AI Visibility Index DACH 2026 — Robot Vacuums
Who appears in AI answers, who doesn't, and why
It is Thursday evening. A working mother sits on the sofa with her phone. The dog has been shedding all day, the kids left crumbs across the kitchen floor, and the thought of another weekend with the vacuum cleaner is exhausting. She opens ChatGPT and types: "Best robot vacuum for pet hair dogs cats". Three minutes later she has three brand recommendations, a price range, and a short list in her head. Before she opens a single online shop, the pre-selection is set.
It is also the everyday reality in which robot vacuum purchase decisions are made differently than they were three years ago. When someone needs a recommendation, they increasingly stop asking acquaintances. They ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews. Get four names back. Google two of them. Have a shortlist before they have watched a single test video.
Which four names those are has nothing to do with the best product. It depends on which brands appear in the sources AI systems use to build their answers. That is what we measured.
What we measured
We ran 25 prompts from real robot vacuum buying processes across three platforms: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity. Region Germany, period 7 May to 7 June 2026, every prompt run multiple times. Data collected with Promptwatch.
Five CMO decision layers with five prompts each: Category Entry & Authority, Audience-Use-Case Resonance, Competitive Positioning, USP & Feature Demand, Decision-Stage Triggers. The five moments that carry a robot vacuum purchase from first market orientation to final confirmation.
The Visibility Score shows how many prompts a brand appears in, as a percentage. 30% means: in almost every third relevant question. We also evaluated which sources AI systems draw on when they mention a brand.
The overall ranking
Over 300 brands were identified in AI answers during the measurement period. Most appear once, sporadically, with no recognizable pattern. These are the 15 that show up consistently.
Roborock at rank 1 with 45.8% remains the clearest single-brand dominance in this report series. The brand appears in nearly every second AI answer. Ecovacs at rank 2 with 32.6%, iRobot with 19.3% at rank 3, Dreame at rank 4 with 13.0%. Four vendors share the top, three of them Chinese, one US-based.
Notable in the ranking are the sub-brands. Roomba appears at rank 12 with 3.8%, Deebot at rank 15 with 2.4%. Both belong to iRobot and Ecovacs respectively, but are frequently mentioned by AI answers as standalone brand names. iRobot consolidated with all Roomba mentions would be at roughly 23%, Ecovacs with Deebot at roughly 38%. The consolidated view is documented in the methodology section at the end.
The German premium brands land in the positions behind them. Vorwerk at rank 6 with 7.9%, Miele at rank 7 with 6.0%, Bosch at rank 9 with 4.5%. AEG, Siemens, Severin, and Kärcher do not make the top 15. That is not the ranking Stiftung Warentest or the home appliances department of an electronics retailer would produce. It is the ranking that German test portals, YouTube reviews, and tabloid comparison sections have written into the source base of AI systems through years of coverage.
What traditional brand perception in the DACH region still partly treats as the premium domain of German manufacturers has already shifted in AI visibility. With one clear exception that we come to in a moment.
Three platforms, three different rankings
The overall ranking is an average. What sits underneath looks different on each platform.
ChatGPT
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roborock | 37.9% |
| 2 | iRobot | 24.0% |
| 3 | Ecovacs | 23.5% |
| 4 | Dreame | 9.2% |
| 5 | Roborock.com | 6.7% |
| 6 | Dreame.de | 6.3% |
| 7 | Roomba (iRobot) | 5.7% |
| 8 | Narwal | 3.5% |
| 9 | Miele | 2.4% |
| 10 | Eufy | 2.2% |
Google AI Overviews
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roborock | 14.4% |
| 2 | Ecovacs | 12.8% |
| 3 | Roborock.com | 6.7% |
| 4 | Dreame | 4.6% |
| 5 | Vorwerk | 4.4% |
| 6 | Dreame.de | 4.4% |
| 7 | Miele | 3.4% |
| 8 | Mova | 2.4% |
| 9 | Bosch | 2.2% |
| 10 | Medion | 2.2% |
Perplexity
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roborock | 43.9% |
| 2 | Ecovacs | 32.3% |
| 3 | Dreame | 13.4% |
| 4 | iRobot | 12.7% |
| 5 | Dreame.de | 12.3% |
| 6 | Xiaomi | 11.2% |
| 7 | Vorwerk | 8.7% |
| 8 | Bosch | 7.1% |
| 9 | Mova | 6.5% |
| 10 | Narwal | 6.2% |
iRobot: rank 2 on ChatGPT at 24.0%, rank 4 on Perplexity at 12.7%, rank 9 on Google AI Overviews at 3.2%. Same brand, same period, three different roles.
