AEO Index · July 2026

The complete AI-visibility index for the M7.

Two layers of AI visibility, durable memory and the live citation contest, the organic reality beneath them, and where the opportunity sits, in one view.

M7 + extended cohort5 platformsMemory + live retrievalTwo instruments, honestly separated
The signature view

The Delta Quadrant

Every school placed by what AI remembers (model memory) against what AI finds when it searches (live retrieval). Bubble size is mention volume. Tap any school to focus it; switch Layer or Platform to move the field.

Adjust this view
Layer
Platform
Dual leader
Citation-strong · reputation-weak
Reputation-strong · citation-weak
Low / low
What AI remembers → (model memory)
What AI cites now → (live retrieval)

AI has already decided which MBA programs it recommends. Here is who, and why.

Two layers of AI visibility: durable memory, and the live citation contest.

Touch to explore

9 views · scroll down · tap any school to focus it · ask the index anything

M7 (primary)
Extended cohort
Bubble size = mention volume · tap to focus
Where they stand

Blended leaderboard

Memory and retrieval for every school; blended is the weighted headline (w_p 0.366 / w_g 0.634). Tap a school to focus it across the whole index.

1Harvard Business School0.767
2Wharton0.741
3Stanford GSB0.697
4Kellogg0.649
5MIT Sloan0.615
6Columbia Business School0.575
7Chicago Booth0.574
8INSEAD0.471
9NYU Stern0.470
10UC Berkeley Haas0.469
11Duke Fuqua0.422
12Michigan Ross0.403
13Yale SOM0.400
14Tuck0.394
15UCLA Anderson0.387
16UVA Darden0.385
17Carnegie Mellon Tepper0.359
18Cornell Johnson0.290
Memory Retrieval
Rigor you can see

Head-to-head, honestly measured

When AI compares two schools, the naive answer is mostly an artifact of which is named first. We ask every matchup both ways; the number to trust is order-balanced. Toggle to watch the correction.

← now switch to the honest, order-balanced number

Matchups (first school's balanced win rate)

Citation battleground

What AI knows them for

Attribute association

Which decision factors the models frame each school on (share of its mentions). Darker = stronger. The sharpest signal: Wharton owns 'rankings', while Chicago owns 'format'. Tap a school to focus its row.

SchoolRankingsEmploymentROIFormatEntrep.CultureGeographyFaith/ValuesExec EdEnergyTuitionAlumni
Harvard Business School34%
Wharton39%15%
Stanford GSB30%18%
Kellogg37%
MIT Sloan33%15%17%
Columbia Business School28%18%
Chicago Booth29%19%
INSEAD53%17%
NYU Stern44%27%
UC Berkeley Haas35%22%
Duke Fuqua22%18%24%24%
Michigan Ross32%16%21%
Yale SOM38%22%
Tuck38%21%21%
UCLA Anderson34%34%38%28%
UVA Darden27%30%
Carnegie Mellon Tepper17%35%
Cornell Johnson32%18%21%
What the machines look for

Search fan-out

One question quietly becomes many. These are the hidden sub-searches the models run on their own to answer a category question, the content brief they wrote themselves: rankings and outcomes dominate.

rankings39%
other19%
outcomes14%
cost roi9%
comparison9%
specialty5%
admissions2%
format2%

Most frequent sub-queries

wharton mba finance curriculum
wharton mba employment report finance
top ranked business schools 2026
m7 business schools list
two-year mba vs one-year mba differences
best mba programs 2026 rankings
best mba programs for consulting 2026
what is chicago booth known for
mit sloan mba technology entrepreneurship 2025
stanford gsb mba technology entrepreneurship 2025
Where citations go

Citation flow

Read left to right: the kind of question on the left, the source AI cited on the right. Aggregators and a broad long tail dominate; school sites are a thin slice.

Discovery1020Comparison1922Solution2041Educational1198Community534Decision1101gmac.com 485poetsandquants.com 352reddit.com 351menlocoaching.com 237clearadmit.com 203youtube.com 180usnews.com 155mbaschools.org 154stacyblackman.com 138Other sources 5561
School sites
Aggregators
Other
The content pattern

Citation sources & page types

Across all citations, only 9% point to school sites and 29% to aggregators. Of the school pages that are cited, the mix skews to programs and homepages over rankings and outcomes.

Citation sources by side

schools 9%   aggregators 29%   other 62%

Cited school page types

rankings6%
outcomes14%
program33%
homepage27%
news/blog3%
other16%
Google's AI layer

Google AI Overviews

An AI Overview appears on 69% of the 772 category keywords, the highest-volume AI surface. Even Google's own AI leans on third parties over the schools, the same pattern as the chat engines above: schools are cited mostly on their own names, and on non-branded discovery queries citations concentrate on a few. Tap to focus.

Citations by school (total / non-branded)

Wharton78 / 74 nb
NYU Stern54 / 54 nb
MIT Sloan29 / 29 nb
Chicago Booth26 / 26 nb
Stanford GSB24 / 22 nb
UCLA Anderson22 / 22 nb
UC Berkeley Haas21 / 21 nb
Harvard Business School21 / 21 nb
Cornell Johnson20 / 20 nb
Michigan Ross14 / 14 nb

Top cited domains

www.youtube.com498
www.usnews.com459
www.gmac.com334
www.reddit.com242
research.com189
www.princetonreview.com109
www.topuniversities.com99
www.onlinemba.com73
Your category is next

Where does your brand land?

