Kaspersky AI Visibility Market Strategy Report - Antivirus Software

Answer Capsule

Kaspersky holds meaningful presence in AI-generated antivirus recommendations but is losing recommendation-stage ground. The September 2026 benchmark shows Kaspersky with 36.9% raw mention presence yet only 25.1% valid recommendation coverage, a conversion gap that widened sharply in the most recent month. The clearest weakness is the complete loss of rank-one recommendations, which fell to 0.0% in September 2026. The clearest opportunity is rebuilding top-three placement in high-intent discovery prompts where the brand still appears but is no longer being chosen first.

Who This Report Is For

This report is for brand, product marketing, and digital strategy leaders at Kaspersky who need to understand where AI systems are still surfacing the brand, where recommendation power is eroding, and which prompt patterns require the most urgent correction.

Report Card

Executive Summary

Kaspersky is present in AI-generated antivirus recommendations but is increasingly present without being recommended. The September 2026 LLM Authority Index benchmark shows the brand appearing in 36.9% of qualified observations, yet converting that presence into valid recommendations only 25.1% of the time. That gap between presence and recommendation is the central strategic issue.

The trend is moving in the wrong direction. Kaspersky's valid recommendation coverage fell 5.4 points from 30.5% in July 2026 to 25.1% in September 2026, with the sharpest single-month decline of 6.3 points occurring between August and September 2026. The brand recorded 238 mentions in September 2026, of which 184 were positive, 43 neutral, and 11 negative. Positive framing remains intact, but the recommendation structure around that framing is weakening.

The strongest cluster for Kaspersky is the Brand Recommendation cluster, which is the only cluster with qualified observations in this benchmark. Within that cluster, the brand's top-three rate of 8.06% and rank-one rate of 0.0% show that Kaspersky is being mentioned more often than it is being placed as a leading choice.

The strongest platform signal is Perplexity, where Kaspersky reaches 55.56% positive visibility and a 55.56% valid recommendation coverage rate, well above its overall average. The clearest platform gap is ChatGPT, where valid recommendation coverage falls to 11.29% and rank-one recommendations are absent entirely.

What Kaspersky Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does Kaspersky still hold genuine recommendation strength?
• What does Kaspersky's average recommended rank of 3.74 indicate about its rank-eligible placements?

Kaspersky retains pockets of genuine recommendation strength that are worth protecting. On Perplexity, the brand achieves 55.56% valid recommendation coverage and a top-three rate of 18.06%, both substantially above its category-wide averages. This suggests certain prompt patterns on that platform still produce strong recommendation outcomes.

The brand also maintains positive framing across most platforms. Net sentiment by mentions stands at 0.7269 overall, with no negative mentions recorded on Gemini, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews. When Kaspersky is mentioned, the framing is more often favorable than cautionary, which is an asset the brand can build on.

Kaspersky's average recommended rank of 3.74 across rank-eligible recommendations shows that when the brand does earn a recommendation slot, it tends to appear within the first four positions rather than deep in a list. The challenge is that these rank-eligible recommendations are becoming less frequent.

Where Kaspersky Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• Which platform shows the widest gap between Kaspersky's presence and its valid recommendation coverage?
• How far has Kaspersky fallen behind Norton and Malwarebytes in recommendation-stage coverage?

The most urgent gap is the complete disappearance of rank-one recommendations. Kaspersky recorded zero rank-one placements in September 2026, down from a single rank-one placement in July 2026. In a category where Bitdefender GravityZone holds a 33.49% rank-one rate and Norton holds 7.60%, Kaspersky is effectively absent from the first-position conversation.

The conversion problem is visible across platforms. On ChatGPT, Kaspersky appears in 25.81% of observations but converts to valid recommendations only 11.29% of the time. On Google AI Mode, presence is 27.78% but valid recommendation coverage drops to 18.89%. The brand is being surfaced in answers without being selected as a recommended option.

Competitor displacement is most visible against Norton and Malwarebytes, which hold the top two positions in valid recommendation coverage at 62.33% and 57.52% respectively. ESET, which now leads Kaspersky by 26.1 points in coverage, has also moved ahead. Kaspersky's top-three rate of 8.06% places it below AVG, ESET, Avast, Malwarebytes, Bitdefender GravityZone, and Norton, meaning multiple competitors are capturing the recommendation slots Kaspersky needs.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does Kaspersky's September 2026 placement data point to a presence-to-recommendation conversion problem?

The clearest opportunity for Kaspersky is rebuilding rank-one and top-three recommendation placement in the Brand Recommendation cluster, where the brand still holds meaningful presence but has lost placement power. The absolute counts are small enough that targeted prompt-level corrections could move the percentages. Kaspersky's 52 top-three placements in September 2026, compared with zero rank-one placements, suggest the brand is being listed as an option but not as the answer. Closing that gap requires identifying which high-intent discovery prompts stopped producing first-position recommendations and which competitor is capturing those slots.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does Kaspersky rank against its competitors on top-three and rank-one recommendation rates?
• Which brands hold the strongest recommendation-stage positions in the antivirus category?

