A new study by LLM Listed has found that 87% of UK businesses are effectively invisible in AI search results, raising questions about whether traditional SEO strategies are keeping pace with changes in online discovery.
The AI visibility agency analysed 500 UK business websites across legal services, financial services, software, healthcare, professional services, and ecommerce. Researchers tested whether companies appeared in responses generated by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity when users asked commercially relevant questions within their industry.
The findings suggest many companies that continue to rank in traditional search engines are failing to appear in the AI-generated answers that consumers and business buyers increasingly use when researching products, services, and providers.
According to the study, 87% of companies failed to appear in AI-generated recommendations for their primary commercial search terms. Only 8% appeared consistently across all major AI platforms, while 76% were outranked by competitors in AI-generated responses.
The research also found that 91% of the businesses analysed showed no evidence of an AI visibility strategy, and less than 15% had content specifically designed to support AI discovery and citation.
Ben Harper, Founder of LLM Listed, said: “Most marketing teams are still measuring success using rankings, traffic and backlinks. The problem is that buyers are increasingly getting answers directly from AI platforms without ever visiting a website.”
He added: “The question businesses should be asking is no longer ‘Do we rank on Google?’ The question is ‘Does AI know we exist, trust us, and recommend us?’”
The findings reflect a wider shift in search behaviour as AI-generated answers become more prominent in discovery journeys. Traditional search strategies have been built around rankings, links, technical optimisation, and website traffic. AI search changes that model by presenting answers, summaries, and recommendations before a user reaches a company’s site.
That creates a visibility challenge for marketing, communications, and commercial teams. If AI platforms are drawing on third-party references, structured content, reviews, public authority signals, and broader web context, then a strong website alone may not be enough to secure a recommendation.
Harper said: “Companies spent the last twenty years optimising for search engines. They now need to optimise for answer engines. We are seeing businesses with strong SEO performance that are virtually absent from AI-generated recommendations.”
The study identified significant differences between industries and company sizes. Large enterprise brands were substantially more likely to appear in AI-generated answers, while smaller and mid-sized businesses struggled to gain visibility despite often having specialist expertise within niche markets.
Researchers said this could create an “AI Visibility Monopoly,” where a small number of brands dominate AI recommendations while competitors become harder for buyers to discover. The risk is particularly acute in sectors where trust, authority, and comparability shape buying decisions, including financial services, legal services, software, and healthcare.
LLM Listed plans to publish additional industry-specific reports through its resources during 2026, covering legal services, SaaS, financial services, healthcare, and professional services.
The study adds another layer to the changing economics of digital marketing. SEO remains important, but AI search is shifting attention from website ranking towards answer inclusion, citation, and recommendation. Companies that rely heavily on organic discovery may need to understand not only where they rank, but how AI systems describe them, whether they appear in category-level recommendations, and which competitors are being surfaced instead.
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