We scored 1,000 businesses across 8 industries for AI visibility. The average is 23 out of 100.

ChatGPT now has 900 million weekly active users (First Page Sage, April 2026). Gemini has surpassed 750 million monthly active users (Sundar Pichai, Alphabet Q4 2025 earnings call). AI Overviews appear in up to 30% of Google searches (BrightEdge, 2026). Nearly half the time someone searches for a business like yours, an AI engine is answering the question.

The problem? Most businesses have no idea whether that answer includes them.

We modeled ChatReady Scores across 1,000 businesses in 8 industry verticals, using patterns from real AI visibility analyses. The average score is 23 out of 100. And the gap between industries tells you exactly where the opportunity is.

All scores in this report are illustrative benchmarks based on patterns ChatReady observes across real business analyses. They represent typical performance ranges, not audited results for specific companies.

What is a ChatReady Score?

Your ChatReady Score measures how visible your business is to AI search engines. It combines two factors: brand visibility across 6 AI engines (40% of the score) and AI readiness of your website (60% of the score). The scale runs 0 to 100.

• 0-29 (Red - Critical): You're invisible to AI engines. When customers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini about your category, you don't come up.
• 30-59 (Orange - At Risk): You show up sometimes, inconsistently. Some engines mention you, others don't. Your visibility depends on how the question is phrased.
• 60-100 (Green - Healthy): AI engines can find, understand, and recommend you reliably across platforms.

Most businesses fall in the red zone. Here's what that looks like industry by industry.

Industry benchmark scores at a glance

Industry	Avg Score	% in red zone (0-29)	% in green zone (60+)	Top performer range
SaaS and technology	34	46%	18%	68-88
Restaurants and hospitality	31	52%	14%	65-82
E-commerce and retail	28	58%	11%	60-75
Fitness and wellness	22	70%	7%	55-70
Real estate	21	71%	6%	52-66
Healthcare and medical	19	76%	5%	55-68
Professional services	17	79%	4%	50-64
Home services	14	84%	2%	45-58

The overall average: 23 out of 100. Deep in the red zone.

Why does this matter now? According to Capgemini, 58% of consumers now use AI tools instead of Google for product recommendations. According to Semrush, AI search traffic grew 527% year over year. Your customers are already asking AI engines about your category. The question is whether those engines mention you.

Why some industries score higher than others

The gap between SaaS (34) and home services (14) isn't random. It tracks directly to how much structured, crawlable, answer-ready content a business puts online.

AI engines don't rank pages the way Google does. They retrieve a set of candidate pages, then select the 2-3 that best answer the user's question. According to an AirOps study of 548,000 retrieved pages across 15,000 prompts, roughly 85% of pages ChatGPT considers get discarded. Only about 15% make it into the final answer.

The businesses that get selected share specific traits: their content answers questions directly, their data is structured with schema markup, and they exist on the review platforms and directories AI engines trust.

Here's how each industry stacks up.

SaaS and technology: score 34

Tech companies lead every other vertical, and it's not close. But even at 34, the average SaaS company sits in the orange zone. Ahead, but not safe.

Why SaaS leads:

• Content-rich websites with blogs, documentation, comparison pages, and case studies
• Founders and teams active on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Product Hunt (platforms AI engines monitor and cite)
• Higher adoption of structured data and technical best practices
• Strong backlink profiles from tech publications and review sites

Why even SaaS companies aren't safe:

According to Ahrefs, AI Overviews reduce organic clicks by 58% (300K-keyword study, December 2025). Seer Interactive's data shows a 61% decrease in organic traffic on AI Overview queries. Even if you rank on page 1 of Google, AI engines might cite your competitor's comparison page instead of yours.

What SaaS companies scoring 68+ do differently:

1. Unblock AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) in robots.txt
2. Publish honest comparison pages that answer "What's the difference between [you] and [competitor]?"
3. Add Organization and SoftwareApplication schema on the homepage
4. Maintain active founder presence on LinkedIn (now among the top sources cited by ChatGPT, according to Axios)
5. Publish an llms.txt file that helps AI engines understand site structure

Restaurants and hospitality: score 31

Restaurants are the most-asked-about local business category in AI engines. "Where should I eat in [city]?" is one of the most common prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

Why restaurants score higher than average:

• High review volume on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google (sources AI engines cite frequently)
• Media coverage from local food blogs and publications
• Strong directory presence across platforms like OpenTable and Resy

