How to use the Vertical AI Leaderboard
See which brands AI models recommend in your category, how often, and which models are citing them.
The Vertical AI Leaderboard shows you the AI share of voice in any market category. Enter your domain and category, and Faro queries ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini with real recommendation prompts, then maps which brands each model mentions, how often, and in what position.
Running the leaderboard
Enter your business domain and describe your market category, for example "project management software for remote teams" or "B2B email marketing platforms". The more specific the category, the more accurate the results. Faro sends recommendation prompts to all four AI models and aggregates the responses into a ranked leaderboard within about 30 seconds.
Understanding the metrics
The leaderboard shows three signals for each brand. Citation rate is the percentage of AI queries across all four models in which a brand is mentioned when asked about your category, the primary metric for AI share of voice. Mention position shows where in the AI response a brand appears: position 1 carries significantly more weight than position 4 or 5. Model coverage shows which specific AI models cite that brand; appearing in all four gives maximum AI reach, while appearing in only one creates a dependency on a single model's behavior.
What a strong position looks like
A citation rate above 60% across your category suggests a brand is consistently visible to AI when buyers research that space. A citation rate below 20% means AI models are largely not recommending that business, even if it has strong SEO. The leaderboard highlights these gaps so you can see exactly where you stand relative to direct competitors.
Acting on the results
If a competitor outranks you, check their AI readiness score using the Competitor Intelligence tool to see which signals they have that you don't. High-citation brands typically have: explicit structured data (JSON-LD), server-rendered pricing, an llms.txt file, and content that directly answers comparison queries in their category. Start with whatever gap is largest between your site and theirs.
Run the leaderboard regularly after making changes. Citation behavior shifts as AI models are updated and as new content enters their indexes, so position is not static.