Point the report at your competitor, not yourself
Most owners run an AI-visibility check on their own business to see where they stand. Point the same report at a competitor and it becomes something sharper: a map of where that competitor is weak, and where you can take the customer.
We ran a full report on Quince, the direct-to-consumer apparel brand, across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Quince is doing a lot right, and the report says so. It also exposed five openings a competitor could walk through this quarter.
- Quince is named in only 3 of 78 category buying questions. Seventy-five of them are wide open.
- The weakness AI repeats about Quince is a limited size range, which a competitor with inclusive sizing can win on directly.
- ChatGPT barely names Quince, so the brand that earns ChatGPT's trusted sources gets recommended where Quince isn't.
Where is your competitor invisible? Start there.
Where a competitor is invisible is where the cheapest customers live, and Quince is invisible across most of its own category. AI named it in just 3 of 78 "best [category]" buying questions, which leaves 75 questions with no Quince in the answer at all.
That is not a brand AI dislikes. The report shows AI reinforcing Quince's core story without prompting: it calls Quince "affordable luxury" 298 times, credits its factory-direct model 206 times, and describes its design as timeless 139 times. The positioning works. The reach does not follow it.
The most telling gaps are demand Quince's own customers clearly have. AI almost never connects Quince to postpartum capsule wardrobes, postpartum jeans fit, or pumping-friendly clothing, even though those buyers want exactly what Quince sells. A competitor that earns those associations wins shoppers Quince isn't reaching. Run the report on your competitor and the first thing you get is this list of unclaimed questions.
Which weakness does AI already say out loud?
The weakness AI already repeats about your competitor is the one to attack first, because the perception is set and you only have to meet it. For Quince, that weakness is sizing. Across head-to-head comparisons, AI described Quince as having a "limited size range" in 6 different comparison conversations, usually next to brands it framed as more inclusive.
This matters more than a single review would, because AI is not quoting one unhappy customer. It is repeating a pattern it has absorbed from many sources and now states as fact when a shopper asks. If your brand offers a genuinely wider range, AI is already primed to accept that about the category. Give it the sources that say so, and it will start saying the same about you.
Which AI platform barely sees your competitor?
The platform that barely sees your competitor is your easiest way onto the shelf, and for Quince that platform is ChatGPT. It names Quince in 2.4% of its answers, while Claude names the brand in 7.3% and Gemini in 12.2%. Same brand, different visibility depending on which assistant the shopper opens.
That spread is an opening. The brands AI recommends differ by platform because each model reads different sources, so a competitor who earns the pages ChatGPT trusts can get named in the exact place Quince is thin. You do not have to beat a competitor everywhere. You can start where they are weakest and own that surface first.
Who is your competitor actually fighting on the AI shelf?
The competitors AI pits your competitor against are often not the ones they name on their own about page. When you run the report, AI tells you who it actually treats as the peer set. For Quince, the biggest names ahead of it are Everlane at 21.1%, Reformation at 12.2%, and Madewell at 8.9%. Quince sits seventh out of 150 brands AI surfaced in the category.
It is not losing those fights badly. In 442 direct comparison questions, Quince wins 165, a 37% win rate, which is respectable against that field. But knowing the real opponent changes your plan. If you are competing with Quince, these three brands are also in your way, and the report names them from AI's own answers instead of leaving you to guess.
Which sources are teaching AI to recommend them?
The sources teaching AI to recommend your competitor are a list you can go earn, one domain at a time. This is the part of a competitor teardown that pays off most, because 85% of AI brand mentions come from third-party sources, not the brand's own website.
The report traces every citation back to its source, so you see the editorial sites, buying guides, and review pages AI pulls from when it talks about your competitor. Those are the doors. A competitor that earns coverage on the same trusted pages starts showing up in the same answers, next to or ahead of the brand that is there now. That turns guesswork into a short list: the exact pages to go earn coverage on next.
Run a report on your competitor
Want to see your competitor's openings? Run the report on their domain, not just your own. For $10 you get the buying questions they are missing, the brands AI treats as their real competitors, and the sources teaching AI to recommend them. It is in your inbox in under an hour, with no account and no sales call. The five openings we found in Quince are sitting in your competitor's report too, waiting for you to read them first.