A report card on AI visibility has revealed a handful of insurance companies are reaping the benefits of the technology while many others are missing from key platforms.

While brands might show up in a Google search, have websites and run ads, when consumers ask ChatGPT ‘what is the best car insurance in Australia?’ they do not appear.

Branding group Somantra AI monitored 20 Australian insurance operations on both Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT across 34,278 consumer conversations in May.

It found Allianz led with 13,437 mentions when customers asked AI for insurance advice. NRMA followed at 12,524 and Budget Direct rounded out the top three with 10,708.

Brands not faring as well included GIO (2758), Shannons (2049) and CGU (1019). Those that Somantra describes as close to invisible were Ozicare with 62 mentions, Coles Insurance (517) and Qantas Insurance (890).

There was some difference in the way brands performed between Google AI Overviews – the summaries displayed at the top of search results – and ChatGPT.

Budget Direct led on GoogleAI Overviews (8556) and Allianz led on ChatGPT (5461). Budget Direct notched four times more mentions on Google than on ChatGPT.

Somantra – which helps businesses leverage AI to increase brand share – says some insurance brands with a strong presence on Google but weak on ChatGPT have a visibility gap that is only going to widen.

“The fix is not more SEO. It is a fundamentally different content strategy,” it said. “If you want ChatGPT to recommend your brand, being on your own website is not enough. You need to be mentioned positively on the sites AI trusts. This is not link building. It is reputation building across the sources that train and inform AI models.”