest overall brand visibility (% avg), led by . In contrast, queries have the lowest visibility (% avg)—indicating an underserved segment where strategic investment could yield disproportionate returns for brands willing to optimize their content.
topics have the highest mention rate (%), while shows the highest visibility scores ().
topics have the highest mention rate (%), dominated by . Meanwhile, shows the highest visibility scores (), indicating premium positioning opportunities. Brands should assess whether to compete in high-volume categories or dominate niche segments with less competition but higher position quality.
Our AI visibility benchmarks use a rigorous, reproducible methodology to ensure findings are actionable and defensible.
12,544 unique AI responses collected across multiple platforms, queries, and personas.
ChatGPT (OpenAI), Google AI Overview, and Perplexity—the three dominant consumer-facing AI assistants.
Weighted scoring: #1 position = 10 points, #2 = 9 points, through #10 = 1 point. Non-mentions = 0.
Percentage of all brand mentions in AI responses. Measures raw presence regardless of position.
Research conducted November 2025. AI responses reflect training data and real-time web access as of collection date.
Multiple query variations per topic/persona ensure representative sampling. Cross-platform validation reduces single-source bias.
Get a personalized analysis of how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity— plus actionable recommendations to improve your visibility.