Semrush, an Adobe company and the leading brand visibility platform, today announced the release of the 2026 AI Visibility Index flagship study. Building on the original AI Visibility Index, launched in September 2025, the report represents a major expansion of Semrush's AI search intelligence capabilities, scaling from an initial analysis of 2,500 prompts to 126 million U.S. AI search prompts analyzed from January through April 2026. The expanded dataset offers one of the most comprehensive views to date of how brands are mentioned, cited, and surfaced across major AI search platforms.
Study scales from 2,500 to 126 million U.S. AI search prompts analyzed.
AI traffic to U.S. retail sites surged 1,324% between October 2024 and May 2026.
Travel sector AI traffic up 2,215% in same period.
ChatGPT cites average 15 sources per response; Gemini cites average 3 sources.
Only 36 brands maintained visibility across all four platforms during the study.
81% of organizations with integrated SEO/AI strategies reported increased traffic from AI platforms.
The Index shows that AI-powered discovery is no longer shaped by a single search result, owned website, or ranking position. Across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews, brands are being interpreted, summarized, mentioned, and cited through different combinations of owned content, third-party sources, community discussions, publishers, retailers, and reference platforms – meaning brands must now compete not only to be found, but to be accurately understood and credibly supported. Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe Enterprise, stated: "Your AI narrative is becoming the decisive entry point to your customer experience. But the new reality is, your customers are both people and AI agents. Minimizing brand drift to ensure accuracy and consistency across every digital touchpoint is now the starting point for securing visibility."
The four platforms analyzed demonstrate significantly different citation patterns. ChatGPT cites an average of 15 sources per response and frequently relies on community and reference platforms such as Reddit and Wikipedia, while Gemini cites an average of 3 sources per response, drawing on a smaller pool of citations that includes Wikipedia, Reddit, and YouTube. These differences help explain why a brand can perform strongly in one AI environment while having limited visibility in another, reinforcing the need to measure AI visibility platform by platform.
Brand mentions and citations measure different forms of visibility. Being mentioned in an AI-generated answer does not necessarily mean a brand's own website is cited as the supporting source. On Gemini, the overlap between mentioned brands and cited domains can be as low as 30%, reinforcing the need for brands to compete on two fronts. Competitive opportunity varies significantly by industry, with visibility being more distributed in Finance and Industrial sectors. Only 36 brands maintained visibility across every platform. The "Universal 36" include YouTube, Google, Reddit, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Walmart, Disney, and Nintendo.
Third-party sources now play a critical role in shaping brand narratives. A company's AI narrative is no longer shaped solely by owned websites and brand-controlled content. AI platforms also rely on customer reviews, community discussions, independent publishers, retailers, and industry sources to understand and recommend brands. Integrated SEO and AI strategies deliver stronger results. Among organizations that fully integrate SEO and AI visibility into a unified workflow, 81% reported increased traffic or leads from AI platforms. Among organizations managing the two areas separately, only 36% reported the same result.
Andrew Warden, Vice President of Marketing at Adobe and former CMO of Semrush, stated: "AI is now intrinsic to the default search experience, and brands need to adapt. The name of the game is Brand Visibility. The foundations of SEO are critically important in creating trust signals for AI, but visibility now depends on how consistently a brand reinforces its narrative across digital channels. Marketing teams need to redesign how they work across SEO, content, communications, data, and brand governance to compete in this new environment."
About Semrush
Semrush, an Adobe company, is the leading brand visibility platform, empowering marketers to command their online presence and create measurable impact. Built on the industry's most expansive proprietary dataset, Semrush delivers AI-driven insights across SEO, Agentic Search Optimization, content marketing, paid media, and social strategy. Used by over 28 million users globally – from scaling startups to the Fortune 500 – Semrush provides the competitive intelligence needed to win visibility in an evolving digital landscape.
