TL;DR — Sentiment reveals what AI says about you when it does mention you, not just how often you appear. Go to Overview > Compare and enable the Sentiment column to rank all brands by how favorably AI describes them, then drill into Insights > Sentiment Analysis with the competitor overlay to find the specific topics driving the gap. Check Strategy > Brand Perception to see the exact attributes AI associates with you vs. competitors. Pro tip: compare attribute lists side by side to uncover positioning gaps that explain the quantitative sentiment difference and directly inform your messaging strategy.
The Question
“How does my brand’s sentiment compare to competitors?”Visibility score tells you how often you appear in AI results. Sentiment tells you what AI says when it does mention you. A brand that appears frequently but is described with neutral or negative language is in a worse competitive position than one that appears less often but is consistently praised. Understanding sentiment relative to competitors surfaces reputation gaps that visibility metrics alone will not reveal, and it is the starting point for any AI brand narrative improvement effort. You might also be wondering:
- “Is there a competitor that AI consistently describes in more favorable terms than my brand?”
- “Are there specific topics or providers where the sentiment gap with a competitor is particularly large?”
- “Has the sentiment gap between my brand and a competitor changed after a product launch or PR event?”
Where to Go in Qwairy
Start here: Overview > Compare
Navigate to Overview > Compare and select the competitors you want to benchmark against. Enable the Sentiment column in the table view.
The sentiment column shows each brand’s average sentiment score — a value from -1 (fully negative) to +1 (fully positive) — alongside a directional indicator. Sort the table by sentiment to immediately identify which competitor AI treats most favorably and where your brand sits in that ranking.
Go deeper: Insights > Sentiment Analysis
Navigate to Insights > Sentiment Analysis. This page breaks down your sentiment score by topic, by provider, and over time. Use the Competitor overlay toggle to display a competitor’s sentiment trend line alongside yours on the same chart.
Focus on the topic-level breakdown: a sentiment gap that is concentrated on one or two topics is a more addressable problem than a broad, cross-topic gap.
Go deeper: Strategy > Brand Perception
Open Strategy > Brand Perception. This view extracts the actual attributes, adjectives, and descriptors AI uses when mentioning your brand. Run the same analysis on a competitor to see whether AI uses words like “innovative,” “reliable,” or “market-leading” for them that it does not use for you. This qualitative layer explains the quantitative sentiment gap.
Complete the picture: Looker Studio + Exports
Connect the Qwairy Looker Studio connector using the Sentiment data source to build a comparative sentiment dashboard that updates daily. For one-off reporting, export the sentiment comparison table as CSV/XLSX via Workspace > Exports and include it in competitive intelligence decks or quarterly brand reviews.
What to Look For
Compare Page — Sentiment Column
The sentiment column in the Compare table gives you the most direct competitive view: all brands ranked side by side on a single sentiment metric.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Sentiment score | Average polarity of AI text surrounding that brand’s mentions — positive scores indicate favorable language, negative scores indicate critical or cautionary language |
| Sentiment delta vs. your brand | The gap between your sentiment and a competitor’s — a +0.2 difference is meaningful; +0.4 is a significant gap requiring attention |
| Trend indicator | Whether the competitor’s sentiment is improving, stable, or declining relative to the previous period |
| Provider breakdown | Which AI platforms drive the sentiment gap — some providers may rate you equally while others differ significantly |
Sentiment Analysis — Comparative View
The Sentiment Analysis page gives you a more granular view than the Compare table, with historical trend data and topic-level breakdowns.| Element | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Topic-level sentiment bars | Which topic areas are driving your overall sentiment score up or down — compare with the same view for a competitor |
| Provider-level sentiment | Whether the sentiment gap is consistent across platforms or concentrated on specific providers like Gemini or Perplexity |
| Historical trend | Whether the sentiment gap is structural (present for 6+ months) or recent (appeared in the last 30–60 days) |
Brand Perception — Attribute Comparison
The Brand Perception view adds qualitative depth to the quantitative sentiment score.Pro Tip: Compare the Brand Perception attribute lists for your brand and a competitor. If the competitor is consistently associated with attributes like “best-in-class,” “trusted by enterprises,” or “most comprehensive” while your brand is described as “affordable” or “easy to use,” you have a positioning gap in AI’s narrative — not just a sentiment gap. This insight directly informs messaging and content strategy.
Filters That Help
| Filter | How to use it for this question |
|---|---|
| Provider | Isolate sentiment comparison to a single AI platform — providers can have dramatically different sentiment profiles for the same brand |
| Period | Use a 90-day window to establish baseline, then use 30-day to detect recent shifts following events |
| Topic / Tag | Narrow to a specific product area or use case to find topically concentrated sentiment gaps |
How to Interpret the Results
Good result
Your brand’s sentiment score is within 0.1 of the top competitor’s score across the majority of topics and providers. Where gaps exist, they are limited to one or two specific topics where you have known weaker positioning. The Brand Perception attributes for your brand and the leading competitor overlap significantly on the terms that matter most to your buyers.Needs attention
A competitor scores 0.3 or more higher than your brand on overall sentiment, and the gap is present across multiple providers and topic clusters. The Brand Perception view shows that AI uses noticeably more positive, authoritative, or enthusiastic language for the competitor than for you. The historical trend shows the sentiment gap has been widening over the past 90 days, suggesting the competitor’s content or citation strategy is progressively improving AI’s opinion of them. Any response where AI uses cautionary language about your brand — mentioning pricing concerns, limitations, or controversy — while praising a competitor is a high-priority issue.Example
Scenario: You run a healthcare SaaS platform for clinic management. Your sales team reports that prospects frequently mention a competitor’s “HIPAA compliance simplicity” during demos. You want to check whether this narrative is being reinforced by AI.
- Navigate to Overview > Compare and add the competitor, DrChrono. Enable the sentiment column. Your sentiment score is 0.28 and DrChrono’s is 0.61 — a meaningful gap. The trend indicator shows the gap has been growing for the past 60 days.
- Navigate to Insights > Sentiment Analysis, enable the competitor overlay. The topic breakdown shows the gap is concentrated on “HIPAA compliance” and “patient data security” topics, where your sentiment is -0.09 (slightly negative) while DrChrono’s is +0.67.
- Open Strategy > Brand Perception for your brand. AI associates you with “comprehensive,” “feature-rich,” and “scalable” but also “complex setup” and “requires dedicated IT staff.” Running the same view for DrChrono shows “out-of-the-box compliance,” “intuitive for small clinics,” and “trusted by independent practitioners.”
- You now have a specific content brief: create case studies and compliance guides focused on fast onboarding for small practices and simplified HIPAA workflows, targeting the topic clusters where sentiment is negative. These should be structured to be AI-citable — clear claims, quantified patient outcomes, and authoritative tone.
Go Further
Sentiment comparison over time
Track sentiment scores for your brand vs competitors over time using the competitor-metrics data source
How sentiment scores work
Read the Sentiment Analysis documentation to understand how Qwairy calculates and compares sentiment
Share sentiment benchmarks with your brand team
Create a shared sentiment comparison view for your brand or communications team
Related Questions
What does AI say about my brand?
Read the actual AI narrative driving your sentiment score
AI perception vs positioning?
Check whether AI’s description of your brand matches your intended positioning
Negative sentiment on topics?
Find the specific topics where AI sentiment turns negative for your brand
Sentiment after crisis or launch?
Track whether a recent event has shifted AI’s sentiment toward your brand or a competitor