Why most restaurants still fall short:

• Menus published as PDFs or images that AI engines can't read
• No structured data (JSON-LD schema) on the website
• Thin website content - a single page with an address and phone number tells AI engines nothing

What restaurants scoring 65+ do differently:

1. Full menu published as crawlable HTML text, not a PDF
2. FAQ content answering "What is [restaurant] known for?" and "Best dishes at [restaurant]"
3. LocalBusiness and Restaurant schema markup on every page
4. Listings on 8+ directories including Yelp, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, and Apple Maps
5. Consistent name, address, and phone number across all platforms

E-commerce and retail: score 28

This is the most dramatic gap in the dataset. According to Capgemini, 58% of consumers now use AI tools instead of Google for product recommendations. According to Adobe Analytics, AI-referred retail traffic grew 693% during the 2025 holiday season. Yet only 0.3% of AI Overviews include e-commerce sources (Semrush).

That's a massive demand-supply mismatch. And businesses that fix it now own the category.

Why e-commerce trails SaaS despite being online-native:

• Product descriptions are spec-heavy, not answer-ready. AI shopping assistants respond to emotional language and real use cases, not bullet-pointed specifications
• Category pages are thin on unique content
• Most Shopify and WooCommerce stores lack Product schema markup
• Few stores create content answering the questions AI engines field ("Is [product] worth it?" or "[product A] vs [product B]")

What top-scoring e-commerce businesses do:

1. Product descriptions written for humans - who the product is for, what problem it solves, and why it's different
2. Comparison content on the blog answering "vs" and "best of" queries
3. Complete Product schema with price, availability, reviews, and brand
4. Customer review content AI engines can cite as social proof
5. Active presence on Amazon, Reddit, and niche review sites that AI engines reference

Fitness and wellness: score 22

Gyms, yoga studios, personal trainers, and wellness practitioners fall near the overall average. The fitness industry generates plenty of content, but most of it lives on Instagram where AI engines can't cite it.

Why fitness hovers at the average:

• Strong Instagram presence, weak website presence. AI engines crawl websites and directories, not Instagram feeds
• Class schedules published as images or embedded calendars that aren't crawlable
• Trainer bio pages are shallow or nonexistent

What high-scoring fitness businesses do:

1. Class and service descriptions as HTML text, not images or PDFs
2. Trainer profiles with certifications, specialties, and experience written in full sentences
3. Blog content answering "Is yoga good for back pain?" or "How often should I do strength training?"
4. SportsActivityLocation or HealthAndBeautyBusiness schema
5. Active listings on ClassPass, Mindbody, Yelp, and Google

Real estate: score 21

When someone asks ChatGPT "best neighborhoods in [city] for families," real estate agents want to be the cited source. Almost none are.

Why real estate underperforms:

• IDX/MLS listing pages are identical content on every agent's site. AI engines can't differentiate
• Neighborhood pages are either missing or filled with generic descriptions
• Agent bio pages lack the depth AI engines need to evaluate expertise

What agents scoring above 50 do:

1. Original neighborhood guides with specific data (school ratings, median prices, commute times)
2. Market commentary blog posts with local expertise that AI engines can cite
3. RealEstateAgent and Place schema markup
4. Listings on Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, Homes.com, and at least 2 local directories
5. Video content transcribed as text on their site (AI engines can't watch videos, but they read transcripts)

Healthcare and medical: score 19

Healthcare is the most alarming vertical in our benchmark. Patients increasingly ask AI engines "best dermatologist near me" or "should I see a specialist for [symptom]?" The stakes are high. The visibility is low.

Why healthcare scores so poorly:

• HIPAA caution leads to minimal website content. Many practices have a homepage, an "about" page, and a contact form. That's it
• Almost no practices publish FAQ content addressing the conditions they treat
• MedicalBusiness and Physician schema markup is rare
• Directory presence limited to Google Business Profile and maybe Healthgrades

What the top 5% of healthcare businesses do:

1. Condition-specific content pages answering patient questions in plain language
2. Provider bio pages with credentials, specialties, and experience written as prose
3. MedicalBusiness schema with accepted insurance, specialties, and service areas
4. Listings on Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD, Vitals, and at least 3 other health directories
5. Published patient FAQs ("What to expect at your first visit," "Do you accept [insurance]?")

Professional services: score 17

Lawyers, accountants, consultants, and financial advisors score the second-lowest. The irony: these are businesses that charge $200-$500 per hour but invest almost nothing in being findable by AI.

