Method & limits

How we measure what AIs say

Opinion Radar builds questions that represent the requests made to AI assistants, has a human approve them, then analyzes the responses systematically. Here is the protocol, and its limitations.

The protocol

Four steps, always the same

1

Representative situations

We start from moments when someone asks an AI for advice: ‘which tool should I choose?’, ‘what should I think about…?’ Opinion Radar suggests them and a human approves them before measurement.

2

Questions asked without prompting the answer

In a visibility measurement, questions do not name the tracked brand. If an assistant mentions it, the mention is spontaneous; observatories label direct questions separately.

3

A panel of models

Each question is asked to 6 AI families (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Le Chat, DeepSeek, Grok), several times: answers vary from one draw to the next.

4

A systematic reading

Each answer is analyzed: who is mentioned, with which argument, what tone, what caveats. Report figures are aggregates of these readings.

What we count

Three simple metrics

Share of voice

The share of answers where an entity is mentioned spontaneously. 63% = mentioned in 63% of the answers measured across the sector.

Tone

Favorable, neutral or critical: the framing that comes with each mention, with verbatims so you can judge for yourself.

Dodging

The share of questions a model refuses to answer squarely: often the most telling figure on sensitive topics.

The limits

What this measurement is not

  • A ranking of the actual quality of products or people.
  • A feature or price comparison.
  • An opinion poll: we measure the behavior of AI models, not what people think.
  • A stable truth: models evolve, every measurement is dated.

Transparency

Every public report shows its measurement date, its number of answers and the models surveyed. Rates computed on few answers are flagged as indicative (“n=”).

The method, applied in public

Our observatories are real, dated, freely accessible measurements: the best way to judge the method.

Browse the observatories