Share of answer
How often a brand appears in AI-generated answers across a fixed set of questions, measured relative to the competitors named in the same answers.
Also called: share of AI voice, answer share
Share of answer is how often you appear when people ask AI engines about your category. It is the answer-engine equivalent of share of voice.
Why can’t I just check my search ranking?
Because ranking and answer inclusion are different outcomes. A page can rank well and never be quoted, or rank modestly and be cited constantly. The only reliable way to know is to ask the engines the questions your buyers ask.
How is it measured?
By running a fixed set of commercial questions against each engine repeatedly and recording which brands are named and which sources are cited. Repetition matters because answers are non-deterministic, so a single run tells you little.
What is a useful first report?
The questions where a competitor appears and you do not. That list is usually short, specific and immediately actionable, which makes it a better starting point than an aggregate percentage.
How should the question set be chosen?
From what buyers actually ask, not from a keyword tool. The useful set is small, specific and commercial: the comparisons, the “best X for Y” phrasings, the objections a salesperson hears. A hundred well-chosen questions run regularly is a far better instrument than ten thousand harvested terms, because the value of this measurement is in tracking movement on a fixed set rather than in covering a category exhaustively.
What confounds the measurement?
Non-determinism first: the same question asked twice produces different wording and sometimes a different source list, so a single run is noise. Then regionality and personalisation, which mean two observers can legitimately see different answers. And finally the engines themselves change, sometimes substantially, between one month and the next. Every one of these argues for repeated sampling under fixed conditions rather than for a bigger single sweep.
Why are deltas more useful than absolute percentages?
Because the absolute number depends on choices only you made: which questions, which engines, how often, and what counts as an appearance. Two organisations quoting a share-of-answer figure are rarely measuring the same thing. The change in your own figure, under a question set you have not altered, is comparable with itself — which is the only comparison that supports a decision.
What else should I read?
- Answer engine
A system that responds to a question with a synthesised answer rather than a list of links, typically by retrieving live web pages and summarising them.
- Generative engine optimization
The practice of structuring and writing content so that AI answer engines are more likely to retrieve it, quote it and cite the source.
- Surfacing
When content placed on a page actually appears in an AI engine's answer, whether quoted directly or paraphrased.