Measuring AI visibility: how practices can see whether ChatGPT and Google mention them

In short: AI visibility shows whether your practice is mentioned when patients ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Overview about a treatment in their city. You can measure it with a fixed list of typical patient questions that you ask and evaluate regularly: are you mentioned, in which position, and who appears alongside you? Most practices start from zero.

It is worth it because the AI chat comes before the website. People who arrive from there are already informed and make more targeted enquiries. In this article we show which metrics matter, how to measure it yourself in 30 minutes a month, and where every measurement reaches its limits.

Why measuring is worthwhile for practices

Patients now type or speak their question into the chat, read the answer and follow up in a few steps. Many then no longer click through to a website; these are known as zero-click searches. What this means for search as a whole is covered in our SEO and GEO trends 2026. For practices it means fewer visitors, but those who do come already trust you.

Where an enquiry ultimately comes from often cannot be traced cleanly. Some patients mention in conversation that they found you via AI; many do not. Our figure is therefore an estimate based on experience with our clients, not a measurement:

Which AI visibility metrics matter

There is no single number for AI visibility. The measurement only becomes meaningful when you put several metrics side by side:

Our article on healthcare marketing KPIs shows how these values fit with classic marketing metrics.

Measuring AI visibility yourself: 30 minutes a month

For an initial overview you do not need a tool. Half an hour a month is enough.

The third step is the most important. In response to the first, general question, the AI usually lists well-known names. Only when you narrow it down by district or specialty do you see at which level your practice appears and where it is missing.

Question list for a self-test

Replace the details in brackets with your specialty, your city and your areas of focus:

1. Which [dental practice] in [city] can you recommend?
2. Where can I get [implants] in [city]?
3. Which practice in [district] has good reviews for [treatment]?
4. Which [dental practice] in [city] specialises in [cosmetic dentistry]?
5. What should I look for when choosing a [dentist] in [city]?
6. Which practice in [city] takes time for [anxious patients]?
7. Which practice in [city] has appointments in the [evening] or on [Saturdays]?
8. Roughly how much does [treatment] cost in [city]?
9. What do you know about [practice name] in [city]?

The last question on the list leads to a separate check: is what the AI says about your practice correct? How to find and correct wrong opening hours, addresses or services is explained in the article What ChatGPT says about your practice.

What Google Search Console shows about AI search

Since June 2026, Search Console has had its own report for the AI features in Google Search (Google Search Central, June 2026), available for all websites worldwide since 31 August 2026 (Search Engine Journal). It shows how often your pages appeared in the AI Overview and in AI Mode, broken down by page, country, date and device.

What it does not show: clicks, positions and the questions that triggered the display. So you can see that Google showed your page in an AI answer, but not for what.

The standard performance report gives a clue to the questions. More and more long queries appear there that sound like questions to an AI, on our own website too. They show the context in which patients search for your services. Visits via ChatGPT, Gemini and the like can be found in Google Analytics 4, but the sources are not yet cleanly separated there. How to set the right filter is explained in our SEO trends.

How we measure AI visibility at MedDirection

For our clients we work in four steps:

• Check the website: is it easy for AI systems to read, with a clear structure and structured data?
• Evaluate with tools: for which questions is the practice already mentioned or linked as a source, and who appears alongside it?
• Check the 20 most important patient questions: in ChatGPT, Google's AI Overview, AI Mode and Gemini, and on request also in Perplexity or Claude.
• Record mentions and position: we ask every question several times so that chance hits do not count.

We start with a one-off quick check, then measure again every quarter. In our ongoing programme we compare weekly to daily and ask from different locations, because answers vary by place.

This is what an extract from such an evaluation looks like, here for typical questions about dental practices in Berlin:

The same question produces very different answers depending on the system. For “Dental practices in Berlin and the surrounding area”, Google's AI Mode lists nine names and links 21 sources, while Gemini does not name a single one. If you only ask in one system, you only see part of the picture.

For ongoing, professional measurement we combine several paid tools, such as Semrush, Sistrix, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Peec AI or Otterly.ai. The market is changing quickly, and depending on scope this adds up to several hundred to several thousand euros a month. Our free AI visibility check gives you a first impression for your practice.

For hospitals with several specialist departments, measurement looks different: more questions, more locations, more competitors. That is best clarified in a conversation.

Example: Elbimplant in Dresden

At the start, the newly founded practice Elbimplant in Dresden did not appear in any AI answer. We laid the foundations first: a clear website structure, structured data layers and a separate subpage with local relevance for every service. That alone brought the first one or two mentions in AI answers within the first few weeks. Only then came the real work: researching patient questions, useful FAQs and connections between the pages.

How quickly this happens depends on the starting point. A practice that is already listed with the KV (the regional Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians), on the doctor rating portal Jameda or with an established website makes much faster progress than a brand-new offering. In that case it takes time before search engines and AI systems even find and classify the pages.

What influences mentions and what is overrated

For most websites, the first lever is not clever questions and answers but the basics: structure, structured data, locally described services and often simply missing, outdated or broken links. After that, what counts is the interplay of Google Business Profile, mentions on other sites, social media and good content. Which of these will do the most for your practice only becomes clear once we look at your starting point.

What is overrated is the quick fix: ask the AI a few questions, write an article, add an FAQ, done. It is not that simple, and the rules keep changing.

In our impression there is a difference between Google and ChatGPT: Google's AI Overview relies more heavily on pages that already rank high in classic search. Being mentioned in ChatGPT or Gemini is often harder.

What surprised us is how little of it is technical. Mostly it is common sense: what interests patients, and what does the machine need in order to understand it?

Can a practice win patients via ChatGPT?

Yes, as an additional channel. The AI chat comes before the website, similar to social media or even earlier. Patients rarely come straight from ChatGPT into the practice, but they arrive at your website already informed and are more likely to get in touch.

OpenAI is currently testing ads in ChatGPT, and we have been gaining experience with them since August. For practices they are a pilot project for now: suitable if you want to try something new and have budget for a test. There are no clear benchmarks yet. Whether your advertising for healthcare services is permitted there should be checked by a lawyer in each individual case. More on this in our ChatGPT Ads service.

Conclusion

AI visibility can be measured, just not down to the exact position. A fixed list of questions, asked once a month in ChatGPT, Google and Gemini, shows you where your practice stands and whether anything is changing. Most practices start from zero, and the first mentions often come within weeks once the basics are right.

Want to build your practice's visibility in search and AI answers for the long term? That is what our SEO and AI visibility service is for.