AI search is changing how consumers discover, compare, and evaluate health and wellness products. But the sources that influence AI answers are not the same in every category.
Avenue Z’s 2026 AI Visibility Index (AIVx) reports track brand visibility across five health and wellness segments: multivitamins, greens and gut supplements, hydration supplements, protein and performance, and GLP-1 and peptides. Together, the reports show why a broad PR, content, or Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategy is unlikely to perform equally well across every category.
The brands gaining visibility are being reinforced by different combinations of institutional sources, medical and scientific references, editorial coverage, trade publications, review platforms, manufacturer content, and third-party comparison pages. The most effective strategy depends on knowing which sources shape the category’s answers and how consumers evaluate products within it.
Five categories, five different paths to AI visibility
Multivitamins: institutional authority sets the ceiling
Nature Made leads the multivitamin category, followed by Thorne. The top six brands, including Ritual, Pure Encapsulations, Garden of Life, and FEEL, hold a combined 68% of AI share of voice. Nature Made and Thorne account for 43% together.
Institutional domains are the dominant citation source in the category, representing 52% of citations. Trade publications account for 6% and editorial media for 5%. For multivitamin brands, scientific credibility, ingredient information, safety context, and evidence-led content are essential to earning visibility.
Greens and gut supplements: third-party validation drives discovery
AG1 leads the greens and gut supplements category. Amazing Grass and Bloom follow, with the top three brands accounting for 66% of AI share of voice.
Compared with multivitamins, citation influence is more distributed across institutional domains, editorial media, competitor content, and trade publications. Listicles, comparison pages, and product pages also play an important role because consumers use them to compare ingredients, dietary fit, digestion, value, and results.
Hydration supplements: trusted authority matters more than content volume
Liquid I.V. leads the hydration category. Liquid I.V., LMNT, DripDrop, Ultima Replenisher, and Pedialyte collectively control 74% of AI share of voice.
Institutional domains, editorial media, and trade publications carry more influence in AI citations than user-generated content, retailer pages, and review platforms. That means brands competing in hydration need more than high content volume. They need credible sources that help AI systems evaluate product ingredients, use cases, quality, and performance.
Protein and performance: a more open category with room to gain
Optimum Nutrition leads protein and performance, followed by Transparent Labs and Dymatize. Together, the top three brands account for 43% of AI share of voice, leaving more room for challengers than in the most concentrated categories.
Isopure, Levels, and NOW Sports posted strong year-over-year ranking gains. Institutional domains represent 40% of cited sources, while review platforms and reference media are more influential here than in several other health and wellness segments.
GLP-1 and peptides: regulated authority is essential
Teladoc leads the GLP-1 and peptides category. Teladoc, Ro Body, Hims, Hers, WeightWatchers Clinic, and PlushCare are clearly separated from the rest of the field by Z-score.
Institutional domains account for 67% of citations, reflecting the category’s regulatory and medical complexity. Brands need credible expertise around safety, eligibility, approval, coverage, and access, supported by authoritative and regulated sources.
Across the five reports, AI systems do not treat every source or category the same. Institutional sources dominate multivitamins and GLP-1, while editorial, trade, review, and comparison environments play different roles in greens, hydration, and protein.
“The most striking through-line in this research is how specific a category strategy has to be,” said Tina Fleming, vice president of AI strategy at Avenue Z. “The mix of institutional, editorial, review and retail sources that matters in multivitamins looks nothing like what moves the needle in protein or hydration. If your AI search strategy isn’t built at the category level, you’re leaving visibility wins on the table.”
Each AIVx report includes an AI visibility leaderboard, category-level ranking, citation-source analysis, and strategic recommendations for editorial media, owned content, and technical optimization.
“Our AEO / AI Search strategy starts with a plan that’s specific to the brand, the category, and the buyer,” said Whitney Hart, CSO and director of the AI Lab at Avenue Z. “To really understand a category, you have to watch it in motion.”
Avenue Z helps brands connect PR, editorial authority, content, social and user-generated content, and technical optimization to the prompts and decision journeys that matter most. The agency’s AEO and optimization services and AI Lab provide strategy, reporting, and visibility assessments for brands competing in AI search.
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