Sesame AI Visibility Market Strategy Report - Online Doctors

Answer Capsule

Sesame leads the October 2026 Online Doctors benchmark with valid recommendation coverage of 49.56%, ahead of Doctor on Demand at 48.32% and Teladoc Health at 45.49%. Sesame holds the strongest recommendation coverage in the category, but its rank-one rate of 12.92% trails Teladoc Health's 27.96%, meaning Sesame is frequently shortlisted without being placed first. The clearest win is category-leading coverage and the highest net sentiment among top-tier brands at 0.8319. The clearest gap is first-position recommendation power. The biggest opportunity is converting Sesame's broad shortlist presence into rank-one recommendations across high-intent prompt clusters.

Who This Report Is For

This report is for Sesame's marketing, growth, and executive teams, and for category analysts tracking how AI search and assistant platforms recommend online doctor brands at the decision moment.

Report Card

Executive Summary

Sesame holds the strongest recommendation position in the October 2026 Online Doctors benchmark. The brand recorded 280 valid recommendations across 565 qualified observations, giving it a valid recommendation coverage rate of 49.56%, the highest in the category. That coverage sits 1.24 points ahead of Doctor on Demand at 48.32% and 4.07 points ahead of Teladoc Health at 45.49%.

Sesame's raw mention presence rate was 60.00%, meaning the brand appeared in 339 of 565 qualified observations. Of those mentions, 282 were positive, 57 were neutral, and zero were negative. The net sentiment score of 0.8319 is the highest among the top three brands by coverage, reflecting consistently positive framing when Sesame is mentioned.

The strongest platform signal for Sesame is Google AI Mode, where the brand recorded a 55.56% valid recommendation coverage rate. Google AI Overviews also showed strong performance with a 45.24% coverage rate, the second-highest platform-level figure for the brand. ChatGPT delivered a perfect net sentiment score of 1.0000 across 20 mentions.

The clearest gap is first-position recommendation power. Sesame's rank-one rate of 12.92% trails Teladoc Health's 27.96% by 15.04 percentage points. While Sesame appears in more shortlists than any competitor, it is placed first less often than Teladoc Health. This pattern suggests Sesame is a consistent shortlist inclusion but not the default first recommendation in AI-generated answers.

The weakest platform for Sesame is Perplexity, where the brand recorded a rank-one rate of 2.86%, compared to 41.18% for Teladoc Health on the same platform. This represents a significant platform-specific gap.

The benchmark's single qualified cluster, Best Online Doctors & Top Telehealth Services, captured all 565 observations. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters recorded zero qualified observations, meaning the current benchmark cannot measure how Sesame performs when buyers ask about cost, insurance, or head-to-head comparisons.

What Sesame Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does Sesame lead the Online Doctors category in AI recommendation coverage?
• Which Google platforms drive the largest share of Sesame's valid recommendations?

Sesame holds the highest valid recommendation coverage in the Online Doctors category at 49.56%. The brand recorded 280 valid recommendations, the most of any tracked brand, ahead of Doctor on Demand at 273 and Teladoc Health at 257.

Sesame also holds the highest net sentiment score among the top three coverage leaders at 0.8319. This reflects a framing profile where 282 of 339 mentions were positive and zero were negative. The brand's positive visibility rate of 49.91% was the highest in the category.

On Google AI Mode, Sesame recorded a 55.56% coverage rate, the strongest platform-level coverage figure for the brand. On Google AI Overviews, Sesame recorded 75 valid recommendations at 45.24% coverage. These two Google surfaces together account for 165 of Sesame's 280 valid recommendations, and they also account for 56.67% of the brand's total valid recommendation credit in the benchmark.

Sesame's top-three recommendation rate of 33.98% places it third in the category, behind Teladoc Health at 40.18% and Doctor on Demand at 37.70%. The brand recorded 192 top-three placements across 565 observations.

Where Sesame Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does Sesame trail Teladoc Health on first-position recommendations despite higher coverage?
• Which platform shows the largest gap between Sesame and Teladoc Health on rank-one placement?

Sesame's most significant gap is rank-one recommendation power. The brand's rank-one rate of 12.92% means it was placed first in 73 of 565 qualified observations. Teladoc Health, with lower overall coverage at 45.49%, achieved a rank-one rate of 27.96%, placing first in 158 observations. This means Teladoc Health is recommended first more than twice as often as Sesame despite appearing in fewer total shortlists.

