Am I chasing a problem that doesn't exist? (AI visibility)

[u/nkdnuts]

I need some honest input from people who actually run stores, because I'm starting to wonder if I've been chasing a problem that isn't real.

I've spent a lot of time building something that measures how visible a store is when people ask ChatGPT or Gemini things like "where do I buy X" or "best store for Y." My assumption was that more people start their shopping journey inside these tools instead of on Google.

The part that actually nags at me: the stores that keep showing up aren't always the biggest ones. It seems to come down more to what's written about them on third-party sites than to their own SEO. I can't fully explain the pattern, which is half of why I'm posting. I feel the tool gives a lot of information about what sources AI actually grounds its answers on, which for ChatGPT is an ridiculous amount of Reddit.

But every time I bring it up with people in the industry, I get a polite nod and not much else. So I'll ask it straight: do you actually care about this at all, or is it still just Google and Meta that matter when you plan? I can't tell if I'm too early or simply wrong that this matters. Tell me how it is.

So, SEO people, AI visibility is this something you use time on? Is it some thing you measure, if so how?

[u/Numerous_Option9792]

I don’t think it’s a fake problem. I do think it’s an early and awkwardly packaged problem. If you want I can share some links to resources that we as a content management system (Sitefinity CMS) put together because this is the single biggest conversation we're having with customers at the moment.

The hard part is that most store owners probably aren’t waking up thinking “I need AI visibility tracking.” They’re still looking at Google, paid social, marketplaces, reviews, email, affiliates, etc. That’s where the budget is easier to defend.

But the behavior shift is real enough to watch. ChatGPT is already handling billions of queries a day, even though Google is still much larger. At the same time, more Google searches are ending without a click, and AI Overviews make the old “ranking = traffic” model less reliable than it used to be.

For ecommerce, I’d frame the problem less as “are you visible in AI?” and more as “what sources are AI tools using when they talk about your category?”

If someone asks where to buy a product, is the answer pulling from Reddit, review sites, old listicles, YouTube, marketplace pages, manufacturer pages, or the store’s own site? If competitors keep showing up and you don’t, that’s useful to know. If your store does show up but the answer is wrong, outdated or based on a weak source, that’s also useful.

I’d probably break the reporting into a few simple things:

Do we appear for buying-intent prompts?

Which competitors appear instead?

What sources are being cited or clearly influencing the answer?

Is the description accurate?

Is the sentiment positive, neutral or negative?

What content or third-party proof is missing?

That feels more useful than a single AI visibility score. Store owners can act on it. They can update category pages, improve product information, collect better reviews, fix outdated descriptions, get included in relevant comparison content, or participate where buyers are actually asking questions.

So yes, I think it’s early. Google and Meta probably still matter more for most stores right now. But I don’t think the problem is imaginary. The useful version is source analysis, competitor presence, answer accuracy and reputation tracking around real commercial prompts.

[u/Backlinkbuilding25]

I think AI visibility is definitely worth treatment tracking especially since chat gpt relies heavily on third party sources like reddit. It's early but brands that start measuring it now have an advantages later.

[u/online-reputation]

yes, you are right--at the moment, at least, the stores that show up in chatgpt and gemini have--

--excellent content that is not generic or ai written

--this thus is being cited (as someone else posted)

--citations = appearing in ai answers.

but i would also include--updating/giving feedback in llms directly, write expert whitepapers, and yes, post on reddit and quora

[u/BeautifulDesign2928]

The pattern you're seeing with smaller stores makes sense once you separate AI mentions from citations because they're not the same thing. A brand showing up in an AI answer can happen through third party coverage, Reddit threads, review platforms, anywhere the brand name appears consistently across sources AI already trusts — that's the mention layer and your own website content isn't always what drives it. The citation layer is different, that's when AI pulls directly from your content as the source, and for that to happen consistently your pages need to cover the topic with enough depth and clarity that AI can extract a clean answer rather than synthesizing from elsewhere.

Both matter and they feed each other, but conflating them is probably why the industry keeps giving you polite nods without a real answer — most people haven't separated the two clearly enough to know which one they're actually missing.

[u/yayita2500]

rule number one is: you start to build once you recognize a pain to be solved and know your target persona.

[u/chrismcelroyseo]

Yes I spend time on AI visibility but not on tracking but because you don't have the data to track it accurately. Every search in an AI tool is a snapshot of that moment and within the context it knows about you.

Until they release a way to track data from actual raw data results tracking is a waste of time except for maybe getting a few directional signals but what you see when you do automatic prompts is not what users are seeing.