Pranas, an AI search visibility and brand intelligence platform, released research highlighting an “AI Visibility Gap,” which it describes as the difference between a brand’s established online presence and its representation across AI search platforms. The study analysed 20,839 unique prompts that generated Google AI Overviews during August 2026; after prompt normalisation and deduplication, researchers recorded 225,094 source citations across 13,996 root domains. The findings suggest appearing prominently in conventional search results or publishing content on an owned website may no longer be enough to shape how AI systems present a brand, as AI-generated answers frequently draw evidence from third-party platforms including video channels, social networks, marketplaces, publishers and reference websites. YouTube was the most frequently cited domain, receiving 26,558 citations, followed by Instagram with 16,779 citations and Wikipedia with 11,951 citations. E-commerce marketplaces and other third-party websites also appeared prominently. Pranas said this creates a strategic challenge, since a company may manage its own website content but have limited control over external sources influencing its portrayal in AI-generated responses, and generative engine optimisation cannot be treated solely as an extension of on-page SEO. A separate Pranas analysis of 10,227 travel-related prompts examined the relationship between brand mentions and direct website attribution.