Search is changing faster than it has at any point in the last twenty years.

Today, users no longer need to open dozens of websites to find an answer. More and more often, they go directly to ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and other AI systems — and get ready-made recommendations in just a few seconds.

The scale of this change is impressive.

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT has already surpassed 800 million weekly active users and continues to grow at a double-digit rate every month.

Google reports that AI Overviews are used by more than 2 billion users every month across over 200 countries worldwide.

A separate Google AI Mode feature, launched only in 2025, has already reached more than 100 million monthly active users and processes over 1 billion AI queries every month.

Gemini is also showing rapid growth. By the end of 2025, the platform had surpassed 750 million monthly active users.

At the same time, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Grok are actively growing their audiences and have already become important sources of information for millions of users in B2B, eCommerce, finance, education, and the technology sector.

For businesses, this means one simple thing.

Previously, a customer found your company through Google.

Today, more and more often, AI decides who to recommend to the user.

And if ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google AI does not know about your brand, does not understand your expertise, or does not use your website as a source of information, you may be losing potential customers before they even reach your website.

That is why a new area of analysis has appeared in SEO — AI Brand Audit.

Its goal is to show how artificial intelligence sees your brand today, how often it recommends it to users, and what needs to be changed to increase visibility in the new generation of search.

Why AI is becoming a new customer acquisition channel

For the past twenty years, companies have invested in SEO to get more organic traffic from Google.

But today, users increasingly do not visit a website at all.

They get a ready-made answer directly in ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews.

In fact, a new type of search is emerging — AI Search.

Its key difference is that the user sees not a list of websites, but a ready-made recommendation.

That is why today, it is important not only to rank in Google.

What is an AI brand audit?

An AI brand audit is a comprehensive analysis of how artificial intelligence systems perceive, interpret, and recommend your brand.

Unlike a classic SEO audit, which focuses on website rankings and organic traffic, an AI visibility audit evaluates the brand’s presence in generative search.

The main goal of an AI brand audit is to answer these questions:

  • Does AI know about your brand?
  • How often is your brand mentioned in answers?
  • Which pages do AI systems use as sources of information?
  • Which competitors have higher AI Visibility?
  • What factors prevent your brand from appearing in AI answers?

In practice, an AI brand audit shows whether your brand has a chance to be recommended to a potential customer before they even open Google.

What surprises clients most is that AI often uses their content as a source of information, but does not mention the brand itself. In practice, the business shares its expertise without receiving proper brand recognition.

Yulia Bukreeva, Head of SEO Department, RegisTeam

How we conduct an AI brand audit at RegisTeam

Unlike a classic SEO audit, where the main focus is on website rankings, technical issues, and organic traffic, an AI brand audit evaluates the brand’s presence directly within the artificial intelligence ecosystem.

To do this, we use a combination of our own AI Visibility analysis methodology, generative search data, and one of the most powerful tools on the market — Ahrefs Brand Radar.

As a result, the client receives not just a report, but a complete understanding of how their brand is seen by ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI, and other AI systems.

Stage 1. AI Visibility analysis

The first part of the audit focuses on assessing the brand’s overall presence in generative search.

We analyze:

For each platform, we define:

  • the number of brand mentions;
  • the number of domain citations;
  • change dynamics;
  • the strongest topic areas;
  • missed opportunities.

Stage 2. AI Citation Sources analysis

One of the most interesting discoveries during AI audits is the difference between a brand mention and the use of a website as a source of information.

Very often, AI uses a company’s materials in its answers but does not mention the brand itself.

In practice, the company becomes a source of expertise but does not receive brand recognition.

Stage 3. AI query analysis

The next part of the audit helps us understand which questions already trigger AI to recommend the brand.

We analyze hundreds and thousands of user queries.

For example:

  • What is the best CRM for a small business?
  • Which SEO agency works with AI Visibility?
  • What are the best winter tires?
  • How to choose an ERP system?

What does this give the business?

The company gets a clear understanding of:

  • which topics are already working;
  • where there is growth potential;
  • which user questions are still not covered.

In practice, this becomes a ready-made map of content opportunities.

For many clients, AI query analysis becomes the most valuable part of the audit. It shows not what we think about our brand, but how users see it through the lens of artificial intelligence.

Yulia Bukreeva, Head of SEO Department, RegisTeam

Stage 4. Competitor analysis and AI Share of Voice

One of the main reasons businesses order an AI brand audit is to understand why competitors are mentioned more often.

That is why we conduct a full competitor analysis.

What is AI Share of Voice?

