Only 16% of brands systematically track whether they appear inside AI answers — against Google AI summaries reaching 2.5 billion people a month. More than 20 vendors sell AI visibility tools and none of their numbers reconcile. The IAB's framework is the first attempt at a common standard.
We cover the four-layer hierarchy, the distinction between being mentioned and being cited as a source, and the finding that should change how you buy these tools: most of them are directional at best, while directional data is being used to move media budgets.
Read the full report: https://api.automate.it.com/feed/working-devs-hero/agentic-commerce/f5d5141e-dc0e-4411-8bf6-a65d11dd4699
Sources
- IAB — Measuring Visibility in the AI Era
- McKinsey CMO survey data on AI-mediated discovery
- Chartbeat / Axios — publisher search referral decline
- LQ — research on brand citation divergence between search and AI overviews