A brand that dominates AI-generated answers in the United States may struggle to achieve the same visibility in the United Kingdom. That's the central finding of Semrush's 2026 AI Visibility Index, which compares how ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews mention brands and cite sources across the two markets. The research, covering seven months of data from January through July 2026, suggests that AI search optimization is becoming a market-specific challenge for enterprise marketing teams, with local publishers, platform differences and the gap between brand mentions and citations all shaping digital visibility.

Semrush Finds AI Search Visibility Varies by Market

Semrush, an Adobe company, has released the 2026 edition of its AI Visibility Index, adding its first dedicated UK benchmark alongside its existing US analysis. The research examines fixed monthly datasets of 2.5 million UK prompts and 25 million US prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Mode, supplemented by a variable dataset of Google AI Overviews responses to real search keywords.

The findings challenge the idea that brands can pursue a single global strategy for visibility in generative AI search. Across the seven monthly benchmarks, any two platforms shared between 63 and 70 of their top 100 mentioned brands in the UK, compared with 70 to 78 in the US.

In other words, AI platforms show greater disagreement over which brands to mention in the UK dataset. For multinational companies, strong performance in one market or on one AI platform does not necessarily translate into comparable exposure elsewhere.

Semrush also found differences in how platforms construct their answers. Gemini mentions more distinct brands per response than ChatGPT, while ChatGPT cites the most sources per answer among the four platforms studied. Google AI Overviews showed particularly low overlap with other platforms in both brand mentions and cited sources.

These differences make platform-specific measurement increasingly important. Marketing teams that rely on a single AI visibility score risk overlooking meaningful gaps across search experiences and markets.

UK AI Search Relies More on News Publishers

One of the report's clearest regional differences concerns the sources AI systems use to support their answers. On ChatGPT, news websites represented an average of 29.5% of citations among the 100 most-cited UK domains, compared with 19.6% in the US. On Gemini, news was the leading UK citation category every month, accounting for between 16.6% and 23.0% of top-100 citations.

The UK also had a more retail-focused group of consistently visible brands. Semrush identified 24 UK domain records that appeared in the top 100 mentioned brands across all four platforms in every month studied, compared with 36 in the US. Only 15 domains appeared in both markets' groups.

The UK-specific set included Amazon UK, Argos, Asda, eBay UK, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, BBC, Nike and TripAdvisor UK. The US-specific group covered a broader range of industries, including automotive, sports, entertainment and retail.

For marketers, these findings highlight the importance of local brand recognition and third-party sources. A company needs more than optimized website copy: its visibility can also depend on how publishers, marketplaces, communities and other external sources represent it.

Brand Mentions and Citations Tell Different Stories

One of the report's most consequential findings is that being mentioned by an AI platform is not the same as being cited as a source. Across 22 categories and four platforms, fewer than half of the top 100 mentioned brands also appeared among the top 100 cited domains. In the UK, the overlap ranged from 36.7 to 45.3 domains out of 100, depending on the month.

The report illustrates this gap through UK retailers Tesco and Asda. Both consistently appeared among the top 100 mentioned brands across all four platforms during the study period. Yet in July, Tesco ranked 25th among ChatGPT's most-cited UK domains, while Asda ranked 606th. On Gemini, their citation rankings were much closer, at 29th and 60th.

For marketing teams, the implication is that AI visibility cannot be reduced to a single ranking. Brand mentions indicate recognition within generated responses, while citations show which domains platforms reference. Both matter, but they measure different aspects of discovery.

Semrush's findings also suggest that citation patterns vary by sector. Finance, real estate, industrial businesses and sports brands operate within different competitive and source ecosystems. Enterprise marketers will need benchmarks that account for industry, geography and platform rather than relying on aggregate scores.

Commercial Stakes Extend Beyond Search Rankings

The commercial case for monitoring AI visibility is reinforced by data from Adobe cited in the report. Adobe says AI-referred visitors convert 60% better than non-AI traffic and generate 53% more revenue per visit.

Those figures suggest that visitors arriving from AI tools may represent a commercially valuable audience. However, they should not be interpreted as proof that AI referrals will outperform other channels for every company: outcomes can vary by sector, audience and measurement methodology.

For enterprise marketing leaders, the practical priority is to connect visibility monitoring with referral traffic, conversion rates and revenue attribution. The Semrush index offers a comparative view of how brands and sources appear across AI platforms, but businesses still need their own analytics to establish which visibility gains translate into results.

Market Landscape

Semrush's findings arrive as AI-generated answers become a more prominent part of search. Google's own documentation confirms that AI Overviews and AI Mode use different approaches and can surface different links, while established SEO fundamentals remain relevant to eligibility for these features.

This creates a competitive market for AI visibility analytics. Semrush's index provides cross-platform benchmarking, while broader SEO and marketing technology providers are expanding their analysis of brand discovery, content performance and referral traffic. For enterprise teams, the challenge is no longer simply improving rankings; it is understanding how customers encounter brands across multiple discovery environments.

The report's UK findings also highlight the continuing importance of publishers and independent sources. News sites accounted for a larger share of ChatGPT citations in the UK than in the US, suggesting that local media relationships and credible third-party coverage can be important parts of a brand's visibility strategy. That does not establish that editorial coverage guarantees AI citations, but it reinforces the need to assess the broader information ecosystem surrounding a brand.

Strategic Outlook

The 2026 AI Visibility Index gives enterprise marketers a reason to move beyond one-size-fits-all GEO strategies. Brands operating across countries should benchmark visibility separately by market, platform and business category, then examine which domains and sources influence the answers relevant to their customers.

The next step is to connect those benchmarks with first-party performance data. Marketing teams should distinguish mentions from citations, monitor referral traffic and conversions, and assess whether visibility changes correspond with commercial outcomes. Google's guidance also supports maintaining technically accessible websites and helpful, reliable content rather than relying on supposed shortcuts to AI inclusion.

For Semrush, the UK benchmark expands the index's usefulness as a comparative research tool. For brands, its central message is more fundamental: AI visibility is not a single global ranking, and success will depend on understanding how each market and platform shapes customer discovery.

Top Insights

• UK and US visibility diverge: Semrush found less overlap between platforms' top-mentioned brands in the UK, making market-specific AI search benchmarking important for multinational marketing teams.

• News publishers matter in the UK: News sites represented 29.5% of ChatGPT's top-100 UK domain citations on average, highlighting the role of credible third-party sources.

• Mentions are not citations: Fewer than half of the leading mentioned brands overlapped with the leading cited domains, so marketers need separate measures for recognition and source authority.

• Platforms produce different results: Gemini, ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews show distinct brand and citation patterns, requiring independent measurement rather than reliance on one platform's results.

• AI referrals carry commercial potential: Adobe data cited by Semrush indicates stronger conversion and revenue-per-visit metrics for AI-referred visitors, but individual businesses must validate outcomes using their own analytics.

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