The gap is most pronounced on Perplexity. Sesame recorded a rank-one rate of 2.86% on Perplexity, compared to Teladoc Health's 41.18% on the same platform. On Perplexity, the brand's valid recommendation coverage of 35.29% also trailed its category-leading overall figure, which suggests Perplexity's answer patterns strongly favor Teladoc Health for first-position placement in the online doctor category.

On Copilot, Sesame recorded a rank-one rate of 12.16%, while Teladoc Health reached 29.73%. On Google AI Mode, Sesame's rank-one rate was 10.53% compared to Teladoc Health's 27.78%. On Google AI Overviews, Sesame's rank-one rate was 15.12% compared to Teladoc Health's 30.12%. Across every major platform, Sesame trails Teladoc Health on first-position recommendations.

Sesame's average recommended rank of 2.43 places it behind Teladoc Health at 1.60 but ahead of Doctor on Demand at 2.31. This means when Sesame receives a rank-eligible recommendation, it typically appears as the second or third option rather than the first.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• Which high-intent prompts give Sesame the clearest path from shortlist inclusion to first-position recommendation?
• How much would improving Perplexity rank-one placement shift Sesame's overall first-position rate?

Sesame's clearest path from reference to recommendation is converting its category-leading shortlist presence into first-position recommendations on high-intent prompts. The brand already appears in more AI-generated shortlists than any competitor. The opportunity is to become the default first recommendation when buyers ask which online doctor to use.

This opportunity is concentrated in the prompt types that drive first-position placement. The benchmark's qualified cluster includes prompts such as "Which online doctors are legit?", "What is the best online doctor website?", and "online doctor visit." These are direct recommendation prompts where first-position placement carries the most weight in buyer decision-making.

The platform-specific opportunity is most acute on Perplexity, where Sesame's rank-one rate of 2.86% represents the largest gap relative to Teladoc Health's 41.18%. Improving first-position placement on Perplexity alone would meaningfully shift Sesame's overall rank-one rate. Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews also present significant opportunities, given their high observation volumes and Sesame's relatively low rank-one rates on those surfaces.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• How do Sesame's top-three, rank-one, and average recommended rank compare with Teladoc Health and Doctor on Demand?
• What does the leaderboard reveal about the gap between Sesame's coverage strength and its placement power?

Sesame holds the highest valid recommendation coverage in the Online Doctors category, but Teladoc Health holds the strongest first-position recommendation power. Doctor on Demand sits between them, with coverage nearly matching Sesame and rank-one rates above Sesame but below Teladoc Health.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

Sesame ranks third on top-three rate and third on rank-one rate despite leading on coverage. The table shows that Sesame's strength is breadth of shortlist inclusion, not depth of first-position placement. Teladoc Health converts a lower coverage rate into significantly higher placement power, while Sesame converts the highest coverage rate into the third-highest placement rates.

Prompt Evidence

Google AI Overviews / Best Online Doctors & Top Telehealth Services Prompt: "Which online doctors are legit?" Result: Sesame received a valid recommendation with a rank-one placement, contributing to its 15.12% rank-one rate on this platform.

Perplexity / Best Online Doctors & Top Telehealth Services Prompt: "What is the best online doctor website?" Result: Sesame received a valid recommendation but was placed outside the top position. Teladoc Health captured the rank-one placement on this platform.

ChatGPT / Best Online Doctors & Top Telehealth Services Prompt: "online doctor visit" Result: Sesame received a valid recommendation with positive framing. ChatGPT recorded a net sentiment score of 1.0000 for Sesame across all mentions.

Google AI Mode / Best Online Doctors & Top Telehealth Services Prompt: "telemedicine services" Result: Sesame received a valid recommendation at 55.56% coverage on this platform, the brand's strongest platform-level coverage rate.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Phase 1: AI Visibility Market Discovery Audit Map Sesame's prompt-level recommendation patterns across all six tracked platforms to identify which specific prompts drive first-position placement and which produce shortlist-only inclusion.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Prioritize the platform and prompt combinations where Sesame's rank-one rate trails competitors most significantly, starting with Perplexity and Google AI Mode.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Develop owned content that directly addresses the high-intent prompts where Sesame appears in shortlists but not in first position, with clear, extractable answers that AI systems can retrieve and cite.

