Overview

The client is one of India’s leading private sector banks, offering a comprehensive portfolio of retail and business banking products, including personal loans, savings accounts, credit cards, fixed deposits, and investment solutions. While the brand maintained a strong presence across high-intent banking searches and enjoyed significant visibility in traditional search results, the objective was to strengthen its visibility across AI-powered discovery platforms, where customers were increasingly seeking financial recommendations and product comparisons before making decisions.

Objectives

A baseline audit of more than 500 banking prompts revealed a significant visibility gap. Despite ranking among the top three results on Google for high-value banking keywords, the bank appeared in only around 12% of AI-generated responses, while competing banks and fintech brands were recommended far more frequently.

The challenge extended beyond visibility alone. Each AI platform evaluated and surfaced brands differently. ChatGPT favoured established brand authority and trusted media mentions, Google AI Overviews relied heavily on search visibility, Gemini prioritised fresh signals from the Google ecosystem, and Perplexity preferred well-cited, authoritative sources. Improving AI visibility therefore required a platform-specific optimisation strategy rather than a single, uniform approach.

Key Strategies Implemented

1. AI Visibility Audit Across Platforms

Conducted a comprehensive audit of more than 500 banking prompts to benchmark the bank’s visibility across leading AI platforms. The findings identified platform-specific gaps, competitor strengths, and opportunities, forming the foundation for a tailored AI visibility strategy.

2. Strengthening Brand Authority

Enhanced the bank’s digital authority through strategic media placements, expert-led content, and authoritative brand mentions across trusted financial publications. This strengthened the signals used by AI platforms when recommending financial institutions.

3. Optimising for AI-Powered Search

Built on the bank’s strong organic search presence by improving structured data, enhancing high-intent product and comparison pages, and strengthening topical authority. These optimisations increased the likelihood of the bank’s content being surfaced in AI-generated responses.

4. Creating Citation-Ready Content

Developed transparent, research-backed content with credible sources and product comparisons to improve visibility across AI platforms that prioritise well-cited and authoritative information for recommendation and comparison queries.

Results

Over six months (Jan ’26 to Jun ’26), the bank moved from near-invisible to a consistent AI presence and unusually, ended up stronger on ChatGPT than on Perplexity, inverting the pattern seen for most brands.

• Average AI Visibility Across AI Platforms
  Increased by 180% in 6 months, from approximately 12% to 34.5% of tracked prompts.
• ChatGPT Visibility
  Reached 40%, with the bank appearing in 2 out of every 5 relevant banking queries, ahead of its 25% visibility on Perplexity.
• Google AI Overview Visibility
  Increased to 38% from approximately 11%, extending the bank’s strong organic search presence into AI-generated answers.