Share of Voice (AI)

Share of voice measures how often assistants mention a business relative to its competitors. It can also show whether recommendations concentrate around a few names. In the Routeless five-metro study, one Phoenix roofer appeared in 10 of 18 answers, while dental recommendations were spread across dozens of practices without a consistent leader.

The denominator determines what the number means. A report should state which questions were asked, how many times, on which assistants, and on what date. A business named in 10 of 18 answers has a 56% share in that sample. A business named in one of one has 100%, but the sample is too small to support a useful conclusion.

Separate share from the quality of each mention. Appearing fifth in a list of five contributes to share, but carries less weight than being the first business an assistant names and explains. Review the raw answers alongside the summary statistic.

Ranking every business in a market by share shows whether one name dominates, several businesses compete in the middle, or recommendations remain widely dispersed. Each pattern calls for different work. The openness score summarizes that distribution in one number.

Keep aliases and duplicate business names normalized before calculating the share. A rebrand or location suffix can otherwise split one entity into several rows.

Because assistants are non-deterministic, share of voice is a sampled estimate and should include its date and sample size. Routeless publishes the underlying answers and exact prompts for each market on the methodology page.