Phase 4: Citation / Authority Layer Development Strengthen the public evidence layer around Sesame's differentiators, including source pages that AI systems already cite for online doctor recommendations, such as doctorondemand.com, sesamecare.com, and third-party health information sources.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Track Sesame's coverage, top-three rate, rank-one rate, and sentiment across all platforms monthly to measure whether placement improvements hold and to identify emerging prompt clusters.

Why This Matters

AI presence alone is not enough. Sesame already appears in more AI-generated shortlists than any competitor in the Online Doctors category. But appearing in a shortlist and being recommended first are different outcomes with different buyer impact. When a buyer asks an AI assistant which online doctor to use, the first recommendation carries disproportionate weight in the decision.

The gap between Sesame's coverage leadership and its rank-one performance represents a specific, addressable opportunity. The benchmark shows where Sesame is winning and where it is losing. The next move is targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that determine first-position placement in AI-generated recommendations.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does Sesame's net sentiment score of 0.8319 matter more than its raw mention count?
• How many of Sesame's 339 mentions were neutral rather than positive recommendations?

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

For Sesame in October 2026: (282 × 1 + 57 × 0 + 0 × -1) / 339 = 0.8319

This score matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. A brand that appears frequently but is framed neutrally or negatively is not in the same position as a brand that appears frequently with positive framing. Share of voice is a diagnostic metric, not a business KPI. A positive recommendation, a neutral reference, a cautionary mention, and a competitor-displaced mention are not equal outcomes.

Counting all mentions as wins is bad measurement. Sesame's 339 mentions include 57 neutral references where the brand was named but not recommended. Those neutral mentions do not carry the same buyer impact as the 282 positive mentions. Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility because it separates genuine recommendation strength from mere presence.

Sentiment by Platform

Questions This Section Answers

• Which platforms show the strongest positive recommendation signal for Sesame?
• Where is Sesame present but not recommendation-led?

Methodology

1. This report is a benchmark-based analysis of Sesame's AI recommendation visibility in the Online Doctors category for October 2026. It is not a client implementation case study.
2. The reporting window is October 2026. The benchmark series began in July 2026 and tracks monthly measurements.
3. Six AI platforms were tracked: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
4. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations. After qualification, 565 observations were used as the public denominator for all brand-level percentages. A per-prompt unique prompt count is not available in the public version of this dataset.
5. The competitor universe includes ten tracked brands: Sesame, Doctor on Demand, Teladoc Health, plushcare, MDLive, Amwell, LiveHealth Online, HealthTap, Lemonaid Health, and K Health.
6. One qualified high-intent cluster was used: Best Online Doctors & Top Telehealth Services. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters recorded zero qualified observations.
7. Stage 0 extraction retained the query, AI platform, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and citations where exposed.
8. A mention is defined as any observation where the brand name appears in the AI-generated response, regardless of whether the brand was recommended.
9. A valid recommendation is defined as an observation where the brand receives a positive recommendation with a rank placement between 1 and 10. Neutral references and cautionary mentions are not counted as valid recommendations.
10. Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only. Brands with no rank-eligible recommendations receive no average rank value.
11. The benchmark tracks plushcare and PlushCare as separate brand strings in October 2026 due to a casing difference in the source data. This report treats plushcare as the tracked brand entry for October 2026, and the brand name is normalized to lowercase in this report.
12. Limitations: The benchmark measures observed AI-generated outputs across tested surfaces during the measurement window. It does not measure market share, attributable sales, organic search ranking, or causality from metric movements. Percentages are rounded to two decimals, so minor differences may not sum exactly. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters were empty, so this report cannot address cost, insurance, or head-to-head comparison outcomes.

See How AI Is Recommending Your Brand

The public benchmark shows where Sesame leads and where it trails in AI-generated recommendations. A company-level AI visibility audit maps the specific prompts, platforms, and citation sources that determine whether Sesame appears as the first recommendation or as a shortlist inclusion. The audit identifies the levers that move rank-one placement and tracks whether those changes hold month over month.