Identity consulting firms: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank identity consulting firms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Identity consulting firms helping enterprises design IAM strategy, implement access controls, modernize authentication, and improve identity governance and security operations. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
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When AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity answer questions about identity consulting firms, EY comes up most often, appearing in 62.5% of AI-generated responses across the engines tracked. Simeio and IDMWORKS round out the top three, making these three the names buyers will encounter most when researching this category through AI tools.
The rankings reflect which sources AI engines trust most when building their answers. Gartner.com dominates citations in this category, which means analyst coverage and Magic Quadrant placements carry significant weight. Reddit also appears in the top sources, suggesting that practitioner discussion threads influence AI outputs alongside formal analyst reports. Vendor sites like simeio.com also earn direct citations, rewarding firms that publish authoritative technical content.
When comparing firms on this list, pay attention to third-party validation rather than self-reported credentials. AI engines weight Gartner coverage and community reputation heavily, so a firm ranked lower here may simply lack that external footprint rather than lack capability. If your identity project falls into a specific subcategory (PAM, IGA, or customer identity), search that term directly in an AI tool to see which firms surface for your actual use case.
At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
EY leads the identity consulting firms category with a visibility score of 62.5%, which is more than six times the category average of 10.0%. Simeio and IDMWORKS both sit at 50.0% visibility, making the top three a clear cluster separated from a second group where Deloitte, Accenture, and PwC each register only 12.5%. Brands ranked seventh through tenth, including KPMG, IBM Consulting, and Capgemini, score zero on both visibility and citation, showing a hard cutoff rather than a gradual decline.
EY's top visibility score does not translate into citations, as its citation rate is 0.0% against Simeio's 25.0% and IDMWORKS's 12.5%. This means EY is named frequently in AI-generated responses but is not being sourced as an authority, while Simeio is both named and cited, giving it a stronger trust signal despite lower raw visibility. Deloitte matches IDMWORKS on citation rate at 12.5% but achieves this from a much lower visibility base of 12.5%, suggesting its citations come from a narrow set of queries.
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in this dataset, indicating the entire category's AI visibility landscape is effectively a single-engine story. Among the top cited sources, gartner.com and solutionsreview.com appear alongside reddit.com and specialist domains such as infisign.ai and n-ix.com, suggesting the AI is drawing from analyst directories, community discussions, and niche identity-focused publishers rather than the consulting firms' own domains. Simeio is the only brand appearing in both the top cited sources list and the top brand rankings.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
EY 0% → 62% · rank #0 → #1+62pp
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Simeio 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #2+50pp
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IDMWORKS 0% → 50% · rank #0 → #3+50pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
ey.com
|
62% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
EY leads all brands with 62.5% visibility, more than six times the 10.0% category average, yet records a 0.0% citation rate, the lowest among the top three. |
||||
| 2 |
simeio.com
|
50% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Simeio matches IDMWORKS on visibility at 50.0% but doubles its citation rate at 25.0%, making it the only top-three brand cited as a source by Google AI Mode. |
||||
| 3 |
idmworks.com
|
50% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
IDMWORKS holds 50.0% visibility and a 12.5% citation rate, positioning it above all Big Four firms on both metrics despite being a specialist rather than a global consultancy. |
||||
| 4 |
deloitte.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Deloitte scores 12.5% on both visibility and citation, giving it the highest citation-to-visibility ratio in the top five but an overall composite score of just 12.5. |
||||
| 5 |
accenture.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Accenture sits at 12.5% visibility with a 0.0% citation rate and a composite score of 8.8, identical to PwC and well below the three firms ranked above it. |
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| 6 |
pwc.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
saviynt.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
kpmg.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
ibm.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
capgemini.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
guidepointsecurity.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
optiv.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
sada.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
rsmus.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
cognizant.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
wipro.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
infosys.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
tcs.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
hcltech.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
cyberark.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on identity consulting firms, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Get your own identity consulting firms brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about identity consulting firms AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in identity consulting firms?
EY leads with a visibility score of 62.5%, followed by Simeio and IDMWORKS both at 50.0%. All three are significantly above the category average of 10.0%.
Which brand is most cited as a source by AI in this category?
Simeio has the highest citation rate at 25.0%, and it is the only brand that appears in both the top brand rankings and the top cited sources list for this category.
How do large global consultancies like Deloitte and Accenture perform compared to specialists?
Deloitte and Accenture each score only 12.5% visibility, well below specialists EY, Simeio, and IDMWORKS, and KPMG and IBM Consulting score zero on all metrics.
What sources does AI cite most for identity consulting research?
The top cited sources include gartner.com, reddit.com, solutionsreview.com, and specialist sites such as infisign.ai and n-ix.com, alongside simeio.com as the only consulting brand domain in the list.
Which AI engine is driving visibility in this category?
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in the dataset, making it the sole engine of record for this category's entire AI visibility landscape.
Is high visibility in this category the same as being cited as a trusted source?
No. EY has the highest visibility at 62.5% but a 0.0% citation rate, while Simeio's 25.0% citation rate shows it is trusted as a source despite lower overall visibility than EY.