Vorwerk: rank 5 on Google AI Overviews, rank 9 on ChatGPT, rank 7 on Perplexity. Ecovacs: rank 2 on Perplexity at 32.3%, rank 3 on ChatGPT at 23.5%. Roborock leads everywhere, but with almost triple the spread between maximum (43.9% Perplexity) and minimum (14.4% Google AIO).
Any vendor selling into this category who has built AI visibility on only one platform loses every buyer who opens a different one tomorrow. That is not a theoretical risk. It is the current state of most brands in this ranking.
Who wins which buying moment?
The 25 prompts in this study are structured along the five CMO decision layers. Each layer represents a different moment in the buying process. For each layer we show the most representative prompt with the top 5 vendors.
The heatmap makes two patterns immediately visible. Roborock, Ecovacs, and iRobot dominate broadly, with consistently high values across four of five layers. Vorwerk and Miele light up in only one single layer, the service corridor under Competitive Positioning, but with the highest values of the entire study. Dreame has its peak in Layer 1 (Category Entry), Xiaomi in Layer 4 (USP). These are the brand signatures we walk through in detail below.
Layer 1: Category Entry & Authority
"Best robot vacuum 2026" · "Robot vacuum test winner comparison" · "Which robot vacuum brands are recommended" · "Robot vacuum new releases 2026 innovative models" · "Top 5 robot vacuum recommendation"
The first moment in the buying process. Someone asking for the "best robot vacuum 2026" has no brand in mind yet. The AI delivers the initial brand set.
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roborock | 60.3% |
| 2 | Ecovacs | 48.3% |
| 3 | Dreame | 35.2% |
| 4 | iRobot | 17.9% |
| 5 | Mova | 12.7% |
Roborock leads with 60.3%, appearing in six out of ten answers to the year-stamped question. Ecovacs and Dreame follow behind. For the pure year-stamped question "best robot vacuum 2026", the AI clearly pulls the latest test articles, in which Dreame with the X50 and L10S models is featured especially prominently. gamestar.de and homeandsmart.de supply the bulk of the sources for that.
For "which robot vacuum brands are recommended", Roborock leads, in a prompt that concentrates the top group particularly strongly. For "robot vacuum test winner comparison", Vorwerk moves to rank 2 because the Stiftung Warentest 2024 test is pulled in as the central source. The layer is not homogeneous. Which exact prompt is asked shifts the brand set considerably.
Layer 2: Audience-Use-Case Resonance
"Best robot vacuum for pet hair dogs cats" · "Robot vacuum for families with kids crumbs toys" · "Robot vacuum for allergy sufferers house dust HEPA" · "Robot vacuum for working singles short on time" · "Robot vacuum for large apartment multiple floors"
The question gets concrete. The household, the life situation, the main problem move into focus.
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roborock | 43.1% |
| 2 | Ecovacs | 39.0% |
| 3 | iRobot | 38.2% |
| 4 | Mova | 14.8% |
| 5 | Dreame | 12.7% |
A three-brand race. Roborock, Ecovacs, and iRobot sit close together on the pet-hair question. iRobot benefits from the historical pet-hair positioning of the Roomba models. Mova pushes itself to rank 4 with 14.8%, ahead of Dreame. Behind the top five the values drop sharply.
The other four prompts in this layer produce shifts. For "robot vacuum for working singles" and "families with kids", the top 3 return, often expanded by Medion or Eufy as the price pick. For "allergy sufferers house dust HEPA", brands with dedicated HEPA filter models move forward. For "multiple floors", map-save memory becomes decisive, which structurally favors Roborock and Ecovacs. For smaller vendors, Layer 2 is the better lever than the generic brand question in Layer 1.
Layer 3: Competitive Positioning
"Robot vacuum premium manufacturer brand comparison" · "Robot vacuum with mopping function which brands lead" · "Best robot vacuum manufacturers with German service" · "Robot vacuum with self-cleaning station which brand is best" · "Which robot vacuum manufacturers are popular with pet owners"
Direct brand comparison. The question is no longer about a category, it is about positioning.
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miele | 67.5% |
| 2 | Vorwerk | 61.6% |
| 3 | Bosch | 44.0% |
| 4 | Roborock | 27.0% |
| 5 | iRobot | 22.1% |
The only prompt in the entire report where the overall ranking is completely inverted. Miele leads at 67.5%, just ahead of Vorwerk at 61.6%, both with values higher than any visibility these brands reach in other topics. AEG (22.5%), Medion (15.9%) and Severin (9.0%) also appear in the top 10. These brands are otherwise practically absent from the AI robot vacuum discourse.
