AI See, our top-of-funnel product, is where most brands start with K&C, and where most of our delivery lessons have come from. This page shares the patterns: what buyers don't realise, what the data keeps showing, and what a good AI See engagement actually changes.
Because it answers the question boards actually ask first: does AI know we exist? You can't fix your description or your shortlist position until you know your mention rate. Almost every brand we've measured overestimated it.
First: your SEO position tells you almost nothing about your AI position. We've measured brands that rank top three on Google and sit in the Ghost band on AI See. Second: the engines disagree with each other more than anyone expects, so a single-engine check is not a measurement. Third: most of your AI visibility is decided on websites you don't own; third-party sources dominate the citation mix in every category we've measured.
In category after category, a small set of domains does most of the citation work: comparison platforms, one or two trade publications, and a community source. If those domains don't carry your brand, the engines can't cite you no matter how good your own site is. Finding that short list, and closing your gaps on it, is usually the highest-impact move in the whole report.
A good engagement ends with three things: a score the client can defend upwards to a board, a named list of who is being cited instead and why, and a recommendation set where every line has an owner and an effort-versus-impact rank. If a report doesn't change what somebody does next quarter, it was a data dump with a nice cover.
Complete or correct your profiles on the two or three comparison platforms AI cites most. Publish answer-first content aimed at the exact questions AI already answers about your category. Earn one strong placement in the publication the engines lean on. And restructure your own key pages so an engine can lift the answer straight off them. None of it is exotic; all of it moves scores.
Written by Russ Read-Barrow, founder of Known & Cited. Bath, July 2026.