Introducing Trending Topics in AI Search Intelligence: The Missing Research Layer in AEO

Keyword research is foundational to SEO. It tells you where demand exists, where the opportunities are, and where you have a shot at winning. No serious SEO team skips it.

In AEO, that research layer is largely missing. Until now. 

We just introduced Trending Topics in AI Search Intelligence. Think of it as Google Trends, but for AI search. It gives you a pulse on what people are actually asking AI about in your category, so you can prioritize the topics that matter and build content that gets cited.

It answers the questions that matter most when shaping your content strategy. Which topics are people asking AI about in my category? Is interest rising or fading? And are there emerging topics you should be paying attention to before your competitors catch on?

Why AI search trends matter more than you think

Watching AI search demand is a bit like watching seasons change in real time.

One month, people are asking AI for cocktail recipes. Next month, they’re planning summer trips. Then fashion advice quietly makes a comeback.

What makes this challenging is that AI search trends move faster than most traditional signals can catch.

AI conversations surface consumer intent earlier than almost anything else. By the time a trend shows up in your analytics, the window may already be closing.

Why topics, not prompts

Here’s the challenge with tracking AI search at the prompt level.

Everyone prompts differently.

One person asks, “Best places to travel in summer.” Another asks, “Where should I go on holiday in July?” A third asks “cheap warm destinations for August.” They all have a similar intent expressed in completely different ways.

If you try to track every prompt variation, you’re chasing an endless list. Prompts are too granular, too personal, and too unpredictable to be a reliable unit of measurement.

Topics fix that.

Grouping prompts into topics gives you a stable, trackable signal. Instead of monitoring thousands of individual prompt strings, you can see how interest in “summer travel” or “outdoor activities” is moving as a whole,  month over month, category by category.

It’s the same logic that made keyword clustering essential in SEO. You don’t optimize for every long-tail variation individually. You identify the topic, understand the intent behind it, and build content that covers the space.

AI search works the same way. Topics are at the right level of abstraction. They’re broad enough to be measurable, specific enough to be actionable.

That’s why Similarweb’s AI Research scores Interest at the topic level, not the prompt level. It reflects relative interest across a category, based on real prompt volume, giving your team a signal you can actually build a strategy around.

What the data shows

Using Trending Topics, we looked at AI search demand across four categories from December 2025 to April 2026.

Liquor & Beverages: Cooling off post-holiday

Wine, cocktail, and spirits-related AI conversations peaked over the holidays and have declined steadily since then. Seasonal demand is fading. But recent stabilization suggests the category may be preparing for its next wave.

For brands in this space, that plateau is the signal. The content you publish now shapes whether you’re cited when interest returns.

Recreational Activities: Heating up fast

Interest in outdoor activities and travel is surging as warmer months approach. Consumers are turning to AI to plan experiences before they’ve even started booking.

The data shows 22 trending topics in Recreational Activities, with 10 opportunities flagged as ‘high volume + growing’. If you’re in travel or hospitality and you’re not tracking this, you’re already behind.

Apparel & Accessories: The quiet comeback

General apparel interest dipped post-holiday. But clothing advice and fashion-related queries are rebounding. AI is becoming a go-to destination for styling inspiration and shopping decisions, not just product search.

Gifts & Florists: Seasonal spikes disappear fast

Gifting and greeting-related conversations dominated the holiday period, then dropped sharply into spring. The data is blunt. AI search demand moves fast, and timing is everything.

If you weren’t positioned when the spike hit, you missed it.

What this means for your AEO strategy

Most teams are still optimizing for what people searched last quarter.

That’s not good enough.

The brands that win in AI search are the ones that know what’s trending right now and build content before the wave peaks.

Similarweb AI Research tracks the topics trending on AI platforms right now. It scores each topic by AI Interest, based on real prompt volume, and shows month-over-month change and trend direction. You can see which topics are growing, which are fading, and where your competitors are already showing up.

The AI research phase starts here 

Trending Topics is live now in AI Search Intelligence. See which topics are growing, which are fading, and where your competitors are already showing up, all based on real prompt volume, with month-over-month trend direction built in.

The next AI search trend is already forming. See what’s trending in your category.