For the other Layer 3 prompts, the Chinese picture returns. For "robot vacuum premium manufacturer brand comparison", Roborock leads, Ecovacs takes rank 2, Vorwerk drops to single-digit values. For "robot vacuum with mopping function which brands lead", Roborock leads with 71.0%, Ecovacs with 60.7%. Service, warranty, and long-term spare parts availability are tied to local heritage brands in the German consumer mind. Premium positioning along the product dimension is no longer.
Layer 4: USP & Feature Demand
"Robot vacuum without tangling anti tangle system" · "Robot vacuum with self-emptying station recommendation" · "Robot vacuum with precise obstacle detection AI" · "Robot vacuum with high suction for deep carpet cleaning" · "Robot vacuum with double brush or roller system"
The buyer has a specific feature in mind. Anti-tangle brush, AI navigation, self-emptying station.
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roborock | 71.0% |
| 2 | Ecovacs | 60.7% |
| 3 | Xiaomi | 31.1% |
| 4 | iRobot | 28.7% |
| 5 | Dreame | 25.1% |
Premium feature cluster. The Chinese tech brands dominate this category almost entirely. Vorwerk appears only in the low single digits. Miele and Bosch do not appear in the top 10 of this question.
Innovation and premium functionality count as the domain of established DACH manufacturers in the classical home appliance world. In AI answers the distribution is reversed. The explanation is simple. The relevant German robot vacuum test portals (chip.de, homeandsmart.de, smarthomeassistent.de) test almost exclusively the Chinese manufacturers' models with their latest innovations. DACH vendors launch fewer new robot vacuum models, or send fewer test samples to media. The asymmetry in coverage translates linearly into AI visibility.
For "robot vacuum without tangling anti tangle system" and "robot vacuum with precise obstacle detection AI", the AI even delivers specific model names from the innovation pipelines of the Chinese vendors: Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra, Dreame X50 Ultra Complete, Ecovacs X9 Pro Omni. Vorwerk and Miele are mostly not mentioned at all in these answers.
Layer 5: Decision-Stage Triggers
"Robot vacuum Stiftung Warentest very good rating" · "Robot vacuum price-performance winner 500 to 700 euros" · "Which robot vacuum is really worth it experiences" · "Robot vacuum with long warranty reliable brand" · "Robot vacuum low maintenance few spare parts"
The final moment before the purchase. Trust signals, price-performance, real-user validation.
| Rank | Vendor | Visibility Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vorwerk | 38.0% |
| 2 | Roborock | 34.8% |
| 3 | Shark | 25.5% |
| 4 | iRobot | 17.0% |
| 5 | Ecovacs | 13.3% |
Vorwerk holds the top spot. The AI reproduces the 2024 Stiftung Warentest test result almost verbatim from a spiegel.de write-up: Vorwerk VR7 as winner among pure robot vacuums, Medion X50 SW as the price pick, iRobot Combo j7+ as the environmental pick.
Notable at rank 3: Shark with 25.5%. The Shark RV2600WSEU was the 2024 StiWa winner for combined sweep-and-mop devices, this finding surfaces in one out of four StiWa-related answers. Across all other 24 prompts in this study, Shark visibility is markedly lower.
Stiftung Warentest itself appears in this answer as a cited entity at 7.7%. As a source, test.de ranks 6th in the citation analysis. Stiftung Warentest winners are transported into AI answers mostly through secondary sources like idealo.de and spiegel.de. The original article on test.de alone is measurably not enough.
For "robot vacuum price-performance winner 500 to 700 euros", mid-price models move forward, often with specific Roborock Q-series and Dreame D-series recommendations. For "which robot vacuum is really worth it experiences", the AI draws more heavily on Reddit threads and Roboter-Forum posts, which raises the community share of citations in this prompt considerably.
What AI actually reads
The Visibility Scores show who sits at the top. The citation analysis explains why. The data set for this study covers 10,165 citations from over 1,000 domains. The most-cited domains:
The category distribution across the entire dataset: Earned Media carries the bulk of all citations. Community & Social, Retail & Aggregator, and Brand-Owned Hubs follow at significantly lower shares each. That is a notable counter-model to B2B software categories like SaaS Spend Management, where brand hubs carry a major share of the citation layer. In the robot vacuum world, editorial test portals dominate almost monolithically.
chip.de at rank 1 with 9.58% is the clearest single-domain concentration we have measured in this report series. Anyone listed in the chip.de robot vacuum top list automatically gains visibility in a large share of AI answers. Anyone absent has a measurable gap. smarthomeassistent.de and homeandsmart.de are the other two pillars of this citation layer. Three domains that together deliver over 21% of all citations in the entire category.
de.narwal.com remains the most surprising finding in this analysis. Narwal as a brand ranks 8th overall with 5.7%. As a citation source the domain ranks 11th with 250 entries. It is the only brand in the study whose hub has built measurable citation substance. The reason is a consistent hub strategy with categorized advisory articles on topics like "robot vacuum for allergy sufferers", "robot vacuum for families with small children", and "robot vacuum with self-cleaning station". AI systems treat these articles like a neutral robot vacuum specialist portal. Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame have built only a fraction of this citation substance through their own hubs.
