Search AI is Birdeye’s AI-powered search optimization platform designed to help multi-location businesses stay visible in the age of AI-driven discovery. As engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity reshape how consumers find and choose brands, traditional SEO alone is no longer enough. With Search AI, businesses can discover how they appear in AI-generated answers, track brand mentions and rankings across platforms, and gain actionable insights to enhance their visibility.
This guide will walk you through how to use Search AI to understand your presence, optimize performance, and ensure your brand becomes the go-to answer in AI search.
Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Grok Support
The Sentiment report includes expanded platform coverage and flexible reporting views to help you analyze your performance more effectively.
You can now include Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Grok in your reporting by selecting them in the Search AI report configuration settings.
Once enabled, data from these platforms will be reflected alongside ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity across the report, giving you a more complete view of how your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
NOTE:
All reports—Citations, Visibility, Ranking, Accuracy, and Sentiment—will reflect data from the selected AI sites, including these newly added Google AI and Grok experiences.
Brand and Location-Level Reporting
You can now analyze citation data at both the brand level and location level:
Use the By brand and By location toggle available in the top right corner of the report to switch between views.
The brand view provides a consolidated performance overview across all locations.
The location view allows you to drill down into individual location performance.
This gives you two perspectives of the same report, helping you understand both overall brand visibility and location-specific performance.
Sentiment Summary
The Sentiment tab helps you understand how your brand is being perceived in AI-generated answers.
At the top, you’ll see sentiment summary scores:
Overall sentiment
Individual sentiment for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity
Below that,
Sentiment Breakdown Across Locations
This section shows how your brand is being cited sentiment-wise (positive, neutral, negative) in AI-generated answers over time, across supported AI platforms and locations.
The sentiment breakdown helps you understand whether AI responses mentioning your business are generally favorable or unfavorable, and how that sentiment changes over time.
The line chart displays sentiment trends for the selected time period.
Hover over any point on the line to view the exact sentiment percentage in the tooltip. Switch between ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or All to compare sentiment across individual AI platforms or view a combined perspective. This view can also include Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Grok if selected in your report configuration.
By default, sentiment is shown for all locations combined. Use the All locations dropdown to view sentiment for a specific location.
NOTE:
The All locations filter is available only when viewing the report in location-level view. When you switch to brand-level view, this filter will not be displayed, as the data is already aggregated across all locations.
Use the chart icon dropdown to switch between line and pie chart view.
Pie chart view.
Use the time period selector to analyze sentiment over:
Last 3 months
Last 6 months
Last 12 months
Click the generate summary icon located beside the time period filter. A quick summary will be generated for the current view, providing concise insights.
Here’s how the generated summary appears.
Sentiment And Areas For Improvement
You’ll find a breakdown of sentiment and areas for improvement in the form of a summary for each AI site.
You can drill deeper into how customers feel about your brand by specific location.
Use the dropdown next to All locations to filter results.
Select one or multiple locations.
The sentiment scores and summaries will update to reflect feedback and perception for the chosen location(s).
Review SWOT Analysis by AI Sites
The Sentiment tab also provides a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) based on how AI sites perceive your brand.
Use the tabs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) to switch between AI platforms.
The SWOT analysis can also be viewed for specific locations.
Click the All locations dropdown.
Select one or multiple business locations
Sentiment by Location
At the bottom of the Sentiment section, you can drill down to see AI site sentiment scores for each business location.
The table shows:
Location name
Average sentiment across AI sites
Breakdown by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity
