The State of AI Visibility 2026: A Multi-Platform GEO Audit

The transition from traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) has birthed a fragmented but rapidly maturing software landscape. Marketing teams are no longer just tracking blue links on a SERP; they are tracking mentions, sentiment, and recommendations within the "black box" of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.

To understand the capabilities of the current market leaders, we conducted a simultaneous audit of Honda (honda.com) across every major AI visibility platform.

This report analyzes the features, pricing, user experience, and data quality of each tool, highlighting how they perceive the same brand through different analytical lenses. While monitoring is the baseline standard across all tools, the market is splitting into two distinct philosophies: Static Monitoring (tracking prompts like keywords) versus Conversational Optimization (simulating user personas and multi-turn conversations).

1. Genezio: The AI Visibility Platform

Positioning: Genezio distinguishes itself not merely as a monitoring tool, but as an "AI Visibility Platform" designed for strategic optimization. Unlike competitors that track static prompts, Genezio focuses on analyzing dynamic, multi-turn conversations and injecting buyer personas into the analysis.

The Honda.com Audit Findings

The audit for Honda on Genezio provided the most granular data regarding how the brand is perceived across different customer types.

• Overall Visibility: Genezio assigned Honda a 75% Brand Visibility score based on 1,646 conversations over 31 days.
• Competitive Landscape: Interestingly, Genezio identified Toyota (80%) as the leader, followed by Honda, and then Subaru (65%). This differs from other tools which often place American manufacturers or luxury German brands closer to Honda.
• Scenario Performance: The platform broke down performance by specific buying scenarios. For "Best value SUVs for working families," Honda achieved 100% visibility. However, for "SUVs good for towing and hauling," visibility dropped to 28%, indicating a specific strategic gap.

Key Features & Functionality

• Web Interface Execution (Not API-Only): Unlike most AI visibility tools that rely exclusively on model APIs, Genezio runs its audits directly through the live web interfaces of systems like ChatGPT. This mirrors how real users interact with AI. The distinction matters: research has shown that identical prompts executed via API and via web interface can generate entirely different search queries, sources, and recommendations. By capturing the production UI behavior, Genezio measures what users actually see, not a simplified API proxy.

• Persona-Based Scenarios: This is Genezio's standout feature. The audit utilized personas like "Megan Lin" (36, Product Marketing Manager) and "Jake Moreno" (42, Custom Auto Shop Owner). The tool simulates how these specific users interact with LLMs, acknowledging that a mechanic asks different questions than a suburban parent.
• Multi-Turn Conversations: Genezio does not just ask one question. It simulates a dialogue, tracking how Honda enters or exits the "consideration set" as the user refines their query.
• Query Fanouts: The tool extracts the "hidden" search queries LLMs generate to find answers. For Honda, it revealed LLMs were searching for "hybrid vs fully electric SUV pros and cons city driving".

• Citation Analysis: The tool identified topspeed.com, caredge.com, and motortrend.com as the top sources influencing Honda's AI presence, referencing specific URLs like "suvs-that-will-run-forever".

User Experience (UX)

The Genezio dashboard is clean but dense with data. The "Brand Performance Report" serves as a central hub, offering immediate visualization of visibility trends over time. The onboarding flow is self-service, taking roughly 1-2 minutes to set up a brand and generate default topics.

Pricing

Genezio offers a tiered structure:

• Starter: €199/month (2 models, 50 scenarios).
• Growth: €299/month (4 models, 50 scenarios, multi-turn conversations).
• Agency: €999/month (Monitor 3 brands, white-label reports).

Verdict: Genezio is built for enterprise-level SEOs who need to measure and improve brand visibility in AI-powered search environments. If you need to know why an LLM recommends a competitor (e.g., specific personas or geographic contexts), Genezio offers the deepest forensic capabilities.

2. Profound: The Enterprise Intelligence Suite

Positioning: Profound positions itself as a high-end, enterprise-grade solution focused on "Answer Engine Optimization" (AEO). It feels less like a marketing tool and more like a business intelligence suite.

The Honda.com Audit Findings

Profound’s audit painted a slightly different picture than Genezio, highlighting the variance in how these tools calculate "visibility."

• Visibility Score: Profound gave American Honda Motor Co., Inc. a 46.7% visibility score.
• Sentiment Analysis: Profound excels here. It identified that 55.9% of mentions were positive (citing "Support for American Jobs"), while 44.1% were negative (citing "Poor Paint Quality" and "Transmission Issues").
• Share of Voice: In their matrix view, Profound showed Honda with a 51.1% Share of Voice on ChatGPT, trailing behind Toyota at 68.9% and Ford at 60%.

Key Features & Functionality

• Sentiment Drivers: The platform categorizes themes into positive and negative drivers. For Honda, it flagged "Quality Issues and Recalls" as a significant negative driver.
• Answer Engine Insights: Profound breaks down performance by specific engine (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude). It noted that Honda ranks #1 on Google AI Overviews but #2 on ChatGPT.
• Content Workflows: The tool includes a "Content Library" and "Editor" to help draft content specifically optimized for answer engines, assessing content based on AEO metrics.

Verdict: Superior sentiment analysis and thematic breakdown. It tells you what topics are hurting your brand (e.g., "Transmission Issues"). However, it has a higher barrier to entry; the data is complex and geared towards large enterprise teams.

3. Peec AI: The Agile Monitoring Tool

Positioning: Peec AI is built for simplicity, speed, and affordability. It is positioned as an entry-level tool for teams that want to "check the box" on AI monitoring without complex configuration.

The Honda.com Audit Findings

Peec AI’s analysis was straightforward and focused on static prompt tracking.

• Visibility: Peec reported a 35% visibility for Honda, significantly lower than Genezio or Profound. It ranked Honda #4 behind Hyundai (43%), Toyota (41%), and Kia (37%).
• Sentiment: It assigned a sentiment score of 80 (out of 100), which is relatively high.
• Top Sources: It identified reddit.com and youtube.com as the dominant sources for Honda, with Reddit holding a massive 53% usage rate in citations.

Key Features & Functionality

• Static Prompt Tracking: The core unit of analysis is the static prompt (e.g., "Best compact cars for city driving recommendations").
• Win/Loss Analysis: The dashboard clearly shows which prompts Honda is "winning" (appearing in) versus losing.
• Simplicity: The interface is minimalist. You set up prompts, and it tracks visibility percentage.

Verdict: Extremely easy to use and affordable. Great for smaller teams or agencies that need a quick "pulse check" on static keywords. However, it lacks the nuance of persona-based tracking or multi-turn conversations, treating AI prompts like SEO keywords.

4. Semrush (Semrush One): The Hybrid Giant

Positioning: Semrush has integrated AI visibility into its massive existing SEO suite. It leverages its dominance in traditional search data to offer "AI Overview" tracking.

The Honda.com Audit Findings

Semrush brings its traditional "score" mentality to AI.

• Visibility Score: It gave honda.com an 87/100 ("Great") visibility score.
• Market Share: Semrush estimated Honda's "AI Share of Voice" at 15%, claiming they "lead the conversation" against Toyota (10%). This contradicts other tools that place Toyota ahead.
• Reach: It estimated a monthly audience of 684M.

Key Features & Functionality

• Integration with SEO: The biggest advantage is seeing AI data alongside traditional organic traffic and backlink data.
• Sentiment by Feature: Semrush breaks down sentiment by specific vehicle attributes (e.g., "Practicality," "Driving Comfort," "Safety"). Honda scored 93 on Practicality but lower on "Brand Reputation" (67) compared to Toyota.
• Strategic Opportunities: The tool provides specific recommendations, such as "Reinforce and modernize Honda's core reliability" to combat Toyota's narrative.

