Marketing agencies lead the AI search league. Just barely.

Marketing agencies top our industry league table for AI search visibility with a 3-LLM mean of 74.8 out of 100, and professional services sit at the bottom on 70.4. That is a spread of just 4.4 points across the six industries we measured, which is the surprise: your industry barely moves the number.

This post covers where each industry ranks, why the gap between sectors is so small, and why the gap that actually decides your visibility sits inside your own category rather than between industries.

The industry league table, and how tight it is

Across the 500 small businesses we scanned, every headline-tier industry landed in the same Good band. Marketing agencies led on 74.8, followed by hospitality on 74.7, B2B SaaS on 74.2, ecommerce on 73.0 and estate agents on 72.4. Professional services, meaning accountants, solicitors and consultants, came last on 70.4. The whole table is contained within 4.4 points.

It makes sense that marketing agencies come out on top. They sell visibility for a living, so you would expect them to practise it. What is more telling is how little daylight there is between first and last. A tight 4.4-point band means the sector you happen to be in is not what is holding your AI search visibility back.

Why the sector gap is so small

The reason the industries cluster is that the work AI search rewards is the same everywhere. Clear category positioning, structured content, schema markup that names your business type and plain answers to the questions customers ask are not sector-specific tasks. A design agency and a family law firm need the same foundations, so their averages end up close together.

The pillar data makes this sharper. Professional services score an average AI Readiness of 74.5 out of 100, identical to marketing agencies, and their Technical Health, the SEO basics, is 83.5 against the agencies' 84.5. The foundations are level. The gap opens only on AI Visibility, how often assistants actually mention them, which is a brand-signal question more than a site-quality one.

The gap that matters is inside your industry

If the spread between industries is 4.4 points, the spread within one is far larger. The average small business scores around 73, while the strongest performers in our sample reach 87 out of 100. That is a gap of roughly 15 points between a typical business and the top of its own category, more than three times the distance between the best and worst sectors.

So the competitive opening is not against other industries. It is against the other businesses in yours. The accountant who describes their services clearly outranks the accountant who does not, regardless of where accountancy sits on the table. That is the layer AI My Site is built to surface: it benchmarks your scan against the top performers in your specific category and hands you the prioritised list to close the distance. The action plan, not just the audit.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Blaming your industry. A 4.4-point spread across six sectors means your category is not the constraint. The lift comes from the work, and the work is available to every industry.
• Assuming a strong sector average protects you. Marketing agencies lead on average, but the gap inside the sector is around 15 points. Being in a good industry does not put you near the top of it.
• Confusing AI Readiness with AI Visibility. Professional services match agencies on readiness yet trail on visibility. Good foundations do not guarantee mentions if the brand signal is weak.
• Copying tactics from a different sector wholesale. The foundations are shared, but the category questions customers ask differ. Benchmark against the top performers in your own industry, not another one.

How long does this take

Closing the distance to the top of your category is a focused piece of work rather than a rebuild, and anyone promising an overnight jump is guessing. In practice, businesses that work a prioritised list tend to see movement over a 4 to 12 week window, depending on how many gaps they carry and how much they apply. What the data supports is narrower: the industry you are in accounts for at most 4.4 points, so the ceiling on your own improvement is set by your site, not your sector.

Frequently asked questions

Which industry scored highest for AI search visibility?

Marketing agencies, with a 3-LLM mean of 74.8 out of 100 across 126 agencies in our sample. Hospitality was a close second on 74.7 and B2B SaaS third on 74.2. Every headline-tier industry landed in the Good band.

Why do professional services come last?

Accountants, solicitors and consultants averaged 70.4 on AI Visibility despite matching other industries on Technical Health and AI Readiness. The shortfall is in how often assistants mention them, which is a brand-signal gap rather than a site-quality one, and it is closeable.

Does my industry decide my AI search score?

Not really. The spread between the best and worst industries is only 4.4 points. The spread within a single industry, between an average business and the top performers, is around 15 points. Your own site matters far more than your sector.

How do I know where I sit within my industry?

You need a scan that benchmarks you against the top performers in your specific category rather than a generic average. That is what tells you whether your 73 is above or below the businesses you actually compete with for AI recommendations.

See where you sit

If your industry only accounts for a few points, the useful question is where you sit within it. We have published the full Q2 2026 State of AI Search benchmark, with the breakdown by industry, country, platform and scan area, so you can compare your category against the rest.

Read the full Q2 2026 benchmark to see where you sit.

AI My Site Research · Q2 2026 · n=500. AI Visibility means by industry: marketing agency 74.8 (n=126), hospitality 74.7 (n=70), B2B SaaS 74.2 (n=72), ecommerce 73.0 (n=99), estate agents 72.4 (n=50), professional services 70.4 (n=76). We measured AI search visibility, not revenue or conversion. Figures are a Q2 2026 point-in-time snapshot.