Norton and Malwarebytes hold the strongest recommendation-stage positions in the antivirus software category, with Bitdefender GravityZone commanding the highest rank-one rate despite ranking fourth on coverage. Kaspersky sits in the lower tier, ahead of Trend Micro and Webroot but behind every other tracked brand on valid recommendation coverage.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

The table shows Kaspersky positioned ninth on top-three rate with no rank-one placements at all. Its average recommended rank of 3.74 is competitive when it earns a slot, but the frequency of those slots is the constraint. The brand is being out-recommended by every brand above it in the table, and its sentiment score of 0.7269 is the third lowest in the category.

Prompt Evidence

Perplexity / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Which antivirus software is best?" Result: Kaspersky appeared in 73.61% of Perplexity observations and converted to valid recommendations 55.56% of the time, its strongest platform performance.

ChatGPT / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "What is the #1 antivirus?" Result: Kaspersky appeared in 25.81% of ChatGPT observations but converted to valid recommendations only 11.29% of the time, with zero rank-one placements.

Google AI Overviews / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Which is the top 1 anti-malware software?" Result: Kaspersky appeared in 27.27% of AI Overviews observations but converted to valid recommendations only 19.89% of the time, with zero rank-one placements.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Phase 1: AI Visibility Market Discovery Audit Map which high-intent discovery prompts still surface Kaspersky and which competitors are capturing the rank-one and top-three slots the brand has lost.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Identify the specific prompt patterns where Kaspersky appears without being recommended and prioritize the highest-intent queries for correction.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Develop owned content that answers the discovery and evaluation questions where Kaspersky is currently present but not selected, with emphasis on the #1 antivirus and best antivirus prompt families.

Phase 4: Citation / Authority Layer Development Strengthen the public evidence layer that AI systems can retrieve and synthesize, focusing on the source types that support recommendation rather than mere mention.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Track Kaspersky's presence-to-recommendation conversion monthly, with particular attention to whether rank-one placements return and which platforms drive the recovery.

Why This Matters

AI-generated recommendations are becoming the first filter in antivirus software selection. When a buyer asks which antivirus to choose, the brands that appear in the top three positions of the AI answer shape the shortlist before the buyer ever visits a vendor website. Kaspersky is still being named in AI answers, but being named is not the same as being recommended.

The next move for Kaspersky is targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that determine whether the brand appears as an option or as the answer. Presence without recommendation is a weakening position in a category where four brands lost significant coverage in a single quarter. Rebuilding rank-one placement in the discovery prompts where Kaspersky still holds presence is the most direct path back to recommendation-stage relevance.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

Questions This Section Answers

• Why is share of voice an unreliable metric for measuring Kaspersky's AI visibility?
• What does Kaspersky's net sentiment score of 0.7269 reveal about the quality of its mentions?

Sentiment Score = (positive mentions × 1 + neutral mentions × 0 + negative mentions × -1) / total mentions

For Kaspersky in September 2026, this equals (184 × 1 + 43 × 0 + 11 × -1) / 238, producing a net sentiment score of 0.7269.

This score matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. Kaspersky's 238 mentions look healthy on the surface, but 11 of those mentions carry negative framing and 43 carry neutral framing that does not advance recommendation outcomes. Share of voice is a diagnostic metric, not a business KPI. A positive recommendation, neutral reference, cautionary mention, and competitor-displaced mention are not equal. Counting all mentions as wins is bad measurement. Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility, because the same mention count can hide very different recommendation realities.

Sentiment by Platform

Questions This Section Answers

• Which platform gives Kaspersky its strongest public recommendation signal?
• Which platforms show Kaspersky as present but not recommendation-led?

Methodology

1. This report is a benchmark-based analysis of Kaspersky's AI recommendation visibility in the antivirus software category, derived from the LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index. It is not a client implementation case study.
2. The reporting window is September 2026, with trend comparisons drawn against July 2026 and August 2026 baselines.
3. Six canonical AI/search surface families were tracked: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
4. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in September 2026, of which 615 were unique questions and 800 mentioned a tracked brand or competitor.
5. After removing 12 irrelevant observations and applying qualification stages, 645 qualified observations formed the public benchmark denominator.
6. The competitor universe comprised 10 tracked brands: Avast, AVG, Bitdefender GravityZone, ESET, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Norton, Trend Micro, and Webroot.
7. All 645 qualified observations in September 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. No qualified observations were captured in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison clusters.
8. Stage 0 extraction retained prompt-level observations including the query, AI surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and citations where exposed.
9. A mention is defined as any qualified observation where the brand appears in the AI response, regardless of whether it is recommended.
10. A valid recommendation is defined as a qualified observation where the brand appears in a recommendation context, distinct from a neutral reference or cautionary mention.
11. Brand-level percentages use the 645 qualified observations as the denominator, not the 800 raw prompt total.
12. Limitations: This public benchmark does not measure market share, sales attribution, organic-search ranking positions, social media volume, or private channels. Movement between months identifies changes worth investigating but does not by itself establish cause. Small-count brands such as Kaspersky show movement from low bases, and absolute counts should be read alongside percentages.

Get Your AI Visibility Audit

The public benchmark shows where Kaspersky is winning and losing in AI-generated recommendations. A company-level audit goes deeper, mapping the specific prompts, platforms, competitors, and evidence sources that determine whether Kaspersky appears as an option or as the answer. Understanding those patterns is the first step toward rebuilding recommendation-stage visibility.