Brandi AI’s new AI Visibility Index for the Fresh Dog Food Market Universe shows how generative AI decides which brands get cited, mentioned or ignored

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Brandi AI™, the leading platform for enterprise AI visibility and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), today released its AI Visibility Index for the Fresh Dog Food Market Universe. This first-of-its-kind analysis reveals how generative AI, such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, decide which brands buyers see in AI answers, and which are ignored. The analysis was conducted using Brandi AI’s proprietary platform and is based on structured intelligence derived directly from thousands of AI-generated answers, revealing how brands are interpreted, cited and used by AI systems to explain the market category.

As more pet owners use generative AI for guidance on what, how and which brands to feed their pups, a consequential shift is underway: AI isn’t summarizing options; it is actively shaping buyer understanding of the category by deciding which brands are introduced, compared and excluded before a consumer ever visits a website.

To understand how AI trust is formed—and which signals large language models (LLMs) rely on—Brandi AI analyzed over 17,500 answers. The data was collected daily over one month (January 1–31, 2026) from seven major AI platforms—ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Google Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity. By analyzing what generative AI includes, emphasizes and leaves out, the Brandi AI Visibility Index shows how AI actually makes brand recommendations.

The Brandi AI analysis reveals a clear hierarchy in how AI introduces and frames fresh dog food brands for consumers. High performers in the Fresh Dog Food Index include:

Top Dog: The Farmer’s Dog — The Farmer’s Dog consistently comes out on top in AI answers. Generative AI brings it up unprompted, uses it for comparisons and maintains a positive tone across buyer queries. When other brands enter the conversation, The Farmer’s Dog remains the narrative anchor.
Fastest of the Pack: Hill’s Pet Nutrition — Hill’s Pet Nutrition saw the biggest jump in AI citations, growing its mentions by over 300%. AI answer engines trust the brand’s medical and academic backing. Veterinary guidance and scientific research provide strong authority signals, leading to rapid increases in inclusion for Hill’s when health-related queries arise.
Small Bark, Big Bite: Spot & Tango — Spot & Tango is a smaller brand, but generative AI treats it like a much bigger player. Despite holding less than 5% U.S. market share, the brand earns 15% GEO Awareness (how often it’s mentioned in AI answers) and 5.2% GEO Share of Voice (its share of total brand mentions in AI answers), and is the second-most cited domain in AI answers.

The Index shows that AI visibility and GEO Awareness are not driven solely by brand messaging. It is also shaped by a set of non-brand sources that AI uses to explain the Fresh Dog Food Market Universe. Top non-brand sources include:

Top Media —Forbes, Business Insider and NBC News are the most influential media domains shaping AI explanations of the fresh dog food category.
Top Product Reviews — Business Insider’s The Best Fresh Dog Food Brands in 2026, and PetMD by Chewy’s The Pros and Cons of Fresh Dog Food and 9 Best Dog Foods for Dogs with Allergies in 2026 account for a disproportionate share of AI citations.
Top Institutional & Scientific Sources — The American Kennel Club, the National Institutes of Health and Tufts University are the most-cited institutional authorities.
Top User-Generated & Social Media Platforms — AI answers frequently draw from Reddit threads, YouTube reviews and Facebook group discussions where pet owners share first-hand experiences with fresh dog food brands.

These findings reveal two fundamental truths challenging common marketing assumptions:

Generative AI does not treat all brands equally. Within each Market Universe, AI answers consistently draw from a narrow, recurring set of brands and sources that models have learned to trust through repeated citation across respected media, institutions and reference content. Many competing—even category-leading—brands never appear in AI-generated answers at all.
AI visibility does not directly correlate with popularity, positive reviews or large marketing budgets. AI models favor brands that make the category easier to explain through owned content and credible, third-party validation, including earned media, peer reviews and user-generated content.

Taken together, the findings underscore that AI visibility is not a byproduct of brand strength or campaign activity, but the cumulative result of repeatable signals that AI systems learn to trust over time. That has direct implications for how brands approach Generative Engine Optimization.

“Generative Engine Optimization can’t be treated as a one-time initiative,” said Leah Nurik, CEO of Brandi AI. “The brands that consistently appear in AI answers are the ones reinforcing the signals AI relies on—structured, explainable content, credible third-party sources and sustained external validation. AI visibility is earned and maintained over time. When GEO isn’t operationalized as an ongoing discipline, those signals weaken and brands are gradually excluded from AI-generated conversations, regardless of how established they are.”

Brandi AI’s full AI Visibility Index for the Fresh Dog Food Market Universe is available here: https://mybrandi.ai/ai-visibility-index-for-the-fresh-dog-food-market-universe.

For more information about Brandi AI, visit https://mybrandi.ai.

About Brandi AI
Brandi AI™ is the leading platform for enterprise AI visibility and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Built on a powerful intelligence layer, Brandi helps organizations stay visible as online discovery shifts from search engines to AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, revealing where brands stand in this new landscape. Brandi tracks the high-intent questions buyers ask AI and shows whether—and how—a brand is mentioned or cited in AI-generated answers. With this foundation, Brandi provides data-driven guidance and optimization tools to help marketers refine existing web content and create new AI-ready content designed to earn brand mentions and citations in AI answer engines. Used by Fortune 500s, global agencies and mid-market brands across B2C and B2B industries, Brandi supports CMOs and product marketers in defining category strategy and content, and PR, SEO, and digital marketing teams in driving visibility. For more information, visit mybrandi.ai. Follow Brandi AI on LinkedIn.

Media contact:
Michael Tebo
Gabriel Marketing Group (for Brandi AI)
Email: [email protected]

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