AI share of voice
AI share of voice is how often AI assistants name your brand compared with the other brands in your category, for the questions buyers ask. It answers a simple question: when buyers ask AI for options, how much of the conversation is about you? It can be measured directly from stored answers.
Two ways to calculate it
There are two common definitions, and it matters which one you use:
- Mention rate: the share of answers that name your brand at least once. If you are named in 90 of 300 answers, your mention rate is 30%. This is what Shortlist leaderboards rank by.
- Share of mentions: your mentions divided by all brand mentions across the answers. If answers name four brands on average, the shares add up to 100% across brands.
Why Shortlist leads with mention rate
Mention rate has a clear meaning for a buyer: the chance that, when they ask, your brand is on the list. It does not depend on how many other brands are named. It also supports an honest error bar: the 95% Wilson interval shown on every leaderboard.
Share of mentions is useful for comparing brands within one category, but it moves when other brands appear or disappear, even if nothing changed for you.
Add position and engine
Two brands with the same mention rate can be in different places. One is usually named first, the other usually last. Shortlist reports average position among the brands an answer names, so you can see the difference.
Break share of voice down by engine as well. It is common to have a high rate on Perplexity and a low one on ChatGPT, or the reverse. The per-engine grid on every leaderboard shows this.
Reading changes over time
Share of voice moves. Engines update, sources change, competitors publish. Look at changes that are larger than the error bars, and look at all engines before concluding anything. A single week up or down is rarely meaningful on its own.
Limits
Share of voice says how often you are named, not why, and not whether the mention is positive. To understand why, read the answers and the sources they cite; every Shortlist leaderboard links them. It also depends on the questions chosen, so the questions are always published with the results.
A worked example
Say a category run has 300 answers. Brand A is named in 180 of them, brand B in 120 and your brand in 45. Your mention rate is 15%, with a 95% interval of roughly 11% to 20%. Brand B’s interval is roughly 35% to 46%, so the gap between you is real, not noise. If the same answers named 600 brand mentions in total, your share of mentions would be 7.5%.
Now suppose next month you are named in 54 answers: 18%, with an interval that overlaps last month’s. That is encouraging but not yet proof of change. Two or three runs in the same direction are more convincing than one.
See it for a real category
- AI recommendations for crm for small business
- AI recommendations for whatsapp business api provider
- AI recommendations for email warm-up tool
- How Shortlist measures
Questions
Should I track share of voice for my brand name searches too?
It is better to track buyer questions that do not name you. Questions that include your name tell you what the assistant knows about you, not whether it puts you on a shortlist.
What is a good AI share of voice?
It depends on the category and the number of brands. Compare with your direct competitors on the same questions rather than a universal number.
How is AI share of voice different from SEO share of voice?
SEO share of voice is based on search rankings and estimated clicks. AI share of voice is based on whether generated answers name you.
How many answers are needed?
Enough for the error bars to be useful. Shortlist uses 300 answers per category run; the free check uses 9 for a first look.
Are the questions public?
Yes. Every leaderboard lists the exact questions asked.