By Jon Monk, Head of Performance at ASP

When someone asks ChatGPT which conferences cover sustainability in construction, or which trade shows are worth attending for dental professionals, which brand comes up consistently?

For most events, the honest answer is: we do not know. And that uncertainty is actually an opportunity.

What determines whether your event shows up in those answers? In short, it is about how consistently AI associates your brand with the topics your event covers. Think of it as AI's version of reputation. The more reliably you appear when people ask questions in your space, the more AI tools learn to trust you as a relevant answer. This is called topical authority, and right now most events have very little of it.

A new study by Semrush, conducted in partnership with analyst Kevin Indig of Growth Memo, analysed over 50,000 brands across 1,094 subject categories in ChatGPT over six months. It measures brand presence in AI answers rather than recommendation or sentiment, but the direction of travel is clear and significant for anyone running an event website.

Only 15.2% of categories had a brand that AI consistently associated with the topic. In the most searched categories, where almost all the real demand sits, that figure dropped to 11.3%.

In other words, 85% of topics in AI search have no clear owner yet.

Why this matters for event organisers

Traditional search works like a queue. There is a first position and someone is already in it. Getting there takes time, competition and sustained effort.

AI search doesn't work that way. The same person asking two closely related questions can get two completely different sets of brands in the answer. Which means presence is inconsistent, positions are often vacant and the ground is genuinely open for brands that show up consistently across a topic.

For events, this is the opposite of the usual competitive picture. Nobody has to be dislodged. You just have to show up reliably.

There is one more detail worth knowing. The Semrush study found that once a brand does establish clear ownership of a topic in AI search, it holds that position in 90% of month-on-month checks. This is a position worth taking while it is still relatively cheap to take.

What to do this week

The practical starting point is very simple.

Write down the five questions someone asks before registering for your event. Not brand searches. Real questions your audience types into search or now asks AI tools directly. For a dental CPD event that might be "best dental conferences UK 2027" or "dental CPD events for practice managers." For a fintech trade show it might be "fintech conferences London" or "payment technology events 2026."

Put all five into ChatGPT and note how many name your event.

Four or five appearances means you have a foothold worth protecting. One or two means there is a content gap, and closing it is your brief.

The gap is almost always the same thing: your event website does not give AI tools enough structured, specific, text-based content about the topics your event covers. Not your event name. The topics. The speakers. The sessions. The questions your audience is genuinely asking.

That is what AI tools use to decide whose event belongs in the answer.

Want to know how your event website is performing in AI search?
Our AI Visibility Snapshot gives you a clear picture of where you are visible, where you are not, and what to prioritise first. Contact the team to find out more. 

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Source: AI Visibility is a Topic-Level Game: A Study of 50,000 Brands in ChatGPT, Semrush in partnership with Kevin Indig of Growth Memo, July 2026. semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-topic-authority-study