Top 20 security awareness training software by AI search visibility (2026)
Security awareness training platforms used to educate employees, run phishing simulations, improve reporting behavior, and reduce human-driven security risk. Ranked by a composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 06, 2026At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
KnowBe4 and Hoxhunt share the top two positions with identical composite scores of 35.0, visibility at 12.5%, and citation rates of 87.5% — far ahead of the third-ranked Arctic Wolf at 16.2. This gap is significant: the next closest brand scores less than half of the leaders, meaning AI Mode is strongly consolidating trust around just two brands in a 20-brand category. The category average visibility sits at just 4.4%, underscoring how concentrated AI presence actually is at the top.
A notable divergence exists between being named and being cited as a source. OutThink and Usecure both hold 0.0% visibility yet carry 37.5% citation rates each, ranking 6th and 7th overall. Conversely, Proofpoint and Cofense appear in AI responses (12.5% visibility) but receive 0.0% citations, suggesting AI Mode mentions them descriptively without anchoring to their content. This named-versus-trusted split is a defining structural feature of this category's AI landscape.
Google AI Mode is the dominant — and in this dataset, sole — engine driving visibility and citation across all 20 brands. The top cited sources list includes vendor domains (hoxhunt.com, knowbe4.com, keepnetlabs.com, outthink.io), alongside third-party authorities gartner.com and reddit.com, and smaller players adaptivesecurity.com and guardey.com. The presence of Reddit and Gartner alongside vendor sites suggests AI Mode is drawing on a mix of analyst, peer-review, and direct vendor content when constructing answers in this category.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
-
KnowBe4 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #1+12pp
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Hoxhunt 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #2+12pp
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Arctic Wolf 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #3+12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
knowbe4.com
|
12% | 88% | Google AI Mode |
KnowBe4 ties for the highest composite score (35.0) with an 87.5% citation rate, nearly 70 percentage points above the category average citation of 17.5%. |
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| 2 |
hoxhunt.com
|
12% | 88% | Google AI Mode |
Hoxhunt matches KnowBe4 exactly at 12.5% visibility and 87.5% citations, and is the only vendor besides KnowBe4 to appear in the top cited sources list. |
||||
| 3 |
arcticwolf.com
|
12% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Arctic Wolf holds 12.5% visibility but drops to 25.0% citation rate, giving it a composite score of 16.2 — less than half of the two leaders above it. |
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| 4 |
keepnetlabs.com
|
12% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
Keepnet mirrors Arctic Wolf with a 16.2 composite score and a 25.0% citation rate, and is notable for appearing directly in the top cited sources list for this category. |
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| 5 |
mimecast.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Mimecast's citation rate of 12.5% exactly matches its visibility rate, producing the lowest composite score (12.5) among the five brands with any measurable visibility. |
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| 6 |
outthink.io
|
0% | 38% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
usecure.io
|
0% | 38% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
proofpoint.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
cofense.com
|
12% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
ninjio.com
|
0% | 25% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
terranovasecurity.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
microsoft.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
metacompliance.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
phished.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
culture.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
infosecinstitute.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
livingsecurity.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
hooksecurity.co
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
ironscales.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
sophos.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on security awareness training software, 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.
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.
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.
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.
Get your own security awareness training software 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 security awareness training software AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in security awareness training software?
KnowBe4 and Hoxhunt jointly lead with identical composite scores of 35.0, each achieving 12.5% visibility and 87.5% citation rates in Google AI Mode — significantly ahead of all other brands in the category.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for security awareness training research?
The top cited sources include vendor domains hoxhunt.com, knowbe4.com, keepnetlabs.com, and outthink.io, alongside third-party authorities gartner.com and reddit.com, indicating AI Mode draws from a mix of vendor, analyst, and community content.
Are there brands that get cited without appearing in AI-generated responses?
Yes — OutThink and Usecure both have 0.0% visibility but 37.5% citation rates each, meaning AI Mode references their content as sources without naming them directly in answers.
Are there brands that appear in AI responses but receive no citations?
Proofpoint and Cofense both register 12.5% visibility but 0.0% citation rates, suggesting AI Mode mentions them descriptively but does not anchor responses to their own content.
How concentrated is AI visibility across the 20 brands in this category?
Highly concentrated — the category average visibility is just 4.4%, and only five brands achieve any visibility at all, with two brands (KnowBe4 and Hoxhunt) capturing citation rates nearly five times the category average.
Which engine drives AI visibility in the security awareness training software category?
Google AI Mode is the sole engine recorded across all 20 brands in this dataset, making it the exclusive driver of both visibility and citation in this category.