How Vault Metal Went From Invisible in AI to 7,808 Mentions in 90 Days
Most businesses have no idea what AI assistants say about them. Not a vague idea. No idea at all.
That's not a criticism. It's just where things stand. AI search is still new enough that most business owners haven't thought to check. But 37% of consumers now start their searches with an AI tool rather than Google, and 47% say AI already influences which brands they trust. That audience is growing fast, and it's forming opinions about your business whether you're paying attention or not.
Vault Metal hadn't prioritized it — not because they were behind, but because the shift to AI search happened fast enough that most businesses haven't caught up yet. When we pulled their baseline numbers in June, the picture was clear:
- 169 total mentions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok
- 3 citations — meaning AI assistants almost never linked back to them as a source
Ask an AI a relevant question about their category, and Vault Metal barely came up.
What We Did
We ran our AI Recommended™ campaign for Vault Metal. The goal was straightforward: make sure AI platforms actually knew who Vault Metal was, what they did, and why they were worth recommending.
That means building and maintaining a presence across the third-party sources AI assistants pull from when forming answers. It's not about gaming a system. It's about making sure the information is there in the first place.
The work runs across three areas:
- Crawlability: ensuring AI can access and understand the business accurately
- Content: creating material that directly answers the questions their customers are already asking AI
- Citations: building presence on the sources AI platforms actually reference when forming answers
We started in June. By August, we had 90 days of data.
The Results
The numbers moved more than we expected.
| Metric | June (Baseline) | August | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Mentions | 169 | 7,808 | +4,520% |
| AI Citations | 3 | 751 | +24,933% |
Overall visibility across the five platforms also doubled — but the mentions and citations are the numbers that tell the real story.
Ninety days earlier, Vault Metal was nearly invisible to AI. Now, when someone asks a relevant question across any of the five major AI platforms, Vault Metal comes up.
"AudienceIntent showed us we were invisible to AI, so we are fixing it. Ninety days later, we're asking new customers where they found us and hearing 'ChatGPT' — something that never happened before." — Nick Hines, Co-Founder, Vault Metal
The citations are the number that matters most. A mention means an AI referenced the brand. A citation means it pointed back to Vault Metal as a source. Going from 3 to 751 citations means AI assistants are now treating Vault Metal as a credible, referable business — not an unknown.
Why This Matters for Your Business
Every mention and citation is a moment where an AI chose to name Vault Metal instead of a competitor. That's not something you can buy with an ad. It's something you earn by making sure AI platforms have enough accurate, credible information about your business to include you in the answer.
The uncomfortable reality: if you haven't done any work on AI visibility, your competitors may already be ahead of you. Gartner projects traditional search volume will drop 25% by the end of 2026 as more queries shift to AI tools. That traffic doesn't disappear. It just goes to whoever AI decides is worth recommending.
Most businesses find out they have a problem only after a competitor gets cited instead of them. By then, the gap is already open.
The first step is knowing where you stand. If you don't know what AI assistants are currently saying about your business — or whether they're saying anything at all — that's the place to start.
Find out how AI describes your business — get your free AI Visibility Report
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI visibility and why does it matter?
AI visibility is how often your business appears in answers from tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok. It matters because more people are using these tools to find and evaluate businesses before making a decision. If AI assistants don't know your business exists, they can't recommend you — regardless of how good you are at what you do.
What is the difference between an AI mention and an AI citation?
A mention means an AI assistant named your business in an answer. A citation means it pointed back to your business as a source. Citations carry more weight — they signal that AI platforms treat your business as credible and referable, not just recognizable.
How long does it take to see results from AI visibility work?
Vault Metal's numbers moved significantly within 90 days. Based on what we've seen across campaigns, measurable citation growth typically starts within 30 days. Meaningful, trackable results tend to follow within 60 to 90 days. Results vary by industry, category, and how much accurate information about your business already exists online.
Does AI visibility replace SEO?
No. They serve different ecosystems. SEO gets your site ranked in Google. AI visibility gets your business cited by AI assistants. Only 12% of pages cited by ChatGPT rank in Google's top 10, which means strong Google rankings don't automatically translate to AI recommendations — and vice versa.
How do I find out if my business is visible to AI?
The fastest way is to run a free AI Visibility Report at report.audienceintent.ai. It shows what AI assistants are currently saying about your business across the major platforms — and where the gaps are.
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