Share of voice is a measure marketing has used for a long time. It shows how much space you take up among all the brands talked about in a channel. Now that AI assistants have become a new channel where buyers ask questions, the same measure has started to be applied to their answers. In this post we explain what share of voice is, how it is calculated in AI answers, and how it should be read.
What does share of voice mean?
In its simplest form, share of voice answers this question: when brands are talked about in this channel, how much of the conversation is about you?
What gets counted changes with the channel. In advertising it can be spend or impressions, in social media posts or mentions, in search engines share of clicks. In AI answers, what gets counted is the brand mentions in the answers.
How is share of voice calculated in AI answers?
The calculation is simple:
- Ask a set list of questions to the chosen engines.
- Count all the brands mentioned in each answer. This includes you, your competitors and brands you do not know.
- Divide your number of mentions by the total of all brand mentions, then multiply by 100.
Share of voice = your brand's number of mentions / total of all brand mentions x 100
In the AIShortlist dashboard, share of voice is shown with exactly this definition: your share of all brand mentions in the answers.
What does an example calculation look like?
The numbers below are not a real measurement. They are an example chosen only to show the calculation.
Say you asked 10 questions to three engines. You got 30 answers in total. There are 60 brand mentions in total across these 30 answers. You were mentioned in 9 of these answers.
- Your share of voice: 9 / 60 x 100 = 15 percent.
- Your visibility score measures something else: the share of answers that mention you. 9 / 30 x 100 = 30 percent.
Both numbers come from the same measurement but answer different questions. The visibility score answers "when a buyer asks, how often do they see me?" Share of voice answers "how much space do I take up among the brands mentioned?"
Why look at share of voice when you have a visibility score?
Because the visibility score does not show your competitors' position on its own. Think of two cases:
- You are mentioned in 30 percent of the answers, and each answer lists only one or two other brands with you.
- You are again mentioned in 30 percent of the answers, but each answer lists eight to ten brands with you.
Your visibility score is the same in both cases. But in the second case the buyer's attention is split across many more brands. Share of voice shows this difference. Also, when a competitor starts being mentioned more often and in more questions, your share of voice can drop even if your score does not change.
What should you watch for when calculating it?
Share of voice is a simple ratio, but a few decisions affect the result:
- The question list should stay fixed. If you ask different questions in each measurement, the numbers cannot be compared. You need to approve the list once and measure again with the same list.
- Engines should be read separately. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity draw on different sources. Next to the total number, also look at each engine's own share of voice.
- Brand name matching should be correct. If your brand's abbreviation, old name or a different spelling appears in answers, these need to be counted as the same brand.
- A single measurement can mislead. AI answers change every time. In a study SparkToro published in January 2026, carried out with 600 volunteers, 12 questions were run 2,961 times in total. In ChatGPT and Google's AI features, the chance of the same brand list appearing in two answers stayed below one percent. The same researchers see a mention rate measured with many questions and repeats as a reasonable indicator.
The last point is the most important. Instead of making a decision from a single week's share of voice, looking at the trend over weeks gives a more accurate result.
Are share of voice and rank the same thing?
No. Rank shows in which position you appear in an answer that mentions you. Share of voice compares how many times you are mentioned with all mentions.
It is important not to mix them up. The SparkToro study mentioned above shows that the same list appearing in the same order is very rare. That is why the rank in a single answer moves around a lot. It is more accurate to read rank not on its own but as a trend over weeks. As the main decision indicators, share of voice and the visibility score give firmer ground.
In practice, reading three indicators together helps:
- Visibility score: when a buyer asks, how often do they see you?
- Share of voice: how much space do you take up among the brands mentioned?
- Rank: when you are mentioned, do you usually appear at the top of the list or at the end?
What do you do if your share of voice is low?
Share of voice is a diagnostic indicator. On its own it does not tell you what to fix. When it comes out low, it helps to look at these questions:
- In which questions are competitors mentioned while you are not?
- In which engine is the gap largest?
- Which pages are cited as sources in the answers where your competitors are mentioned? Are they "best X" lists, or the competitors' own pages?
If list pages are cited in the answers, we explained how to get on those lists in how to get on best-of lists. You can find how to measure it together with the other indicators in how to measure AI visibility.
How does AIShortlist show share of voice?
In the AIShortlist dashboard, share of voice is on the overview screen together with the visibility score and rank. The measurement uses the question list you approve; measurement does not start until the questions are approved. On paid plans the measurement is repeated every week.
The "You and competitors over time" chart shows your share of voice next to the most mentioned brands, measurement by measurement. This way you can look at the trend, not a single week. On the Growth plan you also get a "competitor passed you" alert when a competitor gets ahead of you.
If you want to see your own share of voice, you can run a measurement in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for 1 brand and 10 questions with the free trial. No card is required. Paid plans start at $49 a month.