VisibAI will be at Web Summit 2026 in Lisbon, November 9 to 12, as one of the startups selected for the ALPHA programme. We are coming with one message: it does not matter what your business sells, who it sells to, or how big it is. When a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Claude for a recommendation, the answer is a short list of names, and you are either on it or you are not. VisibAI measures which one, and shows you how to change it.
TL;DR
- VisibAI exhibits at Web Summit 2026 (Lisbon, November 9 to 12) in the ALPHA startup programme. Bring your website and we will audit it live.
- AI visibility matters for every business that gets chosen after someone asks a question: SaaS, local services, e-commerce, agencies, niche B2B and professional services.
- The NBA now uses AI to measure things basketball always valued but never counted. Brand presence in AI answers is the same kind of hidden stat.
- Our own padel directory, need4padel, went from 30 to 49 out of 100 after a structural rebuild.
- Firms on Record, our new US directory of law firms and insurance agencies, publishes AI visibility measurements next to public license records.
When and where is VisibAI at Web Summit 2026?
Web Summit 2026 runs from Monday November 9 to Thursday November 12 at the MEO Arena and FIL in Lisbon's Parque das Nacoes. VisibAI takes part as an ALPHA startup, the Web Summit track for early-stage companies, so you will find us on the startup floor running live AI visibility audits for anyone who stops by.
Web Summit expects more than 70,000 attendees this year, with thousands of startups, investors and journalists in one place. That is a lot of brands, and very few of them know how often an AI assistant mentions them. We want to change that one conversation at a time.
If you want a guaranteed slot, email francesco@getvisibai.com with your website and a time that suits you, or connect with us in the Web Summit app. Founders, marketers, agencies and investors are all welcome. We will post our exhibition day and stand location on LinkedIn once they are confirmed.
Does AI visibility matter for every type of business?
Yes. Any business that is chosen after someone asks a question is affected, because the question increasingly goes to an AI assistant first. The assistant does not show ten links. It names two or three options with confidence, and the buyer usually starts there.
What decides those names has little to do with company size or budget. Models repeat the story the web tells most clearly and most consistently about a category. That is why the same logic applies across very different businesses:
- B2B SaaS: buyers build their shortlist in an assistant before the first demo. We covered this in AI visibility for B2B SaaS.
- Local and service businesses: "best family dentist near me" is now a chat prompt as often as a map search. See the local and service business playbook.
- E-commerce: product recommendations shape what gets bought. See why product pages are invisible to ChatGPT.
- Agencies: clients are already asking why they do not appear in AI answers. VisibAI runs white-label audits for agencies.
- Niche B2B and professional services: small markets have fewer sources, so a handful of clear pages can decide who the model names. The two directories below show what that looks like in practice.
What can the NBA's new AI stats teach a business about visibility?
The 2026-27 NBA season tips off on Tuesday October 20, with the Celtics visiting the Pistons and the defending champion Knicks opening their title defence against a 76ers team that now includes LeBron James. The full schedule runs through April 11, 2027.
Behind the broadcasts, the league is running a quieter experiment. Through its partnership with AWS, the NBA launched NBA Inside the Game, a platform that processes player tracking data covering 29 data points per player and uses machine learning to produce stats that were never measured before (Amazon announcement). The first set included a defensive box score, a shot difficulty measure, a "gravity" metric for how strongly a player pulls defenders toward him, and Play Finder, which searches for similar plays across thousands of games.
Defense and gravity always decided games. Coaches knew it, players felt it, and box scores ignored it because nobody could count it. AI made the invisible part measurable.
Brand presence in AI answers is exactly that kind of stat. It already decides who gets the deal. Most businesses simply have no number for it. Here is how the NBA's new metrics map onto what VisibAI measures:
| NBA AI stat | What it captures | AI visibility equivalent | What it captures for a brand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gravity | How much attention a player draws without touching the ball | Mention rate on non-branded queries | How often AI names you when the buyer did not ask about you |
| Defensive box score | Who actually guarded whom | Competitor share of voice | Which rival is taking the answer you should be in |
| Shot difficulty | How hard each attempt really was | Query tiers and platform coverage | Where you win easily and where the answer is contested |
| Play Finder | Finding patterns across thousands of plays | Cited sources and content gaps | Which sources the models trust, and what they say about your category |
The lesson for any business is the same as the lesson for a front office: you cannot coach what you do not measure. A brand with strong gravity gets named in category questions it was never directly asked about. A brand without it is invisible, however good the product is.
