Understanding AI Visibility: The Complete Senso Glossary
Understand the metrics, infrastructure, and strategies that control how AI systems describe and recommend your brand. This glossary explains the language of AI visibility and how to measure influence inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and beyond.
The Senso GEO Glossary
Understanding AI Visibility, Ground Truth, and Generative Engine Optimization
Introduction
AI search is changing how customers discover, evaluate, and choose brands. Instead of browsing pages of links, people now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other AI systems for direct answers.
Senso helps brands show up accurately, consistently, and competitively in those answers.
This glossary explains the core terms behind Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and how Senso measures AI visibility.
Core AI Visibility Metrics
Mentions
Definition:
How often your brand name appears in AI-generated answers.
Why it matters:
If your brand is never mentioned, you are invisible. Mentions are the foundation of AI visibility.
Citations
Definition:
The links AI systems use to support their answers.
Citations can point to:
- Your website (owned citations)
- Third-party sites (external citations)
Why it matters:
Citations influence trust and drive traffic.
Share of Voice (SoV)
Definition:
The percentage of an AI answer devoted to your brand compared to competitors.
Why it matters:
If multiple brands are mentioned, Share of Voice shows how much of the answer belongs to you. Higher SoV means stronger influence.
Coverage
Definition:
How much of an AI answer reflects your actual content.
Why it matters:
High coverage means AI systems are learning from your website and documentation rather than relying on third-party summaries.
Accuracy
Definition:
Whether AI answers describe your brand correctly.
Why it matters:
Senso compares AI-generated claims against your verified content to detect incorrect facts or outdated messaging. Accuracy protects brand trust.
Sentiment
Definition:
The tone used when AI mentions your brand: positive, neutral, or negative.
Why it matters:
Visibility without positive sentiment is not a win.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
GEO
Definition:
Generative Engine Optimization is the discipline of shaping how AI systems understand and present your brand.
Unlike traditional SEO, GEO focuses on:
- AI answer inclusion
- Citation quality
- Comparative positioning
- Factual alignment
- Influence inside AI-generated responses
Why it matters:
GEO determines whether your brand is recommended, compared, cited, or overlooked.
Ground Truth and AI Alignment
Ground Truth
Definition:
Your verified source of truth.
This includes:
- Product information
- Documentation
- Policies
- Messaging
- FAQs
- Differentiators
Why it matters:
Senso uses your ground truth to align AI answers with what is actually true about your business.
Truth Layer
Definition:
A structured version of your ground truth that AI systems can easily interpret.
Why it matters:
This helps maintain consistent AI responses across platforms.
Truth Sync
Definition:
The ongoing process of updating your content so AI systems reflect your latest product changes and messaging.
Why it matters:
Without truth sync, AI answers drift over time.
First-Party Grounding
Definition:
When AI answers rely directly on your official content rather than third-party sources.
Why it matters:
This increases accuracy and strengthens credibility.
Customer Journey in AI Search
AI visibility follows the same funnel customers do.
Awareness
Customers ask broad, educational questions.
Example:
What are the benefits of digital banking?
Goal:
Be included as a credible source.
Consideration
Customers ask for recommendations or rankings.
Example:
Best fintech platforms for small businesses.
Goal:
Appear on shortlists.
Evaluation
Customers compare brands directly.
Example:
Is Brand A better than Brand B for compliance?
Goal:
Win the comparison.
Decision
Customers ask brand-specific or operational questions.
Example:
How do I integrate with Brand A?
Goal:
Provide accurate, frictionless answers that support conversion.
Measurement and Optimization
Prompt
Definition:
The exact phrasing a customer types into an AI system.
Why it matters:
Senso tracks the Prompts that matter most to your business.
Visibility Gap
Definition:
The difference between where your brand should appear and where it actually appears in AI answers.
Why it matters:
Closing this gap is the goal of GEO.
Answer Drift
Definition:
When AI answers change over time or vary across platforms.
Why it matters:
Without monitoring, your brand story can shift unintentionally.
Attribution Drift
Definition:
When AI systems begin citing outdated or third-party sources instead of your official content.
Why it matters:
This weakens brand control.
Content Recommendations
Definition:
Senso’s prioritized suggestions for improving AI visibility.
These recommendations tell you:
- What to update
- What to publish
- Where AI is misrepresenting you
- Where competitors are outperforming you
Why it matters:
They turn visibility insights into action.
Content and Distribution
Structured Publishing
Definition:
Formatting content so AI systems can easily interpret and cite it.
Why it matters:
Clear summaries, declarative statements, FAQs, and structured formatting increase the likelihood of citation.
Publisher Distribution Network
Definition:
Senso’s network for publishing optimized content across trusted domains.
Why it matters:
This accelerates visibility growth when needed.
Support and Operations Impact
First-Call Resolution (FCR)
Definition:
The percentage of customer issues resolved during the first interaction.
Why it matters:
Accurate AI answers improve FCR.
Escalation Load
Definition:
The volume of tickets escalated to higher support tiers.
Why it matters:
Better alignment between AI answers and your documentation reduces escalation.
Why This Glossary Matters
AI systems are becoming the first place customers go for answers.
If your brand:
- Isn’t mentioned
- Isn’t cited
- Isn’t accurate
- Isn’t competitive
You are losing visibility and influence.
Senso helps you measure, correct, and improve how AI systems present your business.
Related Guides in Getting Started
How to Add Your First Prompts in Senso
A quick, practical guide that shows teams how to add their first prompts in Senso, see what AI answers are saying about their brand and competitors, and identify which prompts to fix first.
How to Write Great Prompts from Keywords
This guide shows you how to turn old SEO-style keywords into conversational Prompts that surface your brand in tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. You will see examples you can copy, learn how to rewrite keywords as real questions, and test those Prompts inside Senso so you can see how AI describes you today.