AI visibility starts with the questions you test
Marketers are used to thinking in keywords. For years, search strategies have been built around identifying the terms people type into Google, measuring rankings and then improving the pages competing for those searches. AI search changes the format of the interaction because, instead of entering a short phrase such as “accountancy firms Manchester”, someone might ask: “Which accountancy firms in Manchester would you recommend for a fast-growing technology company that needs help with R&D tax credits?”
The underlying intent is similar, but the AI prompt contains far more context. This is why one of the most important parts of measuring AI visibility is building the right set of prompts. If your prompts do not reflect the questions customers actually ask, your AI visibility score will tell you very little about your real position in the market.
Keywords and prompts are not the same thing
Keywords are still valuable because they help marketers understand demand, but a keyword and an AI prompt should not be treated as interchangeable. A traditional keyword is often short and fragmented, while an AI prompt can contain a problem, company type, location, budget, requirements and purchasing criteria within a single request.
Consider a company selling cybersecurity software. A traditional SEO keyword might be “attack surface management software”, while an AI search could ask: “What are the best attack surface management platforms for a UK company with around 500 employees?” Another user might ask for alternatives to a particular competitor or describe the underlying problem without knowing the product category at all. Those questions may ultimately lead towards the same type of product, but they represent different customer needs, and a useful prompt strategy needs to capture those differences.
Do not build your benchmark around your brand name
One of the easiest mistakes to make when testing AI visibility is asking too many branded questions. If you ask ChatGPT what your company does, you are primarily testing whether the system knows about a brand it has already been given. That can still be useful for checking accuracy, sentiment and brand understanding, but it tells you very little about whether you are being discovered by potential customers.
The more commercially important questions are the ones asked before somebody knows your name. If a potential buyer asks for the best companies in your category, do you appear? If they describe the problem you solve without mentioning your product, are you recommended? If they compare two competitors, does your organisation appear as another option? These are the prompts that expose genuine visibility gaps.