AI visibility
When a developer asks an AI assistant "what should I use for X?", the answer is a recommendation you never see. BackTalk asks those questions for you, on a schedule, across Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and tracks whether the answer names you or a competitor. That slice of recommendations is your AI share of voice.
It runs on your own AI keys, like everything else in BackTalk: no markup, no metering, and the models answer exactly as they would for a real user of that provider.
How it works
- You define topics. A topic is one buying decision: the questions buyers ask (its prompts), the names your product goes by (your aliases), and the competitors to watch. Manage them under AI visibility → Manage topics.
- BackTalk asks the models. On every probe, each prompt is asked several times per model, because answers vary run to run. One-off answers are noise; repeated samples are a signal.
- Mentions are extracted. Your default AI key reads each answer and records which brands were recommended, in what order, plus any new names it saw and any citations the model returned.
- You read the standings. Share of voice is your slice of all tracked-brand mentions. The dashboard shows the leaderboard, the trend, and per-model splits; click any prompt to read the actual answers behind the numbers.
Set it up
Two steps, both on the AI visibility page the first time you visit:
- Add AI provider keys in Settings. Every saved key with Probe enabled takes part; the toggle is on each provider card. More providers means a fuller picture, but even one works.
- Create your first topic with a few prompts, your aliases, and the competitors you care about.
Your first results arrive on the next scheduled probe, or immediately with Probe now on Pro and Business.
Probe cadence by plan
| Plan | Scheduled probes | Manual "Probe now" |
|---|---|---|
| Solo | Weekly | Not included |
| Pro | Daily | 6 per day |
| Business | Daily | Unlimited |
Owners and admins can dial the cadence down (or off) in Settings → AI visibility to save tokens; the plan sets the fastest allowed. Solo tracks up to 3 topics; Pro and Business are unlimited.
Events in your inbox
Probe results file events into the same inbox as your listening signals, under the AI answers source:
- Rank changes, for example a competitor overtaking you on Gemini.
- Wins, when you take the top spot, and streak milestones at 7 and 30 days.
- New competitors, when models start recommending a name you don't track yet.
They obey the same triage flow as every other signal, and the AI visibility badge in the nav counts the ones you haven't seen.
What it costs
Probing spends tokens on your own provider keys, at each provider's rates, with no markup from BackTalk. A daily probe of one topic with five prompts across four providers is typically a few cents a day; the extraction step runs on your cheapest default key. Dial the cadence down any time.
Troubleshooting
- A red dot on the sync trigger means a recent probe run had a failing model. Open the dropdown, then View sync history for the per-model error, usually an expired or unfunded key.
- A model's data is stale: the dashboard says so next to the charts and keeps showing its last good numbers. Fix the key in Settings and the next probe catches it up.
- A new topic shows no numbers yet: it was added after the last probe. It joins the next scheduled pass, or press Probe now.
API and MCP
Everything above is available programmatically: GET /api/v1/ai/topics, GET /api/v1/ai/share-of-voice and GET /api/v1/ai/answers on the REST API, and the list_ai_topics, get_share_of_voice and list_ai_answers tools on the MCP server.