The Visibility Score asks whether your brand is in the answer. Share of Voice asks how much of the conversation is yours. Here is how they differ, and which one to watch first.
Your AI visibility dashboard shows two headline numbers, and they do not always move together. The AI visibility score (the Visibility Score in A2ZReach) counts the share of AI answers in which your brand appears at all; AI share of voice counts how much of the brand conversation in those answers belongs to you. On visibility score vs share of voice, our reading is to watch the Visibility Score first, then use Share of Voice to gauge competitor pressure.
Reading only one of these is a real risk. A rising Visibility Score can mask a situation where competitors dominate every answer your brand appears in. A falling Share of Voice can look alarming when it only reflects a crowded answer, not a loss of presence. The two numbers answer different questions, and this guide explains which question each one answers.
What Is a Visibility Score in AI Search?
The Visibility Score is the percentage of AI answers, to your unbranded prompts, in which your brand appears at least once. If 50 out of 100 answers to unbranded prompts name your brand, your Visibility Score is 50%.
The unbranded part matters (the A2ZReach metrics glossary has the full definition). A prompt that names your brand will almost always produce an answer that mentions you, so those prompts are kept out of the headline number. The Visibility Score only counts prompts that do not name you, the ones where the AI assistant is choosing whether to include you at all.
In A2ZReach, you see this number in two places. On the Home page, the tile labelled Share of AI answers shows the Visibility Score, with a change figure against the previous period and a small trend line. On the Answer Engine Insights page, the Visibility tab holds a Visibility Score widget with a rank table that lists your tracked competitors beside your brand.
What Is Share of Voice in AI Search?
Share of voice is your brand's mentions divided by all brand mentions in the same set of answers: yours, your competitors', and any other brand the AI assistants name. If there are 1,000 brand mentions across a set of answers and 120 are yours, your Share of Voice is 12%.
The term itself comes from advertising. Nielsen (March 2025) (opens in a new tab) defines share of voice as a brand's media spend as a percentage of total media spend in its category, and says it shows whether a campaign is competitive before launch, not what the campaign achieves. Nielsen also reports Binet and Field's study of 171 campaigns (1980 to 2010): excess share of voice, a brand's share of voice minus its share of market, was associated with about 0.5 points of market-share growth for every 10 points of excess share of voice. That finding is about advertising spend and market share. It was not shown for mentions in AI answers.
A2ZReach applies the same structural idea to AI answers: your mentions as a share of all brand mentions in the same prompt set. In the app, the Visibility tab shows a Share of Voice widget alongside the Visibility Score, with its own rank table (Share of Voice Rank). The Platforms tab breaks both numbers down by AI assistant.
How Can the Two Numbers Disagree?
Yes. A brand can be named in more answers than a rival and still hold a smaller share of the mentions, because the Visibility Score counts answers and Share of Voice counts mentions. The table below uses made-up numbers to show it. They are an illustration of how the two measures differ, not data from any real account or a benchmark.
| Brand | Answers named in (out of 20) | Visibility Score | Mentions (out of 100 total) | Share of Voice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example Brand | 12 | 60% | 15 | 15% |
| Competitor A | 9 | 45% | 40 | 40% |
| Competitor B | 8 | 40% | 30 | 30% |
| Other brands | n/a | n/a | 15 | 15% |
Example Brand appears in more answers than either competitor, so its Visibility Score is higher. But Competitor A is named in fewer answers and still holds 40% of all brand mentions in those same answers, against Example Brand's 15%.
That gap is what Share of Voice reveals. A brand can be present in many answers without taking up much of the conversation.
Which Number Should You Watch?
Watch the Visibility Score first, because it answers the most basic question: is your brand in the answer at all? If the answer is no, Share of Voice is not yet the problem.
Once you have a solid Visibility Score, Share of Voice tells you how crowded the answers are and where you stand in the conversation relative to competitors. Our reading on when each number speaks:
- Visibility Score is low. Your brand is being left out of answers. That is the first thing to address. Our guide to exclusion analysis explains how to see which competitors were named instead and what sources fed those answers.
- Visibility Score is healthy, Share of Voice is low. You appear in many answers, but competitors take up more of each one. Look at how often and how prominently competitors are mentioned in the same answers.
- Both numbers are rising. Your brand is appearing more often and holding more of the conversation. Check the Platforms tab to confirm the gain is not limited to one AI assistant.
