Share of Voice (AI)

Share of Voice (AI) quantifies how much of the AI-generated conversation in your industry or topic area features your brand, giving you a clear picture of competitive standing in the age of answer engines.

Understanding Share of Voice (AI)

Definition and Context

In traditional marketing, share of voice measured a brand’s advertising presence relative to competitors. In the AI era, Share of Voice (AI) adapts this concept to measure how frequently AI platforms cite or reference a specific brand when generating answers within a particular topic or category.

Basic Formula:

AI Share of Voice = (Your Brand's AI Citations / Total AI Citations in Category) x 100

Traditional vs. AI Share of Voice

The shift from traditional share of voice to AI share of voice reflects a fundamental change in how audiences discover information:

Dimension	Traditional Share of Voice	AI Share of Voice
What it measures	Ad impressions, media mentions	AI-generated citations
Where it’s measured	Ads, media, social platforms	ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews
User interaction	User sees multiple brands	AI selects brands for user
Control level	Directly purchasable	Earned through authority
Measurement frequency	Campaign-based	Continuous and query-based
Competitive dynamics	Budget-driven	Content and authority-driven

Why It Matters More in AI Search

In traditional search results, ten or more brands could appear on page one. In AI-generated answers, typically only one to three sources are cited. This concentration makes share of voice in AI dramatically more competitive and more valuable per citation.

Measuring AI Share of Voice

Query-Based Measurement

The most common approach involves testing a defined set of queries across AI platforms.

Step 1: Define Your Query Universe

• Identify 50-200 queries relevant to your business
• Include informational, navigational, and transactional queries
• Cover different stages of the customer journey
• Update the query set quarterly

Step 2: Run Queries Across Platforms

• Test on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot
• Record which brands are cited for each query
• Note citation position (primary source vs. supplementary)
• Track the context of each citation (positive, neutral, comparative)

Step 3: Calculate Share of Voice

• Tally total citations per brand across all queries
• Divide each brand’s citations by the total
• Segment by topic, query type, or platform

Key Metrics to Track

Volume Metrics:

• Total number of citations across tracked queries
• Citation count by AI platform
• Citation count by topic cluster

Quality Metrics:

• Primary citation rate (cited as the lead source)
• Sentiment of citation context
• Depth of content referenced

Trend Metrics:

• Month-over-month share of voice changes
• Share of voice movement relative to competitors
• New query categories where citations appear

Competitive Benchmarking

Building a Competitive Dashboard

An effective AI share of voice analysis requires tracking your top competitors alongside your own brand.

Example Dashboard:

Brand	Total Citations	Primary Citations	AI Share of Voice	Trend
Your Brand	38	15	19%	Up 3%
Competitor A	52	22	26%	Stable
Competitor B	45	18	22.5%	Down 2%
Competitor C	30	12	15%	Up 1%
Others	35	10	17.5%	—

Identifying Gaps and Opportunities

Analyze Where You Win:

• Which topics and queries consistently cite your brand?
• What content formats earn the most citations?
• Which AI platforms favor your content?

Analyze Where You Lose:

• Which competitor-dominated queries are most valuable to your business?
• What content do competitors have that you lack?
• Are there authority or freshness gaps?

Strategies to Increase AI Share of Voice

1. Own Your Core Topics

Focus on building comprehensive, authoritative content for the topics most critical to your business.

Approach:

• Create pillar pages covering core topics exhaustively
• Develop supporting content for subtopics and related queries
• Update content regularly to maintain freshness signals
• Include original data, expert insights, and unique perspectives

2. Fill Content Gaps

Identify queries where no clear authority exists and become the definitive source.

Approach:

• Analyze queries where AI provides weak or unsourced answers
• Create content specifically designed to fill those gaps
• Structure content for easy AI extraction and citation
• Monitor adoption of your content as a citation source

3. Strengthen Authority Signals

AI systems prioritize sources they trust, so building authority is essential.

Approach:

• Earn backlinks from high-authority publications
• Generate brand mentions through digital PR
• Demonstrate expertise through author credentials
• Maintain high standards for accuracy and depth

4. Diversify Across Platforms

Different AI platforms may favor different sources, so diversifying your approach broadens your share of voice.

Approach:

• Optimize for multiple AI platforms, not just one
• Adapt content format and structure to platform preferences
• Monitor platform-specific citation patterns
• Adjust strategy based on platform-level data

Common Pitfalls

Vanity Metrics

Not all citations are equal. Being cited in low-value or irrelevant queries inflates share of voice without delivering business impact. Focus on share of voice within queries that matter to your audience and revenue.

Snapshot Bias

AI responses can vary based on timing, phrasing, and user context. Single-point measurements can be misleading. Track share of voice over time with consistent methodology to identify true trends.

Platform Concentration

Measuring share of voice on only one AI platform provides an incomplete picture. Diversify tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other emerging platforms.

Why It Matters for AEO

Share of Voice (AI) is arguably the most important competitive metric in Answer Engine Optimization because it directly measures your brand’s presence in the AI-mediated answers that increasingly shape audience decisions. As AI search grows and users receive direct answers rather than browsing multiple results, the brands that are cited become the brands that are trusted. Tracking and improving your AI share of voice allows you to understand where you stand against competitors, identify the highest-impact opportunities for content investment, and measure whether your AEO strategy is working. Without monitoring this metric, you are operating blind in a channel that is rapidly becoming the primary way people discover and evaluate brands.