AI answer measurement glossary.

Position Score is TrendsCoded's diagnostic measure of how a brand is positioned inside AI answers. It rolls up four sub-reads — whether the model names you, where it ranks you in lists, what it cites alongside you, and how confidently it recommends you — and normalizes them on a 0–100 scale per buyer × use case × region × model. A Position Score is always tied to a defined market context: there is no single global score.

For a Series B fintech selling to mid-market CFOs in North America: Position Score on ChatGPT 73, Gemini 41, Claude 58, Perplexity 12. The 12 on Perplexity flags an answer-share gap with two named rivals; the 73 on ChatGPT is the position to defend.

The AEO Strategic Plan (Answer Engine Optimization Strategic Plan) is the weekly operating output of the workstation. It names one gap to close (where you are losing ground to a rival inside AI answers), one strength to defend (a position holding across models), and one proof signal to publish (the next capability claim, narrative proof, or structured content that should lift answer share). It is delivered Friday and is intended to be the marketing team's working document for the week — not a dashboard.

Week of May 2: Gap — Perplexity is naming Rival X over you for 'best procurement automation for mid-market.' Defend — ChatGPT consistently names you for 'AP automation' since April. Ship — publish a third-party-cited integration case study with NetSuite to lift answer share on the Perplexity prompt set.

The Signal Desk is the daily read surface of the workstation. It runs prompt sets across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity every day and surfaces what moved: a rival entering or leaving a top-3 list, a new alternative being recommended, an attribute being credited differently, citation share shifting between sources. Think Bloomberg ticker, scoped to your category, target buyers, and target organizations.

Today: Rival X gained rank +2 on Gemini for 'best contract lifecycle management.' Listicle drop on Perplexity removed two competitors and added one new alternative. Your brand picked up a new citation in ChatGPT for 'enterprise SOC2 readiness.'

Mention Share is the share of AI answers — across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity — that name your brand for the prompts that match your defined market (buyer × use case × region). It is measured over a 30-day rolling window because individual AI answers rotate; one-day snapshots are noise. Mention Share answers the question 'do AI assistants know we exist for this buyer?' before Answer Share answers 'do they recommend us?'

Across 240 prompt-runs in the last 30 days for 'enterprise developer security tools, North America,' your brand was named in 42% of answers (101/240). Two named rivals sat at 71% and 58%; the gap to close on mention is roughly 30 percentage points.

Answer Share is the conditional measure that follows Mention Share: of the AI answers that named you, how often were you placed in the top three recommendations? It captures whether AI assistants treat you as a leading option for the buyer, not a long-tail mention. Answer Share is measured over a 30-day rolling window across the four major models and reads as a percentage of mentioned answers, not all answers.

Of the 101 answers that named your brand in the last 30 days, 38 placed you in the top three (38%). Rival X's Answer Share over the same window was 64%; that 26-point gap is the lever the AEO Strategic Plan attacks first.