How does a niche B2B directory like need4padel get found by AI?
need4padel is an independent directory of companies serving the padel industry: court builders, booking software, camera systems, equipment brands and services. It currently lists 96 companies across 15 categories and 22 countries, a very specific market where buyers often ask an assistant "who builds padel courts in my country" before they ever search.
We use need4padel as our own before-and-after case study. Its first VisibAI audit scored 30 out of 100. We then rebuilt the site around what models need to understand it: JSON-LD structured data, a visible FAQ written as clean question-and-answer pairs, and an llms.txt file. A second audit with identical settings scored 49 out of 100.
Two things are worth taking from that result. First, on-site structure moves the part of the score you control, quickly. Second, the remaining gap is mostly about coverage on other sites, which takes outreach and time. No rebuild skips that step. need4padel is part of Padel Visible, our vertical agency for padel clubs and suppliers, and it is proof that even a narrow, young B2B niche can be measured and improved.
What is Firms on Record?
Firms on Record is a new US directory of law firms and insurance agencies, powered by VisibAI. Every listing starts from a public license record published by a state bar, a court or a state insurance department, across all 50 states and DC. Profiles link only to the firm's own phone number and website, with no lead routing and no paid placement in the ordering.
What makes it different is the third column of data. Next to license status and contact details, Firms on Record measures how often ChatGPT, Google AI and Perplexity mention each business, using a fixed prompt set and a published methodology. It is a measurement, never a rating.
Legal and insurance are high-stakes, high-intent categories. Someone asking an assistant for a car accident lawyer or a renters insurance agent in their city wants a short list and usually acts on it. Firms deserve to know whether they are on that list. Law firms and agencies can claim a free profile and get one AI visibility measurement at claim time, or run the free AI Visibility Check today. The first state-by-state AI Visibility Index report is in preparation.
What will we show at Web Summit?
At the stand we run real audits on real brands, live. You give us a URL, and within minutes you see:
- A 0 to 100 AI visibility score across the answer engines your plan covers.
- Competitor share of voice: which rivals AI names instead of you, and how often.
- A prioritised fix list, plus downloadable fix files you can hand to a developer.
- An AI action plan with the next five steps for your specific site.
For agencies, we will also show the white-label layer: client workspaces, branded reports and multi-client monitoring. If you are an investor, we are raising a pre-seed round and are happy to walk you through the product and the traction.
How can you check your AI visibility before Lisbon?
You do not need to wait for November. Three quick checks take less than ten minutes:
- Can AI crawlers read your site? Run the free AI Crawler Checker. A blocked crawler is the most common reason a good business is invisible.
- Does your site explain itself to models? Generate an llms.txt with the free llms.txt Generator, and write key pages as clear answers to clear questions, following our Q&A content playbook.
- What does AI actually say about you? Run a free AI visibility audit. Bring the result to Lisbon and we will go through it with you.
Frequently asked questions
When is Web Summit 2026?
Web Summit 2026 takes place in Lisbon from Monday November 9 to Thursday November 12, 2026, at the MEO Arena and FIL. The opening night is on November 9, with the main conference days from November 10 to 12.
How can I meet VisibAI at Web Summit 2026?
VisibAI exhibits as an ALPHA startup. Email francesco@getvisibai.com to book a time, or connect with us in the Web Summit app. We will run a live AI visibility audit of your website during the meeting.
What is AI visibility?
AI visibility is how often, and how favourably, AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude mention your brand when people ask about your category. It is measured on questions where the buyer did not name you, because those are the answers that create new customers. Our complete guide covers the basics.
Does AI visibility matter for small or niche businesses?
Yes, and often more than for large brands. Niche markets have fewer sources for a model to draw on, so a small number of clear, well-structured pages and a few trusted third-party mentions can decide who gets named. Our own padel directory improved from 30 to 49 out of 100 after a structural rebuild.
Is Firms on Record a lawyer referral service?
No. Firms on Record is a directory and advertising medium built on public licensing records. It does not refer clients, route leads, recommend or endorse any listing. Its AI visibility data is a measurement produced with VisibAI's methodology, never a rating of a firm's quality.
How long does it take to improve AI visibility?
Technical fixes such as unblocking AI crawlers, adding structured data and publishing llms.txt can show up in grounded engines like Perplexity within weeks. Building coverage on third-party sources, which models rely on heavily, usually takes a few months of steady work. Re-measuring monthly is enough to see whether the work is paying off.
See where your own brand lands
The NBA spent decades valuing defense it could not count. Most businesses are in the same position with AI answers today. Measure it once, and the next steps become obvious.
Run a free AI visibility audit, then come and find us in Lisbon.