How do I figure out which competitors are winning in AI answers?

To figure out which competitors are “winning” in AI answers, you want to measure visibility + frequency + share of voice across the places AI answers come from.

1) Define the questions that matter

Start with the prompts your buyers actually ask, for example:

• “What’s the best CRM for small businesses?”
• “Which payroll software is best for remote teams?”
• “Top cybersecurity tools for startups”

Group them into:

• Category queries
• Problem/solution queries
• Comparison queries
• Brand vs. brand queries
• Use-case queries

These are the prompts where competitors can win attention.

2) Check the major AI answer surfaces

Look at the models/tools your audience uses:

• ChatGPT
• Google AI Overviews / Gemini
• Perplexity
• Claude
• Copilot
• Answer engines inside vertical platforms if relevant

For each prompt, run it in each tool and record:

• Which brands are mentioned
• Which are recommended first
• Whether your brand appears at all
• The cited sources
• Whether the answer changes by phrasing

3) Track “share of answer”

Create a simple score per query:

• Mentioned = 1
• Recommended = 2
• Ranked first = 3
• Cited as source = 1 extra
• Not mentioned = 0

Then sum across your keyword set.

This gives you a rough AI share of voice:

• Which competitors appear most often
• Which are positioned most favorably
• Which sources keep getting cited

4) Compare with traditional SEO data

AI systems often rely on:

• High-authority pages
• Review sites
• Comparison pages
• Forums and community content
• Strong brand/entity signals

So compare AI winners against:

• Branded search volume
• Organic rankings
• Backlinks / domain authority
• Review presence (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, etc.)
• Mentions on Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, niche publications

If a competitor dominates AI answers, they usually have strong visibility in at least some of these inputs.

5) Identify the sources AI is using

A competitor may be “winning” because AI keeps citing:

• Their own site
• Third-party reviews
• Comparison articles
• Wikipedia / knowledge panels
• Reddit threads
• News coverage

If you know the source pattern, you know where to compete.

6) Watch for “winner types”

Competitors tend to win in AI answers because of one or more of these:

• Strong brand recognition
• Better review density
• More authoritative content
• Clear product/category positioning
• More mentions across the web
• Better structured pages that AI can parse
• More recent or better-cited content

7) Build a repeatable tracker

Use a spreadsheet with columns like:

• Query
• AI tool
• Date
• Competitor mentions
• Order of mention
• Sentiment / recommendation
• Sources cited
• Your brand included? Y/N
• Notes

Then repeat monthly. AI answers change often.

8) What to do with the results

Once you know who’s winning:

• Create better comparison pages
• Earn mentions in third-party reviews
• Strengthen entity signals for your brand
• Improve FAQ and use-case content
• Target the sources AI cites most
• Publish content around the exact prompts you care about

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If you want, I can give you:

1. a spreadsheet template for tracking AI share of voice, or
2. a step-by-step workflow to audit your top 20 competitor prompts in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.