AEO for incident response platforms: AI search visibility ranking
How AI search engines rank incident response platforms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured quarterly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Security and operations platforms used to coordinate investigations, automate response steps, and manage incident workflows under pressure. 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 are asked about Incident response platforms, Rootly stands out as the leader, being mentioned in responses 50% of the time. Other prominent brands include PagerDuty and Cortex XSOAR. Rootly's commanding position is reflected in its frequent citation by AI, highlighting its strong presence and credibility in the market.
The rankings reflect the sources AI engines frequently cite, with rootly.com, atlassystems.com, and underdefense.com leading the pack. Many of these are aggregator or review sites, underscoring the importance of peer reviews and third-party validations. This reliance on authoritative sources emphasizes well-rounded platforms favored by both experts and users alike.
For a buyer evaluating this list, it is critical to consider the criteria AI engines prioritize, such as recent reviews and third-party validation. Focus on platforms with high visibility and strong endorsements from authoritative sources to ensure you select a product that is both reputable and suited to your specific needs in the incident response sphere.
At a glance
What we observed in this category
Rootly leads the incident response platforms category with a composite score of 57.5, well ahead of second-placed PagerDuty at 30.0. That 27.5-point gap is significant because it reflects dominance across both visibility (50.0%) and citation (75.0%), meaning AI Mode not only mentions Rootly frequently but actively links back to rootly.com as a source. The category average visibility sits at just 6.9%, making Rootly's 50.0% an outlier that shapes how AI Mode frames the entire category.
PagerDuty illustrates a sharp divergence between being named and being cited. Its visibility of 37.5% is the second highest in the category, yet its citation rate is only 12.5%, compared to Rootly's 75.0%. Cortex XSOAR shows the inverse pattern to a degree, with visibility at 12.5% but citations at 25.0%, suggesting AI Mode finds its source material more trustworthy than its brand mentions alone imply. Tines and Torq are named at 12.5% visibility each but receive zero citations, placing them in a named-but-not-trusted tier.
All top brands share Google AI Mode as their top engine, confirming this category's AI visibility is concentrated entirely within that one surface. Among the top cited sources, rootly.com appears alongside third-party domains including gartner.com, knowbe4.com, and underdefense.com, indicating AI Mode anchors responses on a mix of vendor content and analyst or security-specialist publishers. YouTube also appears in the cited sources list, suggesting AI Mode draws on video content when constructing incident response answers.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
Rootly 38% → 50% · rank #1 → #1+12pp
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PagerDuty 25% → 38% · rank #2 → #2+12pp
-
Cortex XSOAR 0% → 12% · rank #4 → #3+12pp
The AEO ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
rootly.com
|
50% | 75% | Google AI Mode |
Rootly's 75.0% citation rate towers over the 6.2% category average, making it the single most trusted source in AI Mode responses for this category. |
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| 2 |
pagerduty.com
|
38% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
PagerDuty achieves 37.5% visibility but only 12.5% citation, a 25-point gap that signals AI Mode names it often yet rarely links back to pagerduty.com as a source. |
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| 3 |
paloaltonetworks.com
|
12% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Cortex XSOAR's citation rate of 25.0% exceeds its visibility of 12.5%, indicating paloaltonetworks.com earns more source trust than its raw mention frequency suggests. |
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| 4 |
splunk.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Splunk SOAR sits at 12.5% on both visibility and citation, a balanced but low position that matches the cluster floor for brands with any AI Mode presence at all. |
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| 5 |
tines.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Tines matches the 12.5% visibility floor shared by ranks 3 to 6 but records 0.0% citations, placing it firmly in the named-only tier with no source authority in AI Mode. |
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| 6 |
torq.io
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
google.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
swimlane.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
blinkops.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
sirp.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
ibm.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
d3security.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
xmatters.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
firehydrant.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
reliaquest.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
bigpanda.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
shoreline.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
servicenow.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
dflabs.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
rapid7.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on incident response platforms, 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 AEO 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 →
AEO 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 90 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Run an AEO audit on your own incident response platforms brand
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same answer engine optimisation 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 AEO for incident response platforms
Who leads AI visibility in incident response platforms?
Rootly leads with a composite score of 57.5, a visibility of 50.0%, and a citation rate of 75.0%, all well above the category averages of 6.9% and 6.2% respectively.
Which incident response platforms are named by AI but rarely cited as sources?
PagerDuty, Tines, and Torq all appear at 12.5% or higher visibility but carry citation rates of 12.5% or 0.0%, placing them in a named-but-not-trusted pattern.
What sources does AI Mode cite most for incident response platform research?
The top cited sources include rootly.com, gartner.com, knowbe4.com, underdefense.com, and youtube.com, reflecting a mix of vendor, analyst, and security-specialist content.
Which engine drives AI visibility for incident response platforms?
Google AI Mode is the top engine for every brand in the dataset, meaning visibility in this category is entirely dependent on that single surface.
How concentrated is AI visibility in this category?
Visibility is highly concentrated: Rootly and PagerDuty together hold 87.5 percentage points of visibility share, while 10 of the 20 tracked brands score 0.0% on both visibility and citation.
Which brands showed the strongest recent gains in AI visibility?
Rootly gained 12.5 percentage points in visibility and 25.0 points in citation in the latest period, while Cortex XSOAR entered the visible set for the first time with a 12.5-point visibility gain.