Who wins in AI Mode? Share of voice vs AI citations in eight Indian industries

Vaayam research | Part 11 of a series

Earlier in this series we showed that the AI Overview and AI Mode cite different pages, that brands do not always own their name in AI Mode, and that brands are often named but not cited. This post zooms out to the industry level. For each industry we compare two views of the same leading sites: their share of organic clicks and their share of AI Mode citations. The post covers eight of our ten industries: Finance, Real estate, Automotive, Travel, SaaS, Legal, Education and Home services.

Key findings

• Finance: banks hold 45.4% of both organic clicks and AI Mode citations, while comparison sites go from 6.0% of clicks to 15.4% of citations (2.6×).
• Real estate: property portals hold 29.3% of organic clicks but 47.9% of AI citations. AI Mode's top 5 sites hold 52.0% of citations, the most concentrated of any industry.
• Automotive: car portals fall from 50.3% of organic clicks to 36.1% of AI citations, while YouTube rises from 3.5% to 11.1%.
• Travel: 61% of AI Mode citations go to Google's own pages. Online travel agencies fall from 38.2% of clicks to 25.9% of citations.
• SaaS: Zoho leads organic (8.8%) but Salesforce (4.7%) passes Zoho (3.8%) in AI Mode, and YouTube leads with 14.1%.
• Legal: LinkedIn's share of AI Mode citations is 3× its organic share. Legal portals and government sites hold steady.
• Education: the top 5 sites hold only 17.3% of AI citations, the least concentrated of any industry. Government portals lead organic clicks but are rarely cited.
• Home services: directories fall from 24.2% of organic clicks to 9.1% of AI citations, while YouTube rises from 1.4% to 13.1% and Urban Company from 1.2% to 6.8%.

Finance: banks hold their ground, comparison sites gain

Banks hold 45.4% of both organic clicks and AI Mode citations, so for banks the move to AI Mode changes little. Comparison sites are the winners: they hold 6.0% of organic clicks but 15.4% of AI citations, a 2.6× gain. Paisabazaar goes from 2.9% to 9.0%. HDFC Bank leads both views, with 16.8% of organic share of voice and 12.5% of AI citations. Finance answers are the most data-heavy, with tables in 36.2% and rupee amounts in 57.4%, and none of the citations go to Google's own pages.

Real estate: portals win, and the citations are concentrated

Measured on about 790 on-topic keywords, property portals hold 29.3% of organic clicks but 47.9% of AI citations. 99acres (19.0%) and Magicbricks (17.9%) together take 37% of AI citations, more than twice their organic share. AI Mode's top 5 sites hold 52.0% of citations, the most concentrated of any industry, and 46.5% of Real estate AI Mode citations go to Google business and place cards.

Automotive: AI Mode shifts the mix toward video

CarWale (18.9%) and CarDekho (16.3%) hold 35% of organic clicks. AI Mode shifts the mix: car portals fall from 50.3% of organic clicks to 36.1% of AI citations, while YouTube rises from 3.5% to 11.1%. Carmakers' own sites barely register, at 7.6% of organic clicks and 6.0% of AI citations. Carmakers are also named more often than they are cited: Hyundai in 16.3% of the answers naming it and Mahindra in 12.5%, and a carmaker ranks #1 on only 29.4% of its own branded searches.

Travel: most citations stay inside Google

61% of Travel AI Mode citations go to Google's own pages: 56% to entity cards and 4% to Flights. Among websites, MakeMyTrip leads both views, with 14.2% of organic clicks and 7.6% of AI citations. Online travel agencies fall from 38.2% of organic clicks to 25.9% of AI citations, and airlines from 8.7% to 5.0%. A hotels pack appears on about 215 searches, and 95% of its listings show a price, with a median of ₹2,342.

SaaS: Salesforce overtakes Zoho in AI Mode

Zoho leads organic share of voice with 8.8%, against 5.9% for Salesforce. In AI Mode, Salesforce (4.7%) passes Zoho (3.8%), and YouTube leads with 14.1%. Vendors are named more often than they are cited: Microsoft is named in about 270 answers and cited in 21% of them, Zoho in about 190 and 39%, Salesforce in about 180 and 42%, and HubSpot in about 145 and 27%. 97.7% of SaaS searches show an AI Overview, and 98.8% of SaaS ad value sits under one.

Legal: LinkedIn gets three times its organic share

LawRato (5.0%) and LinkedIn (4.0%) are AI Mode's top two Legal sources. LinkedIn's share is 3× its organic share of 1.3%. Legal portals hold steady, at 12.5% of organic clicks and 11.0% of AI citations, as does government, at 10.7% and 9.3%. 40.4% of Legal searches show a local pack, and 33.1% of AI citations go to Google business cards.

Education: the most fragmented industry

Measured on about 925 on-topic keywords, about 1,750 distinct sites are cited in Education AI answers, and the top 5 hold only 17.3%, the least concentrated of any industry. Real estate is the most concentrated, at 52.0%. Government portals lead organic clicks (up.gov.in 7.3%, nta.nic.in 4.2%) but are rarely cited, while YouTube (8.3%) and Coursera (3.4%) lead AI citations.

Home services: directories give way to YouTube and Urban Company

Measured on about 515 on-topic keywords, after removing about 510 off-topic ones, AI Overviews appear on only 65.1% of Home services searches, the lowest of any industry. 42.9% of searches show a local pack and 29.8% a product box, and 53.7% of AI citations go to Google's own pages. AI Mode shifts the mix: directories fall from 24.2% of organic clicks to 9.1% of AI citations (Justdial alone from 16.3%), YouTube rises from 1.4% to 13.1% and Urban Company from 1.2% to 6.8%.

What to do with this data

Build your AI Mode plan from your own industry's pattern, not a generic one. In Finance and Real estate, being a leading portal or comparison site is what earns citations. In Automotive, Education and Home services, video is a major route in, so YouTube content deserves a place in the plan. In Travel and Home services, where Google's own pages take 61% and 53.7% of citations, keep your Google Business Profile and listings current.

Compare your organic share of voice with your AI citation share, and look for the gap. Carmakers and SaaS vendors are named more often than cited, so publish clear specification, comparison and product pages that an answer can link to. Government and institutional sites that lead organic clicks but are rarely cited should check whether their pages answer questions in a form AI Mode can use.

Report two views per industry, organic share of voice and AI citation share, and watch the gap quarterly. Real estate is concentrated and Education is fragmented, which changes how much a single content investment can win. These findings come from a one-day correlation snapshot, so validate them against your own category before changing budgets.

Read the rest of the series

AI Overview vs AI Mode: two answers, two sets of sources - how the two AI surfaces cite different pages.

Do brands own their name in Google AI Mode? - how often AI Mode cites a brand on its own name.

Named but not cited: the brands Google AI Mode mentions and doesn't link to - mentions versus citations by brand and industry.

Method and limits

The dataset covers 9,734 keywords across 10 industries, each with a Google organic result set and a Google AI Mode answer, captured on one day, 26 September 2026, for India in English on desktop. This post covers eight industries. Organic share of voice is each site's share of organic clicks, and AI Mode citation share is its share of AI Mode citations, within the industry. Industry samples exclude off-topic keywords. The capture is a non-personalised snapshot, so individual users may see different results. Every finding is a correlation and none show causation.