Understand your competitors
You do not need to predict which competitors an AI engine might name. AppearIn AI finds the direct buyer alternatives in each completed weekly run and builds the competitive view from what actually appeared.
The field can change each week
A competitor belongs to a weekly run only when it appears in a qualifying answer from that run. A one-off brand does not stay in future calculations unless it appears again.How discovery works
Read each answer
AppearIn AI identifies named brands and products in every successful answer. Repeated uses of the same brand in one answer count once.
Keep direct buyer alternatives
Only brands a buyer could reasonably choose instead of you enter Share of Voice. Marketplaces, retailers, publishers, cited sources, ingredients, suppliers, and adjacent products are excluded.
Resolve names consistently
Product names, spelling variations, and regional domains are matched to one canonical brand where the evidence supports it. This avoids splitting one competitor into several leaderboard rows.
Build the weekly leaderboard
Each answer splits one unit of voice across its distinct direct brands. The weekly leaderboard averages those answer-level shares. Your rank and the total number of observed brands appear above the list.
Open the evidence
Open a prompt to read the exact answer, see which competitors were named, and inspect the sources the AI engine used. This is where a moving rank becomes an actionable reason.
Worked example
An answer names Acme, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. Each receives 25% of that answer's voice, even if Beta is repeated several times. A different answer names only Acme and Beta, so each receives 50%. The weekly score averages these answer-level shares instead of allowing the longer list to dominate.
What to look for
- Competitors that appear across several prompts or AI engines, not just once.
- New brands entering the weekly leaderboard.
- Prompts where one competitor repeatedly receives most of the answer's voice.
- Sources that repeatedly support the brands ahead of you.
- Your rank and Share of Voice trend across completed weeks.
Do not treat one week as a permanent market map
AI answers vary, and different prompts surface different alternatives. Use the current leaderboard to understand this measured period, then confirm important changes in saved answers and across several weekly runs.