AI Visibility Report: Headline Findings

Six patterns stand out across the 19 industries this quarter. Each one is a strategic signal for any brand that cares about being recommended by AI.

1. The AI shortlist got shorter

When the assistants rank providers, their lists are now shorter: an average of 3.7 places, down from 4.8 in Q2 2026. They still mention roughly as many brands overall, but fewer make it into the ranked shortlist itself.

That changes what winning looks like. With fewer places on the list, the top positions carry more weight, and the category leaders' scores rose accordingly: the median category leader now scores 53.7/100, up from 48.3. Only 2 of 19 industries are still wide open, down from 5.

It also means a brand can be mentioned more often and still lose ground, if it is mentioned further down the list. That is why we judge movement on the Quality Score, which weighs how often a brand is mentioned against where it ranks, rather than on mentions alone.

2. Three industries have a new AI leader

Short-term insurance - OUTsurance has taken the lead (35.1/100) from Santam, which fell from 34.3 to 21.7. OUTsurance is only narrowly ahead of King Price (31.1), so this race is far from settled.
Investment and asset management - EasyEquities rose from 22.4 to 39.9 and now leads Allan Gray (28.1) clearly. It is the biggest single gain in the report.
Private tertiary education - Eduvos (30.0) has overtaken Varsity College (24.2), with STADIO third.

In each case the new leader's lead clears normal run-to-run variation, so these are real changes in what the assistants recommend, not noise.

3. The brands making strides, and the ones losing ground

The biggest real gains in AI visibility since Q2 2026:

EasyEquities (investment) +17.5 points
Afrihost (fibre ISPs) +15.3, now the second-strongest leader in the report at 62.9
OUTsurance (business insurance) +14.3
Pineapple (short-term insurance) +13.4
Lew Geffen Sotheby's (estate agencies) +13.2
King Price and Naked (short-term insurance) +11.9 and +11.8
Sygnia (investment) +11.5

The biggest falls: Paygate (payments) -14.1, Santam in short-term insurance -12.6, TymeBank in SME banking -12.4, and Easybet (betting) -12.1.

Short-term insurance moved more than any other industry this quarter: a new leader, three challengers rising sharply, and the previous leader down by more than a third.

4. Decided markets, and two statistical ties

Nine industries now have a clear AI "default answer", a brand the assistants reach for first by a wide margin:

Mobile networks - MTN (63.9, 20 points clear)
Fibre ISPs - Afrihost (62.9, 26 points clear)
Car brands - Toyota (60.5)
Payment providers - Payfast (60.5)
Betting and gaming - Betway (60.1)
Corporate banking - Standard Bank (59.9, 27 points clear)
SME banking - FNB (57.4, 26 points clear)
Private banking - Investec (55.8), newly a clear leader
Business insurance - Santam (53.7), newly a clear leader

At the other end, two industries are statistical ties, where the gap between first and second is smaller than normal variation: fibre network operators (Openserve 51.5 and Vumatel 50.0) and IT managed services (NTT 27.4 and BCX 23.4). In both, the number-one position in AI search is genuinely there for the taking.

5. Mentioned is still not recommended

The gap between how often a brand is mentioned and how often it is the recommendation remains the most consistent finding in the report. Some of the widest gaps this quarter:

Cell C - mentioned in 90% of mobile network answers, the recommendation in 16%
Frogfoot - mentioned in 71% of fibre network answers, recommended in 5%
MetroFibre - mentioned in 75%, recommended in 12%
Absa - mentioned in 61% of SME banking answers, recommended in 9%
Nedbank - mentioned in 62% of retail banking answers, recommended in 13%

These brands have already paid for awareness. The AI knows them. It just does not champion them. That gap between being known and being chosen is still the single most addressable opportunity in the data.

6. Whose content the AI reads

The assistants drew on 17,921 source citations this quarter, fewer than in Q2 2026, so each source they do use carries more weight. The most cited, by the number of answers that cited them:

mybroadband.co.za - 403 answers across 14 industries, now the most cited source in the report
businesstech.co.za - 329 answers across 15 industries
Wikipedia - 277 answers across 17 industries
rateweb.co.za - 251 answers across 13 industries
hippo.co.za - 225 answers across 11 industries
Brands' own sites are close behind, led by capitecbank.co.za, discovery.co.za, investec.com, fnb.co.za and standardbank.co.za

AI visibility is not a black box. It is a function of what the models can find, read, and trust about you, on your own site and on the publishers they rely on. This report measures where every brand stands each quarter; the citation data points to how they can improve.