A simple definition
If someone asks an AI assistant for the best service, provider, or option in a place, AI visibility describes whether your business appears in the answer and what evidence supports that appearance. The useful unit is the question and answer, not an abstract score separated from its source.
The answer may mention your name, link to your website, or describe a competitor instead. Each result tells you something different about what appeared for that question at that time.
AI visibility is how your business appears when a customer asks an AI assistant a real question. Read the answer before you decide what it means.
Four report terms to keep separate
- Mentioned: your business name appears in the answer.
- Cited: one of the returned source links points to your website.
- Position: the response explicitly orders recommendations and your business has a place in that order.
- Opportunity: the answer and its sources suggest something worth investigating next.
A mention is not necessarily a citation. A citation is not a guarantee of future visibility. A position should not be invented when the answer is descriptive rather than ordered.
Why the answer can change
Providers, web indexes, public pages, prompt wording, and time all affect an answer. Repeating a controlled prompt can help show variation, but it cannot reveal a proprietary ranking formula or guarantee the next response.
Mentsight reports will keep each answer with its date. Explore the example report or read the measurement methodology to see how these terms are defined.