YouTube at rank 2 with 7.03% is the second central source and by far the strongest Community & Social entry. Robot vacuum tests, unboxing videos, before-after demos, direct comparisons. Smart-Home-Fox, Roboter-Deals, and a few other German channels supply most of the material that AI systems draw on from transcripts and descriptions. YouTube rarely appears as a central lever in classical home appliance marketing strategies. In this dataset, YouTube is the second most important citation source after chip.de. Reddit climbs to rank 10 with 259 entries, another community layer that swells notably for experience and comparison questions.
idealo.de at rank 15 with 1.96% is the most-cited Retail & Aggregator source and serves a double function. The Idealo magazine articles are cited directly. The Idealo article on "Stiftung Warentest the best robot vacuums" alone reaches a large share of these citations and is one of the most-cited single pages in the entire category. Idealo.de also works as an aggregator that funnels Stiftung Warentest results and other test sources into a central overview from which AI then cites. Anyone listed on idealo and mentioned in the idealo magazine benefits twice.
test.de at rank 6 with 3.76%. Stiftung Warentest itself ranks solidly, but not dominantly. Stiftung Warentest winners are transported into AI answers mostly through secondary sources. Anyone wanting a Stiftung Warentest win to be visible in AI needs the secondary coverage. The test.de original article alone is measurably not enough.
Conclusions: Who stands where, and what does that tell us?
Roborock. 45.8% overall, 43.9% on Perplexity, leading position in practically every layer except service. What carries the position is broad anchoring in the major German robot vacuum test portals plus consistent product innovation cycles that become visible in coverage. The only area where Roborock no longer leads is the service corridor. Miele and Vorwerk sit ahead there.
Ecovacs. 32.6% overall, 32.3% on Perplexity, 23.5% on ChatGPT. A position built almost entirely on Perplexity and ChatGPT, weaker on Google AI Overviews. The brand uses an effect with its Deebot sub-brand that iRobot also benefits from with Roomba: in the AI world, brand and sub-brand are sometimes measured as separate entities, which enlarges total visibility. Deebot alone reaches 2.4% overall. Where Ecovacs lags is Google AI Overviews relative to its Perplexity position. The lever sits in broader anchoring across German service and consumer sources.
iRobot. Rank 3 with 19.3%, the only non-Chinese brand in the top group. Rank 2 on ChatGPT with 24.0%, rank 4 on Perplexity, rank 9 on Google AI Overviews. iRobot leans on historical market position and the English-language lifestyle anchoring of the Roomba brand, which appears separately at rank 12 of the overall ranking with 3.8%. In pet hair, iRobot reaches 38.2% at rank 3. In the USP and innovation prompts of Layer 4 the brand reaches 28.7%. Holding or extending the position requires either a clear product update wave or targeted earned media reconstruction in the three large robot vacuum specialist portals.
Dreame. Rank 4 with 13.0% overall, with a strong peak at "best robot vacuum 2026" of 35.2%. Well anchored on Perplexity at 13.4%. The brand spreads its visibility across five different domain variants (dreame.de, dreame.tech, dreame.com, dreametech.com, dreame.net) which taken together would represent considerably more brand substance. Consolidating onto a primary German brand domain would increase citation concentration and with it the AI visibility of the brand's own content. If that happens and Dreame maintains its innovation coverage through 2026, the brand is the first serious contender to displace Roborock from the top spot in the DACH region.
Vorwerk. 7.9% overall, 61.6% in the Layer 3 hero prompt on German service. When someone asks AI for German service, Vorwerk appears in roughly six out of ten answers. In the Layer 5 hero prompt on Stiftung Warentest, Vorwerk reaches 38.0% at rank 1. What is missing strategically is anchoring in Layer 4. Vorwerk reaches only low single-digit visibility scores there because German robot vacuum test portals rarely include Vorwerk models in direct innovation comparisons with the Chinese competitors. The lever sits in a more active test-sample strategy and earned media work in chip.de, homeandsmart.de, and smarthomeassistent.de.