This is the AEO Index: two-layer AI visibility measurement, methodology sound enough to tell signal from noise, for any industry. We can build your category's index, and your brand's position in it, the same way.

Act 4Organic reality and opportunity
AI vs organic

AEO vs SEO

How AI visibility diverges from organic standing.

Cross-instrument · July 2026
SchoolAI rankOrganic SoVDivergence
Harvard Business School#10.38%AI-ahead
Wharton#23.34%Aligned
Stanford GSB#30.18%AI-ahead
Kellogg#40.51%Aligned
MIT Sloan#50.46%Aligned
Columbia Business School#60.18%AI-ahead
Chicago Booth#70.17%AI-ahead
INSEAD#80.04%AI-ahead
NYU Stern#91.83%Organic-ahead
UC Berkeley Haas#100.23%Aligned
Duke Fuqua#110.17%Aligned
Michigan Ross#120.39%Organic-ahead
Yale SOM#130.01%Aligned
Tuck#140.00%Aligned
UCLA Anderson#150.30%Organic-ahead
UVA Darden#160.01%Aligned
Carnegie Mellon Tepper#170.00%Aligned
Cornell Johnson#180.00%Aligned
The citation economy

AI citations

Citation rate and the domains AI leans on.

Grounded · July 2026
91%
responses with a citation
1,953
citation instances
gmac.com139
poetsandquants.com92
reddit.com70
menlocoaching.com57
clearadmit.com47
mbaschools.org46
find-mba.com41
youtube.com37
mba.com35
usnews.com34
Demand beneath visibility

Branded search footprint

Branded-search presence per school.

Organic · July 2026
Carnegie Mellon Tepper57
Kellogg56
Harvard Business School56
Wharton53
Tuck52
Duke Fuqua51
MIT Sloan50
Cornell Johnson38
NYU Stern38
INSEAD38
Michigan Ross37
Columbia Business School37
Yale SOM37
UVA Darden37
The organic baseline

Organic share of voice

Share of estimated addressable organic clicks.

Organic · July 2026
SchoolOrganic SoVRanking keywordsEst. clicks
Wharton3.34%8615,312/mo
NYU Stern1.83%648,372/mo
Kellogg0.51%132,341/mo
MIT Sloan0.46%132,094/mo
Michigan Ross0.39%121,789/mo
Harvard Business School0.38%191,715/mo
UCLA Anderson0.30%131,374/mo
UC Berkeley Haas0.23%161,041/mo
Columbia Business School0.18%11841/mo
Stanford GSB0.18%9810/mo
Chicago Booth0.17%18779/mo
Duke Fuqua0.17%3763/mo
INSEAD0.04%2167/mo
Yale SOM0.01%354/mo
UVA Darden0.01%234/mo
Tuck0.00%19/mo
Keyword reality

SERP and keyword coverage

Keyword-universe SERP appearances per school. Click a column to sort.

Organic · July 2026
SchoolSERP appearancesSEO compositeTop-3 rate
Financial Times1580.2645%
Forbes1560.2565%
Wharton1020.2405%
Fortune980.1652%
NYU Stern640.1883%
QS World University Rankings400.1712%
Harvard Business School190.1391%
Chicago Booth180.0950%
UC Berkeley Haas160.1140%
Kellogg140.1341%
MIT Sloan140.1201%
UCLA Anderson130.1340%
Michigan Ross120.1290%
Columbia Business School110.1060%
Investopedia100.0970%
Stanford GSB90.1711%
Open vs owned

Category concentration and saturation

Where the field is open versus owned.

Cross-instrument · July 2026
solution (Contested)0.062
discovery (Contested)0.065
community (Contested)0.076
decision (Contested)0.085
educational (Contested)0.095
comparison (Contested)0.099
Unclaimed territory

White space

High-volume clusters with weak incumbent AI presence.

Cross-instrument · July 2026

Unclaimed clusters with no established AI answer.

Drill down

Entity explorer

Per-school two-layer + organic detail.

Cross-instrument · July 2026
SchoolBlendedMemoryRetrievalDeltaMentionsOrganic SoV
Harvard Business School0.7670.8230.734-0.0892600.38%
Wharton0.7410.7220.753+0.0312783.34%
Stanford GSB0.6970.7110.689-0.0232240.18%
Kellogg0.6490.6050.675+0.0702440.51%
MIT Sloan0.6150.5590.647+0.0872080.46%
Columbia Business School0.5750.5810.572-0.0091820.18%
Chicago Booth0.5740.5140.609+0.0961730.17%
INSEAD0.4710.3600.536+0.176970.04%
NYU Stern0.4700.4150.502+0.087831.83%
UC Berkeley Haas0.4690.4630.472+0.008840.23%
Duke Fuqua0.4220.3180.481+0.164580.17%
Michigan Ross0.4030.3420.438+0.096680.39%
Yale SOM0.4000.3680.418+0.049780.01%
Tuck0.3940.3850.399+0.014680.00%
UCLA Anderson0.3870.2680.455+0.187440.30%
UVA Darden0.3850.4160.366-0.049380.01%
Carnegie Mellon Tepper0.3590.3040.390+0.086340.00%
Cornell Johnson0.2900.2170.332+0.115320.00%
Arcalea AEO Index · neutral two-layer baseline July 2026 · 18 schools · a Galileo-family measurement surface