You ask ChatGPT "best email marketing tool for small businesses" and your product doesn't appear. That stings. But the real question isn't whether you're missing. It's who's there instead.
Because someone is getting that recommendation. Someone is capturing that moment when a potential customer asks AI for advice and acts on the answer. If it's not you, it's a competitor. And knowing which competitor, on which prompts, across which LLMs... that's the kind of intelligence that shapes strategy.
The invisible competition
Traditional competitive analysis is built around search rankings, ad spend, and social media presence. You can check who ranks above you on Google, see what ads they're running, track their follower count.
AI visibility doesn't work that way. There's no public ranking page. There's no "position 3" you can see in a tool. When someone asks Perplexity "who's the best freelance copywriter for SaaS companies," the answer happens in a private conversation. You never see it unless you run the prompt yourself.
This means your competitors could be getting recommended by AI on your most important buying queries, and you'd have no idea. Not for a day. Not for a month. Indefinitely.
That's what makes AI competitor tracking valuable. It makes the invisible visible.
What Mentionable shows you
When Mentionable tracks your prompts across all 5 LLMs, it doesn't just check whether you're mentioned. It records every brand, product, or service that appears in each response.
For each tracked prompt, you see:
- Which competitors get recommended alongside you or instead of you
- How often each competitor appears across tracking cycles
- On which LLMs they show up (a competitor might dominate Perplexity but be invisible on Claude)
- How the landscape changes over time as AI models update their recommendations
This isn't a one-time check. It's continuous competitive intelligence. Every time Mentionable runs a tracking cycle on your prompts, it captures the full competitive picture.
Turning data into strategy
Knowing who shows up instead of you is interesting. Knowing what to do about it is useful. Here's how competitor tracking translates to action.
Finding your gaps
If a specific competitor consistently appears on prompts where you don't, you can study what they're doing differently. Do they have more authoritative content on that topic? Are they mentioned on review sites and directories that you're missing? Do they have stronger signals in the areas that particular LLM values?
The competitor data points you toward the answer. Instead of optimizing blindly, you have a specific target to analyze.
Identifying your strengths
Competitor tracking also shows you where you win. If you appear on 8 out of 10 relevant prompts for your niche, and your closest competitor only shows up on 3, that's validation. You know your positioning is working and can double down on what's effective.
Spotting emerging threats
Sometimes a brand you've never heard of starts appearing on your tracked prompts. Maybe they published a strong piece of content, got featured on a major publication, or built exactly the kind of topical authority that a specific LLM rewards.
Catching this early matters. If a new competitor shows up on 2 prompts this month, they might show up on 10 next month. Early awareness gives you time to respond before they establish a strong presence.
Understanding platform dynamics
Competitor visibility often varies by LLM. A competitor might dominate ChatGPT because they have strong brand recognition, but be absent from Perplexity because they lack recent, citeable content. Or they might show up on Gemini due to good traditional SEO but miss Claude entirely.
These patterns tell you something about both your competitor's strategy and each LLM's preferences. That context helps you choose where to focus your own visibility efforts.
A real-world scenario
Imagine you're a UX design consultant. You're tracking 15 prompts related to UX consulting, design audits, and user research services.
Mentionable's competitor tracking reveals:
- On ChatGPT: two large agencies dominate most prompts. You appear on 4 out of 15.
- On Perplexity: a solo consultant with an active blog shows up on 11 out of 15. You're on 6.
- On Claude: you appear on 9 out of 15, more than any single competitor. You're doing well here.
- On Gemini: the large agencies dominate again. You're on 3.
- On Grok: a different consultant with a strong X presence appears on most prompts. You're on 2.
This data tells a clear story. Your expertise comes through on Claude (which values depth and specificity). The agencies beat you on platforms that favor brand recognition. The solo consultant on Perplexity is winning through content volume. The Grok leader has a social advantage.
Each gap points to a different kind of action. You don't need to do everything. But you know exactly where each effort would have the most impact.
How it fits with other features
Competitor tracking is built into every Mentionable plan. It works automatically alongside your prompt tracking, with no additional setup.
The data feeds into other parts of the platform. Email alerts can notify you when a competitor gains or loses visibility on your tracked prompts. AI Insights (available on Pro and Agency plans) use competitor data to generate specific recommendations for closing gaps and defending your current positions.
And because everything runs on the same set of tracked prompts, you see your visibility and your competitive landscape in one place. No juggling between tools, no manual comparison.
Who benefits most
Solopreneurs and freelancers competing against larger players need to know where size matters and where expertise wins. Competitor tracking shows you exactly which platforms reward your specific strengths.
Agencies managing client work can use competitor tracking to build strategic reports. Showing a client not just where they stand but who they're up against (and how to close the gap) adds real value to your service offering.
SaaS founders in competitive markets can track how each AI platform perceives their product relative to alternatives. When a user asks "best tool for X," knowing who else gets recommended helps you refine your positioning.
Try it yourself
Start your 7-day free trial to see who AI recommends instead of you, and alongside you. Enter your URL, pick your prompts, and get a full competitive picture across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Gemini, and Claude. No credit card required.