Risk Analysis & Gaps

Your report identifies three types of risks: critical gaps where you’re invisible, reputation risks where AI perceives you negatively, and defensive gaps where competitors consistently win.

Critical Gaps

Critical gaps are market segments, use cases, or customer problems where your brand is completely absent from AI responses. These represent lost opportunities where potential customers can’t discover you.

We identify critical gaps by analyzing:

• Buyer journey stages where you never appear (especially problem recognition)
• Customer pain points relevant to your ICP where competitors are mentioned but you aren’t
• Use cases your product supports but AI doesn’t associate with you

Reputation Risks

Reputation risks are patterns where AI models consistently describe your brand negatively or with significant limitations. We categorize these by severity:

• High severity: Directly impacts purchase decisions. Examples include AI stating your product is unreliable, overpriced, or lacks critical features.
• Medium severity: Affects perception but doesn’t typically prevent purchases. Examples include mentions of steep learning curves or limited integrations.
• Low severity: Minor concerns that may influence some buyers. Worth monitoring but not urgent to address.

Each reputation risk includes the specific AI responses that triggered it, so you can see exactly what’s being said and evaluate whether it’s accurate.

Defensive Gaps

Defensive gaps are scenarios where competitors consistently beat your brand in AI recommendations. Unlike critical gaps (where you’re absent), in defensive gaps you’re present but losing.

These gaps reveal where you need stronger counter-messaging:

• Comparison queries where competitors are recommended over you
• Feature-specific questions where competitors are positioned as superior
• Use cases where AI explicitly recommends alternatives to your brand

Competitive Ranking

Your report includes a ranking of top competitors by AI mention count, with your brand’s position highlighted. This shows:

• Your rank: Where you stand compared to competitors in terms of raw AI mentions
• Mention gap: How many times more (or fewer) mentions the leader has compared to you
• Competitive landscape: Which competitors are getting the most AI visibility

If the #1 competitor has 3x your mentions, that quantifies the visibility gap you need to close. This ranking helps you set realistic goals and prioritize which competitors to focus on.

Taking Action

Once you’ve identified risks and gaps, the Action Center provides specific recommendations for addressing each one. We generate actions based on the severity and type of issue - from content creation for critical gaps to source optimization for reputation risks.

For guidance on which issues to tackle first, see Report Basics.

Common Questions

Can I control what AI models say about my brand?

You can’t directly control AI responses, but you can influence them by creating better content, improving SEO, generating customer testimonials, and ensuring accurate information is readily available online. Over time, this shapes how AI perceives and describes you.

Why might my brand be absent from problem recognition discussions?

This usually means you lack educational content that addresses customer pain points without immediately pitching your solution. AI models mention you only after customers know to look for solutions, missing the early discovery phase where consideration sets are formed.

How do I build better defensive positioning?

The Action Center generates specific recommendations based on where you’re losing. Common approaches include comparison content, customer success stories, and feature-focused pages. See Action Types for the kinds of actions we recommend.

How quickly can I fix a reputation risk?

It depends on the source of the perception. If it’s based on outdated information, publishing updated content and getting it cited can help within weeks. If it’s based on widespread customer feedback, addressing the underlying issue is necessary before the perception can shift.