StudioNorth expands TOM Index beyond Top 100 rankings

StudioNorth has expanded its TOM Index from four categories to nine, adding new healthcare and enterprise technology views that surface every brand found in AI research. The update is meant to show how brands rank in both human awareness and AI-driven visibility, not just the top 100.

Why it matters: - The TOM Index is moving from a narrow leaderboard to a broader market visibility signal. - The shift matters because AI systems now influence which brands buyers see first in early shortlist formation. - Marketing and sales leaders can use the expanded view to spot visibility gaps, category movement, and identity fragmentation.

What happened: - StudioNorth expanded the TOM Index from four categories to nine. - The update adds five healthcare and enterprise technology categories: Diagnostic Imaging, Clinical Documentation, Revenue Cycle, Patient Engagement, and Enterprise Applications. - The TOM Index now shows every brand surfaced by the large language models used in the research, not just the top 100. - Each surfaced brand appears by name with a composite TOM Score. - StudioNorth said the rankings are editorially independent and cannot be bought, boosted, or removed.

The details: - TOM stands for Top of Mind and Top of Model. - Top of Mind measures how clearly people recognize, understand, trust, and choose a brand. - Top of Model measures how accurately AI systems surface and compare a brand in buying-context prompts. - The TOM Index uses hundreds of buying-context prompts across Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. - The Index combines those prompts with publicly verifiable market signals to create each TOM Score. - New interactive sorting lets visitors explore each category from different angles. - Each TOM Score Snapshot shows a brand’s latest published rank and scores. - The snapshots break out all five Top of Mind dimensions, three Top of Model dimensions, and comparisons with category leaders. - The expanded view can expose when AI systems split one brand family across multiple identities. - In August Networking results, the HPE family appeared under six labels, including HPE, Aruba, HPE Aruba Networking, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. - StudioNorth reports those labels as surfaced to show identity fragmentation that standard rankings can hide.

Between the lines: - The expansion reflects a broader change in how brand visibility is measured. - Traditional Top 100 lists show rank, but they can miss brands that are present in AI outputs without making the cutoff. - The new format gives more weight to visibility patterns and score movement inside a category. - The example of WWT shows that a brand can rise because of AI visibility even if awareness metrics slip. - In Solutions Providers, WWT moved from No. 10 in June to No. 3 in August. - WWT’s Top of Mind score edged down from 78.33 to 76.67. - WWT’s Top of Model score nearly doubled from 15.14 to 29.89. - The full gain in WWT’s composite TOM Score came from AI visibility.

What's next: - StudioNorth plans to publish trend data and insights on market movers as the TOM Index evolves. - The company will track visibility shifts, category momentum, and brands changing position as new LLMs surface results. - The rankings will be updated regularly. - StudioNorth will add new healthcare and enterprise technology categories month by month. - StudioNorth also offers a Brand Visibility Audit for a brand-specific view against competitors. - The audit applies the same Top of Mind and Top of Model framework across human and AI-driven buying environments. - The TOM Index is available at TOMIndex.com. - StudioNorth shared social links for LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X.