Verdict: Unbeatable for teams already using Semrush. The integration of traditional SEO metrics with AI visibility provides a holistic view. However, the "AI" specific features feel like an extension of SEO tools rather than a native LLM-behavior platform.

5. Writesonic: The Content-First Platform

Positioning: Writesonic, originally a content generation tool, has pivoted to include "AI Search Optimization." Their angle is "Track & Boost"—using their writing tools to immediately fix visibility gaps.

The Honda.com Audit Findings

• Visibility: Reported a 62.1% AI Visibility score.
• Rank: Ranked Honda 1st in their leaderboard, ahead of Toyota (37%).
• Citations: Identified automobiles.honda.com as a top cited source, but noted a low citation share (2.1%) from external sources.

Key Features & Functionality

• Action Center: This is a unique feature. It lists specific "Actions to boost your AI brand visibility," such as "Get mentioned on high-authority third-party sites" or "Refresh existing content".
• Content Integration: Users can click a button to "Create content" using Writesonic's AI writer to address specific gaps identified in the audit.
• Traffic Analytics: Estimates AI crawler traffic trends.

Verdict: Action-oriented. If you want a tool that tells you exactly what to write to fix a problem, this is it. The analytics feel slightly less rigorous than Profound or Genezio, focusing more on the "fix" than the deep diagnosis.

6. Otterly.AI: The Metric-Heavy Contender

Positioning: Otterly focuses on granular metrics and tracking "Brand Visibility Index" across multiple regions and languages.

The Honda.com Audit Findings

• Mentions: Tracked 31 mentions for Honda.
• Share of Voice: Placed Honda at 15%, behind Hyundai (20%) and Toyota (19%).
• Likelihood to Buy: A unique metric placing Honda in the "Leader" quadrant with a 67% likelihood to buy, though lower than Toyota's 81%.

Pricing

• Lite: $29/month.
• Standard: $189/month.
• Premium: $489/month.

Verdict: Good visualization of market positioning (Niche vs. Leaders). The primary weakness is the significant pricing jump between Lite and Standard plans.

Summary Comparison

Recommendation

Why Genezio Wins on Strategy

While I must remain objective, the data supports the conclusion that Genezio offers the most "future-proof" approach.

1. The Persona Gap: Other tools treat all queries as generic. Genezio’s audit showed that Honda performs differently for a "Mechanic" vs. a "Parent." This is critical because LLMs are context-aware. If you only optimize for the generic "average" user (as Peec or Semrush do), you miss the specific buyer intent.
2. The Multi-Turn Reality: Real users don't just ask one question; they chat. Genezio’s ability to track Honda’s performance through a conversation flow (e.g., "Okay, but what if I need better mileage?") provides insights that static prompt trackers miss.
3. Fanout Intelligence: Knowing that the LLM internally searched for "hybrid vs fully electric SUV pros and cons" gives Honda's SEO team a specific long-tail keyword strategy that other tools simply don't provide.

When to Choose Others

• Choose Peec AI if you have a very limited budget and just need a simple baseline number.
• Choose Profound if you are a large corporation deeply concerned with PR and negative sentiment management.
• Choose Semrush if your team is already heavily embedded in the Semrush ecosystem and wants to keep everything in one tab.
• Choose Writesonic if you lack a content team and need AI to immediately write articles to fill the gaps found.

Conclusion regarding Honda.com

The audits reveal that Honda is a dominant but vulnerable player in AI search. While it consistently ranks in the top 3 across all tools, it faces fierce competition from Toyota (often the leader) and Hyundai. The disparity in visibility scores (ranging from 35% to 85%) highlights the volatility of AI measurement.

However, the qualitative insights are consistent: Honda wins on practicality and reliability but loses ground on sentiment regarding specific defects and luxury comparisons.

For a brand like Honda, using a tool like Genezio to understand the persona-specific reasons for these losses (e.g., "Why does the Enterprise Buyer persona prefer Toyota?") would likely yield the highest ROI for their marketing strategy.