What is AI Brand Perception?
AI Brand Perception shows you why AI models recommend your brand and products, not just how often they mention you.
While your main report tracks visibility (how often you're mentioned) and rank (where you appear in recommendations), Brand Perception goes deeper. It analyzes the actual language in AI responses to surface the themes and buying criteria models associated with your brand.
In short, Topics reflect what customers ask. Brand Perception reflects what AI models say about you when they answer. Brand Perception is our first step toward full brand sentiment analysis.
How it Works
Theme Generation
When AI models recommend your products, they explain why. Brand Perception analyzes these explanations and groups them into common themes.
For example, if you're a TV brand, AI responses might mention "color accuracy," "HDR performance," or "professional calibration" when recommending your products. These become your perception themes.
Each theme shows:
- Theme name - The buying criterion or product attribute
- Mention count - How many times this theme appeared in AI responses about this product
Themes are sorted by frequency, so you can quickly see what AI models emphasize most when recommending your brand.
Product-Level Breakdown
Brand Perception is organized by product (or service line). Each product card shows:
- All themes associated with that product
- The number of mentions per theme
- Top competing products: which competitors are most often mentioned alongside this product, with co-mention counts
This helps you understand not just what you're known for, but who you're being compared against.
How to Use Brand Perception
View Theme Details
Click on any theme to see the actual AI responses behind it. This shows you exactly what models are saying, in their own words, when they cite that theme as a reason to recommend your product.
This is useful for:
- Understanding the specific language AI models use
- Identifying gaps between how you describe your product and how AI describes it
- Finding content opportunities to reinforce or correct perceptions
Compare Products
Click a competitor listed below a product to view your product side-by-side with theirs. The comparison view shows:
- Themes for each product in parallel
- Which themes overlap (marked with an arrow icon)
- Which themes are unique to each product
- The underlying AI responses for any selected theme
This helps you understand your competitive positioning at the perception level. Not just who wins, but why AI models prefer one product over another for specific criteria.
Brand Perception vs. Topics
You may notice that Brand Perception themes don't match the Topics in your main report. That's intentional. They measure different things:
| Topics | Brand Perception Themes | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Generated from personas and report focus | Extracted from AI response content |
| Reflects | What customers ask about | What AI models say about you |
| Purpose | Track visibility across question types | Understand why you're recommended |
In newer reports, Topics have been broadened, so you may see more alignment. But the distinction remains: Topics are inputs (questions), Brand Perception is outputs (answers).
Tips for Interpretation
- High mention count = AI models consistently associate this theme with your product
- Low or missing themes = Potential perception gaps to address with content
- Competitor co-mentions = Shows who AI considers your direct competition (this may differ from your internal competitive set)
- Theme overlap in comparisons = Shared buying criteria where you're competing head-to-head