# Measuring AI Search: The KPIs We Actually Trust

A talk by Alisa Scharf, Chief AI Officer at Seer Interactive.

Use this file as context. Paste it into your AI tool, then ask it to apply the framework to your brand.

## The problem

Your CEO asks if AI search is working. Clicks are going away, so the old scoreboard can't answer.

Brands report AI sends almost no traffic: under 1% for Booking Holdings and Etsy, about 3% for LegalZoom. But buyers rely on AI to decide. Forrester found 94% of business buyers used AI in their last purchase.

AI search looks like SEO, so teams measure it, optimize it and staff it like SEO. It isn't SEO. It's your brand, on a screen, in front of a customer. Measure it like any other screen: who saw it, what stuck, and whether it changed what people bought.

People tend to believe AI. In one usability study, 74% of final shortlists came straight from the AI's answer, and 64% of people clicked nothing.

## What winning looks like

1. **Be Seen.** When they ask, are we in the answer?
2. **Be Believed.** When we're in the answer, does it get us right?
3. **Be Chosen.** When it gets us right, does it lead to a purchase?

## The six KPIs

Two per stage: one your board already understands, and one that shows you're winning.

| Stage | KPI | Question it answers | How to measure |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Be Seen | Share of voice | How often does AI name us? | Answers that name you ÷ all answers to your buyers' questions |
| Be Seen | AI shortlist rate | Is AI searching for us by name before it reads a page? | Fan-out searches that name you ÷ all fan-out searches behind your buyers' questions |
| Be Believed | Message pull-through | Is AI telling our story? | Answers that repeat your key messages ÷ answers that mention you |
| Be Believed | Brand accuracy | Is AI getting the facts right? | Answers that get you right ÷ answers that mention you |
| Be Chosen | Pipeline contribution | Is demand following? | Branded search, direct traffic and demo requests, read against your AI metrics over time. Correlation, not last click. |
| Be Chosen | Recommendation rate | When AI makes a pick, is it us? | Answers that pick you ÷ all answers to your buyers' questions |

## Avoid the gotchas

- **Track real buyer questions.** "Best AI-native CRM under $100 a seat," not "best CRM software." Pull them from sales calls, interviews, communities and paid search.
- **Run each question 10 to 30 times a month.** One run is a snapshot. In Seer's testing, one run named 6 brands and ten runs named 13.
- **Read it as direction, not a score.** Up or down vs. last month, and against which competitors?

## The bottom line

GEO is not a performance marketing channel. It moves revenue the way brand does. Your CEO already knows how to judge a brand channel, so give them these six numbers.

## Prompt to try

> Using the framework above, help me pick 10 real questions my buyers ask AI before they buy [your category]. Then show me how to score our brand on all six KPIs, starting with the one my CEO is most likely to trust.

## Sources cited in the talk

- Earnings calls: Booking Holdings (Q2 2026), Etsy (Q2 2026), LegalZoom (Q2 2026)
- Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026
- Kevin Indig and Citation Labs, Google AI Mode usability study, 2026
- Seer Interactive repeated-run analysis, 2026
- Wil Reynolds, "Re-imagining AI Visibility KPIs in a Query Fan Out world," Seer Interactive, October 2026