Why Do Both Numbers Need Many Answers Behind Them?
Because AI answers vary from run to run, one answer, or a handful, says little about either number.
Rand Fishkin (SparkToro) and Patrick O'Donnell (Gumshoe.ai) published research in January 2026 (opens in a new tab) on how consistent AI brand recommendations actually are. Their study ran 12 prompts across ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI, 2,961 runs in total, using data collected from 600 volunteers in late 2025. ChatGPT and Google's AI had under a 1-in-100 chance of returning the same list of brands twice in 100 runs. The same list in the same order appeared roughly once in 1,000 runs. One hospital brand appeared in 69 of 71 ChatGPT answers (97%) yet was first-mentioned in only 25 of them.
The authors conclude that visibility percentage, how often a brand appears across many prompts and runs, is a reasonable metric, though a rough one. They also call ranking position in AI answers unreliable. Worth noting: the study is not peer-reviewed, the authors are not credentialed researchers, and Gumshoe.ai sells AI-tracking software, so it carries a disclosed commercial interest. The study used default settings, and results may not hold for newer models.
Our reading: small changes in either number, over a short window, are probably noise. Look for direction across a large answer set, and keep each AI assistant's numbers separate. An average across assistants can hide a strong result on one and a weak result on another.
Where Does Average Position Fit?
Average Position is a third number on the same dashboard. It shows where your brand is named in an answer, on average, when it is named at all.
A position of 1 means your brand was the first brand named, and a lower number is better. Because it only counts answers where your brand appears, it depends on the Visibility Score: a brand named in few answers has few positions to average. A2ZReach also ranks you against your tracked competitors on it, in an Average Position Rank table, as it does for the other two numbers.
Think of it as detail on the same story, not a third headline. Our reading: use it once the Visibility Score and Share of Voice have told you where you stand, and read it over many answers. SparkToro's authors call ranking position in AI answers unreliable, so the order in any one answer says little.
Where Do You See These Numbers in A2ZReach?
You can see them in three places: the Home page, the Visibility tab and the Platforms tab of Answer Engine Insights, each at a different level of detail.
- Home page. The Share of AI answers tile shows your Visibility Score with a trend line. This is your quick check.
- Visibility tab (Answer Engine Insights). The Visibility Score and Share of Voice widgets each show a headline number, a change figure and a rank table listing your tracked competitors. This is where you compare yourself with the field. The Average Position widget sits beside them.
- Platforms tab. Visibility Score by Platform and Share of Voice by Platform break each number down by AI assistant. Which assistants appear depends on your plan. Check this tab before drawing any conclusion from the headline numbers: a gain or loss that shows up on one assistant only reads very differently from one that holds across all of them.
What Should You Do This Week?
Look at both numbers once, then check whether any move holds on every AI assistant. A short routine, as our suggestion:
- Open the Home page and note the Share of AI answers tile. Is the Visibility Score up, down or flat?
- Go to the Visibility tab and check the rank tables for both Visibility Score and Share of Voice. Has your position against competitors changed?
- Open the Platforms tab. If a number moved, does it move on every assistant or only one?
- If the Visibility Score is low or falling, read our guide to exclusion analysis to see how to find which brands are named instead and why.
FAQ
Does Share of Voice include brands I did not add as competitors?
Yes. Share of Voice is your mentions divided by all brand mentions in the same answers: yours, your tracked competitors' and any other brand the AI assistants name. Brands you did not add still appear in the denominator if the answers mention them.
Why are prompts that name my brand left out of the Visibility Score?
A prompt that names your brand will almost always produce an answer that mentions you, so including those prompts would inflate the number. The Visibility Score only counts unbranded prompts, the ones where the AI assistant decides whether to include you, because those are the only answers where presence is genuinely in question.
See Both Numbers on Example Data
The fastest way to understand how the two numbers work together is to see them side by side. Browse the public sample report (labeled as illustrative data, not a measurement of any real brand). To talk through your own brand, book a live demo: a 30-minute visibility review with one of our specialists.
- New Research: AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products (opens in a new tab) SparkToro, January 2026 · sparktoro.com · not peer-reviewed; disclosed conflict of interest
- Need to know: What is share of voice? (opens in a new tab) Nielsen, March 2025 · beta.nielsen.com · about advertising spend; Binet and Field's figures as Nielsen reports them