AEO Rankings · Finance

AEO for investor relations firms: AI search visibility ranking

By monitoraeo Last updated August 03, 2026 Refreshed every 90 days

How AI search engines rank investor relations firms 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. Investor relations firms helping public companies shape capital markets narratives, earnings communications, shareholder outreach, and IR strategy. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When buyers inquire about investor relations firms, AI engines frequently highlight ICR as the leading brand, with Teneo and Edelman Smithfield also receiving notable mentions. ICR stands out significantly, holding a visibility percentage of 62.5. This high level of visibility suggests that ICR is a dominant name recognized across multiple AI platforms.

The rankings are shaped by sources like growthequityinterviewguide.com, otcprgroup.com, and review aggregator sites such as clutch.co. These sources emphasize the reputation and performance of brands through expert insights and user reviews, suggesting a well-rounded validation of the top firms cited by AI engines.

For buyers evaluating their options on this page, attention should be given to brands backed by recent reviews and third-party validation. AI engines prioritize topical authority and up-to-date recommendations, indicating that brands with fresh credibility and recognition in specific investor relations subcategories may offer the most reliable services.

At a glance

Category leader ICR 62% visibility · named in 5 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand Teneo 50% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in investor relations firms

Top cited domain growthequityinterviewguide.com Referenced by AI across the investor relations firms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 62pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 15 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this category

ICR leads the investor relations AI visibility landscape with a 62.5% visibility score, more than 25 percentage points ahead of second-ranked Teneo at 37.5%. The category average sits at just 7.5%, meaning ICR is running at more than eight times the average. That gap is significant because it suggests AI responses in this category are effectively anchored on a single brand, leaving 15 of the 20 tracked firms with zero visibility and composite scores of 0.0.

The divergence between visibility and citation is striking at the top. ICR holds the highest visibility at 62.5% but carries a 0.0% citation rate, meaning it is named in AI responses but its domain is not being linked as a source. Teneo, by contrast, scores 50.0% on citations despite lower visibility at 37.5%, giving it a composite score of 41.2 versus ICR's 43.8. Being named and being cited appear to be separate outcomes in this category, and only Teneo currently achieves both.

The top cited sources in this category are predominantly third-party directories and editorial sites, including clutch.co, odwyerpr.com, and growthequityinterviewguide.com, rather than brand-owned domains. Teneo's own domain, teneo.com, is the only brand site appearing in the cited sources list. Google AI Mode is the top engine for every ranked brand, confirming that AI visibility in this category is almost entirely a Google AI Mode phenomenon with no meaningful distribution across other engines.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

ICR 0% → 62% · rank #2 → #1
+62pp
Teneo 12% → 38% · rank #1 → #2
+25pp
Edelman Smithfield 0% → 25% · rank #12 → #3
+25pp

The AEO ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	ICR icrinc.com	62%	0%	Google AI Mode
ICR leads all brands with 62.5% visibility, more than eight times the 7.5% category average, but its 0.0% citation rate means Google AI Mode names it without linking its domain.
2	Teneo teneo.com	38%	50%	Google AI Mode
Teneo is the only top-5 brand with a non-zero citation rate at 50.0%, and its domain is one of only eight sources Google AI Mode actively cites in this category.
3	Edelman Smithfield edelman.com	25%	0%	Google AI Mode
Edelman Smithfield jumped nine rank positions from 12th to 3rd with visibility rising from 0.0% to 25.0%, but its citation rate remains at 0.0%, matching the pattern of most named brands.
4	Joele Frank joelefrank.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Joele Frank sits at 12.5% visibility with a 0.0% citation rate and a composite score of 8.8, placing it level with FGS Global and well below the top three brands.
5	FGS Global fgsglobal.com	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
FGS Global shares rank 4 metrics identically with Joele Frank at 12.5% visibility and an 8.8 composite score, and its domain also appears on the Sard Verbinnen listing, suggesting a data anomaly.
6	Sard Verbinnen fgsglobal.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
7	Brunswick Group brunswickgroup.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	Morrow Sodali morrowsodali.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Notified notified.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	AlphaSense Corporate Solutions alpha-sense.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Lambert by LLYC lambert.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	H/Advisors Abernathy h-advisors.global	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	Addo Investor Relations addoir.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Vested fullyvested.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	Sloane & Company sloanepr.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	Water & Wall waterandwall.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	The Blueshirt Group blueshirtgroup.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Sapphire Investor Relations sapphireir.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	Cognito cognitomedia.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	Georgeson georgeson.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on investor relations 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.

growthequityinterviewguide.comotcprgroup.comclutch.cocollateral.comodwyerpr.comteneo.cominvestorreadycapital.comf6s.com

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 investor relations firms 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.

Audit your investor relations firms brand → Browse all AEO rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about AEO for investor relations firms

Who leads AI visibility among investor relations firms?

ICR leads with a 62.5% visibility score and a composite score of 43.8, more than eight times the category average of 7.5%. Teneo ranks second at 37.5% visibility with a composite score of 41.2.

Which investor relations brand is most cited by Google AI Mode?

Teneo is the only top-5 brand with a meaningful citation rate, scoring 50.0%, and its domain teneo.com is the only brand-owned site appearing in the category's top cited sources list.

What sources does Google AI Mode anchor on for investor relations queries?

The top cited sources are primarily third-party directories and editorial sites including clutch.co, odwyerpr.com, growthequityinterviewguide.com, and otcprgroup.com, with teneo.com as the only brand domain in that list.

How concentrated is AI visibility in this category?

Visibility is heavily concentrated, with 10 of the 20 tracked brands scoring 0.0% visibility and the category average sitting at just 7.5%. The top two brands, ICR and Teneo, account for the vast majority of all AI mentions.

Which brands have risen most in AI visibility recently?

ICR moved from 0.0% to 62.5% visibility and Edelman Smithfield jumped from rank 12 to rank 3 with visibility rising from 0.0% to 25.0%, making them the two largest risers in the current audit period.

Does high AI visibility guarantee citation in this category?

No. ICR has the highest visibility at 62.5% but a 0.0% citation rate, showing that being named in AI responses and having a domain cited as a source are separate outcomes that do not move together in this category.