Google now shows merchants how often their products appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. That visibility is reported as a share of voice percentage measured against your competitors. You find it in Google Merchant Center under Analytics, then Products, then the AI performance tab.
At TJ Digital we run about 4,000 prompts every day across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Mode. Until now that kind of simulation was the only way to estimate AI visibility. This report replaces the guesswork with numbers from Google.
This is the most valuable real-world performance data we have received for AI search results. It is currently limited to e-commerce businesses with a Merchant Center product feed. It also shows the kind of data Google could eventually share with every business.
What Is the Google Merchant Center AI Performance Report?
The AI performance report is a dashboard inside Merchant Center that shows how often your products get surfaced in Google’s AI shopping answers. It covers AI Mode, AI Overviews in Search, and the Gemini app. Google built it into the same account retailers already use for Shopping ads reporting.
The dashboard is built around four sections:
- Share of voice. How often your products appear compared to your competitors.
- Shopping funnel performance. Whether you appear during discovery, evaluation, or purchase.
- Product term insights. The popular product terms shoppers used, with your share of voice on each.
- Product attribute insights. Which specifications shoppers ask about, and which of your listings are missing them.
What Does Share of Voice Mean in AI Search?
Share of voice is your AI impressions divided by the total AI impressions for you and your competitors on related queries. A share of voice of 20% means your products appeared in a fifth of the relevant AI shopping answers Google measured. Merchant Center also reports your competitors’ average share so you can tell whether you sit above or below the market.
That competitor number comes from the competitor set configured in your account. According to Google’s Merchant Center help documentation, the benchmark is drawn from the competitors already defined in Merchant Center. An account with no competitors defined will report 100% share of voice, which tells you nothing.
Why Is Share of Voice the Only Real Performance Data in AI Search?
Most AI searches never result in a click. Attributing a sale back to an AI answer is close to impossible right now. That leaves appearance frequency as the only honest measure of performance we have.
Google’s report reflects that reality. It reports impressions only, with no clicks, no conversions, and no revenue attached. Knowing how often your product gets recommended compared to a competitor’s product is the performance signal available today.
AI visibility still carries real commercial weight. We have written before about how AI is eating website traffic while the recommendation itself keeps happening. Being the brand inside that recommendation is worth more than the click used to be.
How Is the Merchant Center AI Report Different From Google Search Console?
Search Console tells you whether your pages appeared in AI answers and how many times. Merchant Center tells you how your products performed against competitors and for which kinds of queries. The Merchant Center version gives retailers far more to work with.
| What you get | Search Console AI data | Merchant Center AI performance |
| Scope | Every page on your site | Products in your Merchant Center feed |
| Core metric | Impressions by URL | Share of voice against competitors |
| Query detail | None | Query types and popular product terms |
| Funnel view | None | Discovery, evaluation, and purchase |
| Competitive benchmark | None | Competitors’ average share |
| Availability | Available broadly | US pilot, four more countries announced |
Both reports have a job. Search Console is where you confirm your content is appearing in AI answers at all. Our guide to tracking AI in Search Console covers that side.
Merchant Center is where you find out whether your products are winning or losing against the brands you compete with.
Why Doesn’t Google Show the Exact Queries Your Products Appear For?
Queries in AI search run long enough that essentially every one is unique. A list of exact queries would be millions of rows that each got searched a single time. That data would be effectively unusable.
Google groups the queries into categories. The report shows query types such as searching by category, searching by product specification, and looking for reviews. It also surfaces the popular product terms shoppers used in AI conversations, with your share of voice on each one.
Every query type comes with a popularity figure beside it. A popular query type where your share of voice is low is the clearest optimization target the report hands you.
What Does the AI Performance Report Mean If You Don’t Sell Products Online?
Merchant Center only applies to e-commerce, so the dashboard itself is out of reach for service businesses. The report still matters to everyone else because it shows what Google is willing to measure and hand back.
Google has the same underlying data for non-shopping AI answers. The company has now demonstrated it can report share of voice, query type, and funnel stage without exposing individual queries. My hope is that similar data reaches Google Search Console for every website.
How Should E-commerce Brands Prepare Before the Report Reaches Their Account?
Get your feed and your competitor set in order now so the numbers mean something on the day the tab appears. The report is in a limited US pilot with four more countries announced. There is no application process, so preparation is the only thing you control.
- Fill in complete product data, including color, material, style, and function.
- Add conversational attributes so your descriptions match how shoppers actually ask.
- Define your competitor set in Merchant Center so share of voice has a benchmark.
- Watch AI impressions in Search Console now to build a baseline for comparison.
- Check the Analytics and Products menu monthly for the AI performance tab.
Feed quality is the piece most brands underestimate. Our guide to product feeds for AI shopping walks through the registration and data steps for both Google and ChatGPT.
What Else Should You Know About Google’s AI Shopping Data?
Who can see the AI performance report right now?
Only a limited set of Merchant Center accounts in the US can see the report right now. Google has said it expands to Canada, Australia, India, and New Zealand in the coming months.
Does the AI performance report include paid Shopping ads?
No. The report covers organic AI traffic from free listings only. Paid ads are excluded.
How do you turn on the AI performance report?
There is no setting to switch on and no way to request access. Accounts in the pilot see an AI performance tab under Analytics and then Products. Everyone else waits for the rollout.
What should you do with a low share of voice?
Look at which query types drive it. A low share on a popular query type usually points at missing product attributes or descriptions that do not match how shoppers phrase the question.
How Do You Start Tracking Your AI Visibility?
AI visibility is now a number you can track. Brands that put it on the dashboard will move faster than brands still guessing. Contact TJ Digital and we will show you where your brand stands in AI search today.