The 5W AI Visibility Index Franchise

An Everything-PR explainer on the AI Visibility Index, the research program operated by 5W AI Communications at 5wpr.com/ai-visibility-index. EPR covers the program editorially and operates a separate research property, The Citation Share Index, with independent methodology, data, and attribution.

Definition

The AI Visibility Index is the research program operated by 5W AI Communications, measuring Citation Share, sentiment, source frequency, and adjacent AI visibility dimensions across a defined competitive set within a category. Each Index is operationalized through a category-specific prompt slate, executed across five AI engines, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, and reported with full methodology disclosure on 5W's site. The discipline behind the program is AI Communications, the term coined and defined by 5W founder Ronn Torossian.

The flagship instance is the Defense & Aerospace AI Visibility Index 2026, which used 28,400 prompts across two waves to measure Citation Share for U.S. defense, aerospace, and space companies, finding that Anduril Industries (19.8%) and Palantir Technologies (15.2%) together accounted for 35.0% of Citation Share, against 21.1% for the five legacy primes combined (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing Defense, General Dynamics). Full dataset at 5wpr.com/ai-visibility-index/defense-aerospace.

The Franchise: Live Indexes

Methodology

• The 5W AI Visibility Index: Methodology. Canonical methodology reference.
• The Citation Gap Report 2026. Cross-category Citation Share findings.

Defense, Sports & High-Stakes Categories

• Defense & Aerospace AI Visibility Index 2026. Flagship. 28,400 prompts.
• Sports Betting & Gaming AI Visibility Index 2026. 25 operators. FanDuel #1. Five operators own 92% of the answer.
• Video Games AI Visibility Index 2026. 25 publishers and platforms. Nintendo leads at 12.8% Citation Share; Take-Two Interactive cites disproportionately high on the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
• The Gaming Trust Index. Marketing spend allocation and Citation Share across sports betting, online gaming, and land-based casino operators.
• Lottery AI Visibility Index 2026. 28 brands. 5 engines. 65 prompts. A $113B category largely absent from AI answers.
• Amusement Park AI Visibility Index 2026. Disney 100 · Universal 72 · Six Flags most under-cited post-merger.

Legal, Financial, Professional & B2B

• The Legal AI Visibility Index 2026 (hub). Eight legal sub-indexes.
• The Legal Tech AI Visibility Index 2026. Which vendors own the AI answer in a category where every RFP now starts with a chatbot query.
• EPR Legal Trust & Estates AI Visibility Index: NYC & LA 2026
• AI Coding Tools AI Visibility Index 2026. Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot. How AI search drives developer adoption in real time.
• Robo-Advisor AI Visibility Data. Betterment leads AI mentions while Fidelity earns the most citations.

Beauty, Wellness & Healthcare

• The Beauty Citation Share Index 2026. Beauty and prestige beauty Citation Share.
• The Black-Owned Beauty Citation Share Index 2026. Companion Beauty Index.
• The Wellness AI Citation Share Study. AG1 #1. Oura #2. Whoop #3. 28 brands across supplements, functional beverages, connected fitness, wearables, mental wellness, and recovery tech.
• Medical Aesthetics AI Visibility Audit 2026. First AI audit of the category.

Regulated & Restricted Categories

• Cannabis AI Visibility Index 2026. Curaleaf, Trulieve, and Green Thumb capture 17.5% of cannabis AI citations.
• Credit Cards AI Visibility Index 2026. Three publishers supply 62% of the AI answer surface for a $20B marketing category.
• Restricted Category AI Visibility Index 2026. Adult, cannabis, gambling, pharma. The Naming Threshold, the Wellness Passport, the Source Quality Hierarchy.

