Product perceptions shows you why AI models recommend your brand and products, not just how often they mention you.
While your Visibility Audit (formerly known as a report) tracks visibility (how often you are mentioned) and rank (where you appear in recommendations), Product perceptions goes deeper. It analyzes the actual language in AI responses to surface the themes and buying criteria models associate with your products.
In short, Topics reflect what customers ask. Product perceptions reflects what AI models say about you when they answer.
How are themes generated?
When AI models recommend your products, they explain why. Product perceptions analyzes those explanations and groups them into common themes. A theme is a quality or attribute that models cite. For example, if you are a TV brand, AI responses might mention "color accuracy," "HDR performance," or "professional calibration."
Each theme shows:
- Theme name: the quality or buying criterion.
- Mention count: how many times that theme appeared in AI responses about the product.
Themes are sorted by frequency, so you can quickly see what AI models emphasize most when recommending your brand.
How is Product perceptions organized?
Product perceptions 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 are known for, but who you are being compared against.
How do I view the AI responses behind a theme?
On the main Product perceptions page, click a theme. A panel opens on the right showing the actual AI responses behind it, so you can see exactly what each model said, in its own words, when it cited 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
How do I compare products?
Click a competitor listed under a product to open a side-by-side comparison. The comparison view shows:
- Each product's themes in parallel
- Which themes you share with the competitor, marked with an arrow icon
- Which themes are unique to each product
- The AI responses behind any theme you click
Click a theme in the comparison to see the related conversations behind it. 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.
How are Product perceptions different from Topics?
You may notice that Product perceptions themes do not match the Topics in your Visibility Audit. That is intentional. They measure different things:
- Source: Topics are generated from personas and your project focus. Themes are extracted from AI response content.
- Reflects: Topics reflect what customers ask about. Themes reflect what AI models say about you.
- Purpose: Topics track visibility across question types. Themes help you understand why you are recommended.
In newer Visibility Audits, Topics have been broadened, so you may see more alignment. But the distinction remains: Topics are inputs (questions), Product perceptions is outputs (answers).
How should I interpret the results?
- 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: who AI considers your direct competition, which may differ from your internal competitive set.
- Theme overlap in comparisons: shared buying criteria where you are competing head-to-head.