How to Find AI Search Ranking Opportunities Your Competitors Are Winning (With Semrush)

If you’ve spent any time watching how people search over the past year, you’ve probably noticed a shift. More users are asking ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI-powered search tools for recommendations instead of clicking through a page of blue links. While traditional SEO remains an important part of a digital marketing strategy, businesses also need to understand how they appear in AI-generated answers. At Blueprint, we’ve been helping clients navigate this transition through our AI SEO services, and one of the most valuable tools we’ve found for uncovering opportunities is Semrush.

As an Account Manager, I spend a lot of time reviewing client performance, discussing growth opportunities, and working with our SEO team to identify what’s changing in the search landscape. One of the biggest takeaways is that many businesses are still optimizing exclusively for traditional search, while AI visibility is becoming an entirely new competitive battleground.

How AI Search Is Different from Traditional Google Search

For years, SEO success has been measured by keyword rankings. If you ranked first for an important search term, you had a good chance of earning clicks and traffic.

AI search changes that equation.

Instead of returning a list of websites, AI platforms generate answers by pulling together information from multiple trusted sources. Rather than asking, “Which page ranks highest?” they’re asking, “Which brands consistently demonstrate expertise on this topic?”

Semrush’s AI Toolkit illustrates this shift well by organizing AI visibility around three concepts:

• Topics: What subjects is your brand associated with?
• Prompts: Which AI-generated questions or requests mention your business?
• Mentions and Citations: How often do AI systems reference your brand compared to competitors?

This changes how businesses should think about visibility. Instead of chasing individual keyword rankings, companies should be asking whether AI recognizes them as an authority in their industry.

That’s a much bigger opportunity than simply ranking another webpage.

Read: Google Search vs. Search GPT: Key Differences for SEO 

Finding the AI Visibility Gaps Your Competitors Haven’t Filled

One of my favorite exercises when reviewing a client’s market is comparing AI visibility across competitors.

With Semrush, you can load your business alongside several competitors and quickly identify where each brand is gaining traction in AI search.

The goal isn’t simply to see who’s winning. It’s to understand where no one is winning yet.

For example, you might discover that every competitor is frequently mentioned when AI discusses one service offering, but almost no brands are associated with another important topic that customers regularly research.

Those gaps often become some of the highest-value content opportunities because you’re not fighting to outperform established authority. You’re creating authority where very little exists.

Looking beyond rankings also changes who your competitors are. Sometimes you’ll find industry publications, associations, software providers, or educational resources dominating AI mentions instead of businesses offering similar services. That insight helps shape a more effective content strategy because you’re competing for authority, not just keywords.

Instead of asking, “What keywords are my competitors ranking for?” the better question becomes, “What conversations are AI platforms already having, and where is our expertise missing?”

Content That Earns AI Mentions and Citations 

Finding opportunity gaps is only the first step.

The next challenge is giving AI systems a reason to mention your brand.

Generic blog posts rarely accomplish that.

The businesses seeing success are publishing SEO content built around real expertise, original data, and practical experience. That could include:

• Original research or industry benchmarking
• Customer success stories with measurable outcomes
• Unique processes or methodologies
• Frequently asked questions gathered from sales conversations
• Insights based on real client engagements
• Commentary on emerging industry trends

This is where being close to your customers becomes an advantage.

Some of the best thought leadership doesn’t come from keyword research alone. It comes from conversations with clients, recurring questions during discovery calls, common implementation challenges, and patterns you notice across multiple engagements.

When you combine those real-world insights with Semrush’s AI visibility data, your content becomes much more intentional. You’re no longer creating articles because they seem interesting. You’re publishing resources that fill identifiable gaps in AI’s understanding of your industry.

Over time, those resources build topical authority that increases the likelihood your brand will be mentioned when AI platforms generate recommendations.

Build Your AI Search Visibility Before the Conversation Gets Crowded

Traditional SEO isn’t going away, and businesses should absolutely continue investing in technical optimization, high-quality content, and strong organic performance.

But AI search introduces another layer of visibility that many organizations haven’t fully embraced.

Companies that identify underserved topics today have an opportunity to establish authority before those conversations become crowded. Tools like Semrush make it easier to spot those openings, but success ultimately comes from publishing genuinely useful content backed by expertise, experience, and evidence.

As AI search continues to evolve, the brands earning consistent mentions won’t necessarily be the ones producing the most content. They’ll be the ones providing the most credible answers to the questions their customers are already asking.

If your organization wants to improve its visibility across both traditional search and emerging AI search experiences, Blueprint can help you identify competitive opportunities and build a strategy that supports long-term growth. Contact us to learn more.