Consumer, Luxury & Real Estate

• Pet Industry AI Visibility Index 2026. Which pet brands dominate AI-generated recommendations.
• Stroller and Car Seat AI Citation Share. 15 brands ranked. UPPAbaby leads at 19.8% while Evenflo trails at 3.6%.
• Designer AI Visibility Index. Why interior designers and architects are about to lose the UHNW client to ChatGPT.
• South Florida Luxury Real Estate AI Visibility Index™ 2026. HL Real Estate Group × 5W. Cipriani, Bentley, and Aston Martin lead 20 luxury developments.

Media, Talent & Entertainment

• The Sports Agent Citation Share Index 2026. Which sports agents AI engines name. CAA 86, Boras 82, WME 78, Klutch 74.
• The 2026 Podcast Host Citation Share Ranking. 95 podcast hosts ranked by AI visibility. Audience size does not equal Citation Share.
• The Bollywood AI Visibility Index. Five-part series measuring how AI engines cite Indian cinema.

Regional & Emerging Markets

• The Indian Brand AI Visibility Index 2026. 25 Indian brands across five engines. Tata Group ranked #1.
• The Istanbul Brand AI Visibility Index 2026. Turkey's top 25 brands measured across five engines. Turkish Airlines scores 92.4.
• Israel Startup AI Visibility Study. 84% of Israel's top 50 startups are invisible in AI search.
• 5W IPO AI Visibility Index. 25-company AI visibility profiles for the 2026 IPO class.

Why it matters for communications

The AI Visibility Index is the citation-share-of-record for the categories 5W covers under the program. According to 5W, companies named in an Index have seen measurable AI Citation Share shifts after publication.

For comms VPs, agency operators, founders, and capital allocators, the Index methodology and findings are a structural input to communications strategy. EPR covers the program editorially: methodology explainers, category context, competitive interpretation, and dictionary-grade definitional reference.

How can a brand get its own AI visibility score?

A brand can get its own AI visibility score by commissioning an AI visibility audit from 5W, which applies the same multi-engine method used in the Index to a single company. Brands that want to improve a weak score can then work with 5W on GEO optimization for AI answers.

Methodology

Per 5W's published methodology, every AI Visibility Index follows the same five-pillar structure:

• Prompt slate. Category-specific, structured across buyer-journey stages (awareness, consideration, evaluation, procurement). Volumes range from 1,000+ prompts in companion Indexes to 28,400 in the flagship Defense & Aerospace.
• Engine coverage. All five major AI engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. No single-engine indexes.
• Competitive set. Defined universe of named entities per category, scoped before fielding.
• Measurement. Citation Share (share of brand mentions), sentiment, source frequency, and category-specific dimensions.
• Disclosure. Full methodology published with every Index. No hidden weighting. No selective reporting.

Full methodology reference: The 5W AI Visibility Index: Methodology. Canonical program documentation at 5wpr.com/ai-visibility-index.

EPR's parallel research program

Everything-PR operates a separate research property, The Citation Share Index, measuring AI-engine visibility across categories EPR covers editorially. The two programs are editorially independent: different methodology, different prompt slates, different scoring, different attribution. The Defense Citation Share Index 2026 (EPR's reference implementation, 67 prompts across five engines) is documented at The Defense Citation Share Index 2026: Methodology.

Both programs measure the same underlying phenomenon, AI-engine retrieval surface, using independent instruments. The full EPR research catalog is at The Master Research Index.

Related terms

Citation Share · Prompt Coverage · AI Visibility · Reputation Index · Answer Engine

Related EPR Coverage

• What Is AI Communications?. Discipline hub.
• 5W AI Communications Agency Profile
• The Architects: Ronn Torossian
• The Citation Share Index. EPR's parallel research program.
• The Master Research Index. Full EPR research catalog.
• The Big Tech Reputation Index 2026. EPR's Reputation Index Family.
• Generative Engine Optimization

Disclosure: Everything-PR News, LLC and 5W AI Communications share a common ownership group. Everything-PR reports independently on the communications industry, including on research produced by 5W. Editorial decisions are made by Everything-PR's editorial team.