Why the Biggest Names in UK Spirits Are the Hardest for AI to Cite

What does this week's data actually show?

Across 11 UK specialty retailers in whisky and cigars, the average readiness score sits at 46 out of 100. That is the headline reading from the Index this week, and it tells a plain story: the category is, on average, only about halfway built for the era of AI assistants.

Readiness is a 0–100 measure of how well a brand's website is constructed to be found, understood and cited by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. A score of 46 is not a failure — but it is a long way from a category that can rely on being recommended when a shopper asks an assistant, rather than a search engine, for the best place to buy a bottle or a box.

Who is leading, and by how much?

At the top of this week's table, The Whisky Shop records a readiness of 76, with EGM Cigars close behind on 66. Hard To Find Whisky (57) and C.Gars Ltd (56) form a competitive middle tier, while City Cigars (50) sits just above the category average.

The gap between the leaders and the average is instructive. The Whisky Shop's 76 is a full 30 points clear of the 46 mean. In a market where AI assistants tend to surface a small handful of options, that distance is the difference between being the brand an assistant names and being the brand it overlooks.

Why are the best-known brands scoring lowest?

Here is the finding that should give the category pause. Two of the most recognisable names in UK spirits retail sit at the very foot of the table: Master of Malt and Havana House both register a readiness of just 10, with The Whisky Exchange on 23.

These are established, high-traffic retailers with deep catalogues and strong brand recognition. Yet on the specific measure of machine visibility, they trail smaller specialists by a wide margin. The lesson is uncomfortable but clear: brand fame and human traffic do not translate automatically into AI readiness. An assistant does not know a name is famous unless the site makes its structure, products and expertise legible to a machine.

This is the central risk of the moment. A retailer can dominate conventional search and paid channels while remaining nearly invisible to the assistants that a growing share of shoppers now consult first. A score of 10 is not a marginal disadvantage — it is a near-absence from the answer.

What separates a 76 from a 10?

The spread in this week's data — from 76 at the top to 10 at the bottom — is unusually wide for a single, well-defined category. That spread is itself the signal. It shows that AI readiness is not a function of sector maturity or budget; it is a function of deliberate construction.

The brands near the top have made their sites easier for assistants to parse and quote: clear product information, structured data, and content that answers the questions buyers actually ask. The brands near the bottom have, in effect, built for humans and search crawlers of the last decade — and not for the systems now mediating discovery. Our full methodology sets out how each signal is weighed.

What does a 46 average mean for the category?

An average of 46 across 11 brands describes a market in transition rather than one in crisis. Most of the category is neither well-prepared nor entirely absent — it is somewhere in the middle, exposed. That middle is where competitive advantage is won or lost quickly, because the cost of moving from average to leading is largely a matter of intent rather than scale.

Consider the practical stakes. When a shopper asks an assistant to recommend a specialist whisky retailer or a reputable cigar merchant, the assistant will draw on the sites it can read and trust. On this week's readings, that favours The Whisky Shop and EGM Cigars far more than it favours the larger names languishing in single or low double digits.

What should retailers take from this week's reading?

Three conclusions follow directly from the data. First, visibility is now measurable — a readiness score turns an abstract worry into a number a board can act on. Second, incumbency is not protection: the presence of Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange near the bottom shows that established brands are among the most exposed. Third, the leaders are not unreachable — a 30-point gap over the category average is built through method, not magic.

The broader pattern behind these category readings is set out in the State of AI Visibility report, which places this week's whisky-and-cigar figures in context.

The brands that treat AI readiness as a discipline — measured, tracked and improved — will be the ones assistants name first. The rest risk discovering their invisibility only when the sales have already gone elsewhere.

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