AI Share of Voice (SOV) shows the share of brand mentions across all AI answers in your niche.

The higher the score, the larger the share of recommendations the brand controls.

Example:

BrandAI Share of Voice
Competitor A42%
Competitor B28%
Your brand16%
Others14%

In practice, this is a new equivalent of market share in generative search.

What do we analyze in competitors?

-AI Visibility;

-AI Citations;

-content strategies;

-topic coverage;

-Entity signals;

-E-E-A-T factors;

-external mentions;

-domain authority.

What is Ahrefs Brand Radar?

If classic Ahrefs has become a standard for SEO analytics, Brand Radar is gradually becoming a standard for AI Visibility analysis.

The tool allows you to assess a brand’s presence in generative search and track changes in real time.

What data does Brand Radar show?

To work effectively on AI Visibility, it is not enough to simply check whether a brand is mentioned in ChatGPT or Google AI. It is important to understand why AI recommends some companies more often than others, which pages it uses as sources of information, and how brand visibility changes over time. This is exactly why we use Ahrefs Brand Radar — one of the strongest tools for analyzing brand presence in generative search.

Brand Radar makes it possible to see the full picture of a brand’s AI presence: from the number of mentions and citations to its share of voice among competitors, growth dynamics, and the effectiveness of its GEO strategy. With this data, we can not only assess the current level of visibility, but also define specific actions that will help the brand appear more often in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI platforms. That is why the Brand Radar analytics block is one of the key elements of our AI Brand Audit.

Today, Brand Radar is to AI Visibility roughly what Ahrefs was to SEO ten years ago. It allows us to see what used to remain completely hidden from marketers.

Yulia Bukreeva, Head of SEO Department, RegisTeam

What problems does an AI brand audit help identify?

During audits, we often notice one pattern: most companies do not even suspect that they have problems in AI Search.

In classic SEO, everything is fairly transparent — you can check rankings, traffic, clicks, and conversions.

With ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google AI, the situation is much more complex. Businesses often do not understand what happens between the user’s query and the final AI recommendation.

That is why an AI brand audit helps identify hidden problems.

Problem #1. AI does not know about your brand

This is the most common scenario.

The company has:

  • a good website;
  • organic traffic;
  • a track record;
  • clients;
  • SEO rankings.

But ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity do not mention the brand at all.

The reason is usually a lack of sufficient signals for AI:

  • brand mentions;
  • digital PR;
  • Entity signals;
  • authoritative content;
  • external sources.

As a result, AI simply does not consider the company as a potential recommendation.

Problem #2. AI uses the website but does not mention the brand

This is one of the most interesting situations.

AI uses the company’s materials as a source of information, but the brand does not appear in the answer.

In practice, it looks like this:

Problem #3. Competitors control AI Share of Voice

In many niches, we see a situation where 2-3 companies receive most of the mentions in generative search.

The reason is not only brand strength.

Often, they:

  • have broader topic coverage;
  • actively work with content;
  • regularly receive media mentions;
  • invest in Digital PR;
  • have stronger E-E-A-T signals.

Problem #4. AI misunderstands the brand

Another common problem is incorrect interpretation of the company.

For example:

  • AI confuses the services;
  • does not understand the specialization;
  • mixes the brand with competitors;
  • uses outdated information.

All of this directly affects the quality of recommendations.

Problem #5. Lack of AI-ready content

Many websites were created exclusively for SEO.

But today, AI works better with content that has:

  • a clear structure;
  • FAQ blocks;
  • Quick Answers;
  • Summary blocks;
  • Key Takeaways;
  • Schema.org;
  • authorship and expertise.

That is why even high-quality SEO content does not always perform well in AI Search.

We often see websites with strong rankings in Google but very weak AI Visibility. The reason is simple: the content was crea

Yulia Bukreeva, Head of SEO Department, RegisTeam

What does a business get after an AI brand audit?

After the audit is completed, the client receives not just a report, but a full map of the brand’s presence in AI Search:

Request an AI brand audit from RegisTeam

Today, being visible in Google is no longer enough. It is important to understand how your brand is seen by ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI, Perplexity, and other AI systems that increasingly influence customer decisions. RegisTeam’s AI Brand Audit will show your real AI Visibility, identify which pages build your brand expertise, explain why competitors receive more mentions, and reveal which opportunities you are missing in AI Search. As a result, you will get a clear understanding of your brand’s current position in generative search and a step-by-step GEO strategy that will help increase visibility, grow the number of mentions, and improve your chances of becoming an AI recommendation.

While most companies are only starting to explore AI Search, you can become the brand AI recommends first.