What is sentiment in AI visibility?

Sentiment describes the overall tone with which an AI model talks about your brand when it mentions you. A response might mention your brand as the top recommendation (positive), list it neutrally among several options (neutral), or note a known weakness or controversy (negative).

Unlike social media sentiment, AI sentiment reflects how training data and reinforcement fine-tuning have shaped the model's default representation of your brand - it tends to be more stable but harder to change quickly.

How Mentova scores it

Each brand mention extracted from a prompt run is tagged with a sentiment label:

  • Positive - the response recommends, praises, or positions the brand favorably (e.g. "X is widely regarded as the best option for…").
  • Neutral - the brand is cited factually or listed without explicit endorsement or criticism (e.g. "Options include X, Y, and Z").
  • Negative - the response notes drawbacks, controversies, or reasons to avoid the brand.

Sentiment scoring is applied at the mention level, not the response level, because a single response can contain both a positive mention of your brand and a negative mention of a competitor.

The aggregate sentiment displayed on the dashboard is the distribution across all mentions in the selected scope (all models, or filtered by a specific model or time period).

How to use it

  • Monitor shifts - a campaign-over-campaign drop in positive sentiment often precedes a fall in Mention Rate. Investigate whether new negative press or product issues have entered training data or are appearing in cited sources.
  • Model-level differences - some models may carry different narratives about your brand. Filtering by model can reveal which one needs attention.
  • Competitive context - compare your sentiment distribution to competitors tracked in the same campaigns. A competitor with lower Mention Rate but higher positive share may be encroaching on quality perception.

Common pitfall

Sentiment from AI models lags real-world events. A reputational improvement (product launch, award, positive media coverage) may take weeks or months to reflect in AI responses as the underlying models are updated or fine-tuned. Do not expect immediate sentiment shifts after a single piece of content.