85% of AI Search Topics Are Still Up for Grabs

Here’s an uncomfortable number: 85% of AI search topics still don’t have a clear brand leader. Semrush just analyzed 50,000 brands across 1,094 topics to see who actually „owns“ a category in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. Only 15% did.

That’s not a reason to panic. It’s the opposite. It means the AI search landscape in your category is still wide open — and most of your competitors have no idea how to measure whether they’re winning it or not. I read through this week’s crop of marketing newsletters (Semrush, more-fire, Neil Patel) and one theme showed up in every single one: GEO is the new battlefield, and almost nobody has a scoreboard for it.

In this article, I’ll walk you through what’s actually happening in AI search right now, which GEO metrics you should be tracking instead of your old SEO dashboard, and what I’d do this quarter if I were you.

The AI Search Landscape Is Still Wide Open

Semrush’s research is the headline number this week for a reason. Across 1,094 topics and 50,000 brands, only 15% had a clear, consistent owner in AI-generated answers. The rest is up for grabs.

Two findings matter more than the headline stat. First, winning a single prompt doesn’t mean you own the topic — AI answers shift depending on phrasing, model and context, so one good citation is a snapshot, not a strategy. I’ve written before about how AI search picks winners before buyers even click, and this data backs it up. Second, brands with a strong, consistent lead tend to keep it, but narrow leads disappear quickly. In other words: mediocrity in AI search gets punished fast, and strong positions compound. There’s no „set it and forget it“ here.

Your Website Alone Won’t Get You Cited

Here’s the part that should reshape your content plan: your own website accounts for just 7-16% of AI citation signals, according to Semrush. The rest comes from domains you don’t control — Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, G2, and comparison sites. AI models trust third-party validation more than your own marketing copy, which, honestly, checks out.

There’s also a content-format insight buried in the same research: simple „X vs. Y“ comparison pages outperform „best [category]“ listicles in AI answers. That makes sense once you think about how people actually prompt AI tools — „Tool A vs. Tool B“ mirrors real questions, while „best CRM tools“ is a search-engine-era habit that AI models handle less precisely. If you’re wondering whether this applies to you, I broke down why AI isn’t citing your brand in more detail a few weeks ago.

The GEO Metrics That Actually Matter

I also caught a great podcast episode from Robin Heintze at more-fire this week, and it answers the question I get asked most often right now: how do you actually measure GEO success? Classic SEO metrics like rankings or visibility indexes don’t work anymore, because there are no rankings in a chat answer.

Instead, track these three:

• Mentions — how often your brand shows up in AI answers, independent of whether it’s linked or sourced.
• Citations — how often your content is directly used as a source, which shows real topical authority.
• Share of Voice — how often you show up relative to competitors, tracked over time so you can see the trend, not just a single snapshot.

Direct traffic from ChatGPT and similar tools is still small for most brands. But don’t dismiss it — it’s an early signal, and it’s growing every quarter. Watching it now means you won’t be caught flat-footed later. I go deeper on why citations are becoming the new rankings if you want the full breakdown.

AI Isn’t Replacing Strategists — It’s Exposing Weak Ones

Neil Patel made a point in his newsletter this week that ties this all together: AI is great at execution — analyzing data, drafting content, automating the busywork — but it doesn’t understand your business goals. It can’t prioritize opportunities or connect GEO to your broader marketing strategy. That’s still your job.

„The companies seeing the biggest gains aren’t replacing marketers with AI — they’re using AI to work faster while relying on experienced strategists to make the right decisions.“ — Neil Patel

If your team is publishing plenty of AI-assisted content but your organic and AI-driven growth has stalled anyway, it’s probably not a tooling problem. It’s a strategy problem. And no amount of AI output fixes a missing strategy.

Where I’d Start This Quarter

Three things, in order. First, find out where you actually stand — run your brand and your top three competitors through a handful of realistic prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and track who gets mentioned and cited. Second, put real budget behind third-party presence: a few sharp comparison pages, active participation on Reddit and LinkedIn, and a push for reviews on G2 or similar platforms. Third, start reporting Mentions, Citations and Share of Voice monthly, even if the numbers are rough at first — and stop optimizing for volume alone; I explained why in the new rules of AI search visibility. You can’t manage what you don’t measure — and right now, almost nobody in your category is measuring this properly. That’s your opening.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of making your brand and content citable by AI search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. While SEO optimizes for ranking positions in traditional search results, GEO optimizes for being mentioned and cited in AI-generated answers, where there are no rankings to chase.

How do I measure AI search visibility?

Track three GEO metrics: Mentions (how often your brand appears in AI answers), Citations (how often your content is used as a source), and Share of Voice (how you compare to competitors over time). Classic SEO metrics like rankings don’t apply in chat-based answers.

Why does my website only make up a small share of AI citations?

AI models weigh third-party validation heavily. Semrush’s research shows owned websites account for only 7-16% of AI citation signals, while independent sources like Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and G2 drive the rest. Building presence on these platforms is now part of your visibility strategy, not optional extra credit.

Is it too late to win visibility in AI search?

No. Semrush found that 85% of analyzed AI search topics still have no clear brand owner. Most categories are wide open, which means brands that start measuring and acting now have a real first-mover advantage.

What content format works best for AI search citations?

Direct comparison pages („X vs. Y“) consistently outperform generic „best of“ listicles in AI-generated answers, because they mirror how people actually phrase questions to AI tools.

AI search isn’t a threat to good marketing — it’s a wide-open field with almost no scoreboard yet. Put one up before your competitors do.

Foto von Deng Xiang auf Unsplash