Industry-Specific AI Visibility: Why One-Size-Fits-All Strategies Fail

Industry-Specific AI Visibility: Why One-Size-Fits-All Strategies Fail

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most brands are flying blind when it comes to being visible on AI systems. Worse, they assume that what works for one industry will work for theirs. Spoiler: it won’t.

My theory? AI visibility isn’t just another SEO-style game where you apply the same checklist tactics, regardless of who you are or what you sell. It’s a new frontier, and if you’re not adapting your strategy to the nuances of your specific industry, you’re toast.

The big platforms, ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity, don’t play by one set of rules. And the divergence in what they recommend is staggering. Across our dataset of 2321 prompts, the same query gets wildly different answers 40% of the time when comparing ChatGPT against Google AI. That means a brand might dominate one platform and be completely invisible on another. If that’s not a wake-up call to rethink your strategy, I don’t know what is.

Generic strategies don’t cut it anymore

Look, I get it. The temptation to cast a wide net is strong. It feels efficient. Just create a load of content, optimise it broadly, and ship it out. But here’s the problem: AI systems aren’t search engines. You can’t just rely on keywords and backlinks to make yourself visible. AI isn’t surfacing “just any” relevant result; it’s picking what it thinks is the best answer for a specific context. And context is everything.

Take Viking Pumps, for example. Of the 29 brands we track, they’re one of only three scoring a perfect 100% visibility rate across prompts. Sounds impressive, right? But what’s their niche? Industrial pump manufacturing. It’s a highly specialised sector with specific terminology, applications, and use cases. Related reading: our article on which sources do chatgpt, perplexity, and google ai actua.... Related reading: The Search Industry is Collapsing: What the Data Actually.... Viking isn’t trying to rank for generic terms like “how to move water.” They’re visible because they’ve nailed how to show up for the exact queries their customers care about.

Contrast that with something like TOCA Social, an entertainment brand blending tech and sport. Their visibility sits at just 10% across our dataset. Why? Because their context is broader and, frankly, harder to pin down. Related reading: our article on the hidden gap: why your brand is invisible to ai systems.... What’s the AI meant to recommend them for? Sports? Social venues? Gaming? Without clarity on their niche, they’re getting lost in the noise.

The challenge for decision-makers

Here’s the challenge, and the opportunity. Are you prepared to get personal with your strategy? To stop thinking about “AI optimisation” as a checkbox exercise and start treating it as a living, breathing process that’ll look different for every brand? It’s not easy, but it’s absolutely necessary.

This isn’t a “wait-and-see” moment. AI is already shaping how your customers think, search, and buy. If your content, your approach, and your visibility aren’t aligned with that, you’re not just behind, you’re out of sight.

So, I’ll leave you with this: what’s your AI visibility rate today, and what are you doing to improve it? If you don’t know the answer, now’s the time to find out. And if you do know, what’s stopping you from taking it to 100%?

The future will belong to those who adapt, test, and focus relentlessly. The rest? They’ll just be background noise.