The professional services problem:

• Websites built years ago and never updated
• No content beyond "About Us" and "Our Services"
• ProfessionalService or LegalService schema almost never implemented
• Zero presence on directories beyond Google and maybe Avvo (for lawyers)

What high-scoring professional services firms do:

1. Topic authority content. A tax attorney publishing "What happens if you miss the filing deadline" gives AI engines something to cite
2. Individual attorney or advisor profile pages with detailed experience
3. Schema markup for each practice area or service line
4. Listings on Avvo and Justia (legal), Clutch (consulting), CPA directories (accounting)
5. Case studies or client success stories demonstrating expertise

Home services: score 14

Plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, and cleaning services have the lowest average score. These businesses depend on local search, yet they're nearly invisible to AI engines.

According to the SOCi 2026 Local Visibility Index, only 1.2% of local businesses get recommended by ChatGPT. For home services, the number is likely lower.

Why home services scores are so low:

• Websites are often single-page or template-based with minimal text
• No content addressing customer questions ("How much does it cost to replace a water heater?")
• HomeAndConstructionBusiness schema almost never used
• Directory presence limited to Google Business Profile and maybe Angi
• Very few reviews on platforms beyond Google

The path from 14 to 45+ for home services:

1. Service pages with real content - not just "We do plumbing," but what specific services you offer, what areas you cover, pricing ranges, and what the process looks like
2. FAQ content answering the exact questions homeowners ask AI engines
3. LocalBusiness schema with service areas, hours, and accepted payment methods
4. Listings on Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, BBB, and Nextdoor
5. Collecting reviews on Yelp and industry directories, not just Google

The 5 patterns that separate high scorers from the rest

Across all 1,000 businesses, the same patterns separate the top 10% from the bottom 73%.

1. They exist beyond their own website.

According to Authoritas, 79% of AI-cited sources come from just 10 domains. Businesses that appear on Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor, industry directories, and local media score dramatically higher. Your website is necessary but not sufficient. According to Ahrefs, branded web mentions correlate 0.664 with AI Overview visibility, while backlinks correlate only 0.10. Being talked about on review platforms and directories matters more than raw link building.

2. Their websites answer questions, not just describe services.

According to Perplexity CEO Arav Srinivas, the average AI search query runs 10-11 words, compared to 2-3 words on traditional Google search. Your site isn't being matched against short keywords anymore. It's matched against full questions. FAQ pages, how-to guides, comparison content, and detailed service descriptions all feed AI engines the answers they need.

3. They use structured data.

JSON-LD schema markup tells AI engines exactly what your business does, where you're located, what you offer, and what customers think of you. In our modeled benchmarks, businesses with complete schema markup scored 2.4x higher on average than those without.

4. Their information is consistent everywhere.

When your business name, address, phone number, and description differ between your website, Google, Yelp, and industry directories, AI engines lose confidence. Consistency builds trust, and trust drives recommendations.

5. Their content front-loads the answer.

According to Kevin Indig's analysis of 3 million ChatGPT responses and 30 million citations (Growth Memo, February 2026), 44.2% of citations come from the first 30% of a page's text. If your answer isn't in your intro, your page might as well not exist. Most business websites bury the useful information after three paragraphs of filler. The ones that get cited put the answer first.

How to find out where you stand

These benchmarks show where industries typically fall. But your business isn't typical. You have a specific website, specific directory listings, and a specific presence across 6 AI engines.

The only way to know your actual ChatReady Score is to run an analysis.

Here's the order of operations we recommend:

1. Run a baseline check. Find out your actual score across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
2. Fix your intros. Rewrite the first 30% of your top 10 pages to contain a direct, quotable answer to each page's main question.
3. Add schema. Organization on the homepage. Article on every blog post. Product on every product page. FAQ wherever you have a Q&A section.
4. Claim review profiles. Trustpilot, G2, Yelp, Google Business. Even an empty profile is better than none, but aim for 25+ reviews in 90 days.
5. Re-measure in 30 days. If you've done steps 2-4, your score should improve measurably. If it doesn't, the problem is deeper (crawlability, authority, or content gaps) and worth a full audit.

The businesses winning AI search in 2026 aren't winning because they found a trick. They're winning because they treated AI engines like a new distribution channel, set a baseline, and improved against it.

What industry are you in, and what score would you expect?

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