Miele. Rank 7 with 6.0% overall, 67.5% in the service prompt and just ahead of Vorwerk there. Hardly visible in any other layer. The classical premium brand perception has not carried over into the robot vacuum AI world. The lever is identical to Vorwerk: test-sample strategy and earned media anchoring in the three large robot vacuum specialist portals, supplemented by stronger innovation communication around the existing product line.
Xiaomi and Bosch and AEG. Xiaomi at rank 5 with 9.1% pulls visibility disproportionately from Layer 4, especially from "mopping function which brands lead" (31.1%). Bosch and AEG are practically invisible in the general robot vacuum AI discourse, with the exception of the service question. Bosch reaches 44.0% there, AEG 22.5%. Competing against Roborock and Ecovacs in general visibility is medium-term difficult with the current product portfolio and test-coverage logic. The service corridor is a real position that can be expanded further with targeted source work.
Narwal. Rank 8 with 5.7% brand visibility, simultaneously rank 11 in citation domains with 250 mentions. One of the few brands in the study whose hub has built measurable citation substance. Narwal has built a content hub on de.narwal.com that functions in the AI logic like a neutral advisory portal. The citation volume is there. The next lever sits in transferring this volume into brand-relevant recommendation answers rather than only neutral advisory answers.
Mova and Yeedi and Eufy and Medion. Four mid-tier vendors, each with a specialist visibility peak in one layer. Mova in Layer 1 (best robot vacuum 2026) with 12.7%, Yeedi in Layer 2 (pet hair), Eufy in Layer 4 (self-emptying stations), Medion in Layer 3 (service) with 15.9%. What these vendors lack is strategic broadening beyond a single layer.
Shark. 3.2% overall score, rank 14 in the top 15. The Shark RV2600WSEU was the Stiftung Warentest 2024 winner for combined sweep-and-mop devices. In the Layer 5 hero prompt on Stiftung Warentest, Shark reaches 25.5% at rank 3. Across the other 24 prompts in this study, visibility is markedly lower. sharkclean.de receives few citations across the entire period, Narwal scores 250 in comparison. The lever sits in editorial secondary coverage of the StiWa story in chip.de, homeandsmart.de, and smarthomeassistent.de.
For the DACH robot vacuum market overall: AI visibility is considerably more concentrated than the actual market structure. A group of four, Roborock, Ecovacs, iRobot, and Dreame, dominates the recommendation logic, with Vorwerk and Miele as voices in the service corridor. Classical German premium brand perception only holds in the AI world within one clearly bounded layer. Everything else is the domain of the Chinese tech brands plus iRobot. Any German vendor wanting to change this asymmetry structurally needs two levers in parallel. Consistent product innovation communication that reaches the three large German robot vacuum specialist portals. And systematic broadening of earned media presence beyond the traditional daily-press comparison sections.
What Recon Rise Does
This report shows the category. We show where a brand sits within it, and then build what is missing.
An AI Visibility Audit measures current visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity, broken down by topic, platform, and position. From there the work is operational: identifying the right sources, placing earned media, developing comparison content. The infrastructure that keeps a brand appearing in the answers that matter. Not as a one-off, but durably.
If you want to see how this looks for your own brand: Get in touch
Methodology
Promptwatch AI Visibility Monitoring · 25 prompts across 5 CMO decision layers × 5 prompts: Category Entry & Authority, Audience-Use-Case Resonance, Competitive Positioning, USP & Feature Demand, Decision-Stage Triggers · Measurement period: 7 May to 7 June 2026 · Platforms: ChatGPT (gpt-4o-search), Google AI Overviews, Perplexity (sonar-pro) · 2,375 evaluated AI answers · Multiple executions per prompt and platform · over 300 unique brands identified · Citation analysis based on 10,165 citations · Citation classification manual across four classes: Earned Media, Brand-Owned Hub, Community & Social, Retail & Aggregator · Region: Germany · Language: German · Category: Robot Vacuums (Consumer Home Appliances)
Visibility Score per brand. We report the main domain per brand entity, that is the domain entry with the highest visibility. Sub-brands like Roomba (iRobot) and Deebot (Ecovacs) are tracked as separate brands in Promptwatch and shown separately. Under a consolidated view across all subdomains and sub-brands, the top brands would be higher: Roborock consolidated around 58%, Ecovacs (including Deebot and ecovacs.de) around 38%, Dreame across all domain variants around 33%, iRobot (including Roomba) around 23%. The main-domain view makes the figures directly reproducible from Promptwatch and comparable between brands.
The data for this report was collected with Promptwatch.
AI Visibility Index DACH 2026 — Robot Vacuums Recon Rise GmbH · Düsseldorf · reconrise.ai © 2026 Recon Rise. All rights reserved.
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