Of 60 answers

The most named companies in the study, and S&P 500 financials, with how many of their 60 AI answers named them.

SWIFT47/60TRANSUNION46/60EXPERIAN42/60COINSTAR41/60NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION41/60ZELLE41/60BLOOMBERG L.P.38/60TRADINGVIEW38/60BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO37/60PAYPAL37/60VENMO37/60CHEXSYSTEMS33/60EQUIFAX33/60MORNINGSTAR32/60S&P GLOBAL31/60ALPACA MARKETS30/60COINBASE30/60PINWHEEL29/60STRIPE29/60XERO29/60ACORNS28/60AFFIRM28/60PAYFAST (PAYGATE)28/60PAYONEER28/60INTERACTIVE BROKERS26/60CHARLES SCHWAB19/60THE HARTFORD9/60MOODY'S21/60CME GROUP19/60ACCENTURE11/60CHUBB10/60MORGAN STANLEY6/60AMERICAN EXPRESS14/60SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL12/60FACTSET20/60NASDAQ19/60ALLSTATE11/60WELLS FARGO18/60PAYCHEX10/60ARES MANAGEMENT3/60
Rezolve Ai
MethodDemo
Back to the study
AI visibility statementFinance AI Visibility Study 2026Issued October 14, 2026
Account holder
G

Gusto

gusto.com

Accounting, tax and payrollFinancial technology and data

Money20/20 attendee

Statement period
October 9, 2026
when the AI assistants were asked
Account no.
94 of 2,219
its rank by overall score
Place in its category
6th of 32 accounting, tax and payroll companies
Closing balance

Named in

23of 60 answers

by 4 of 4 assistants

Statement note

What this means for Gusto

AI assistants name Gusto in 38.3% of answers, much more often than the typical company in its sector at 1.7%. Its overall score is 43 out of 100, ranking 94th of 2,219 companies. Gusto's website passes 1 of 14 technical checks for AI tool readiness.

We asked 15 unbranded questions about its market, so no question mentioned Gusto by name. AI assistants named it in 23 of the 60 answers. Counting only how often it is named, it ranks 13th of 574 in its sector. The typical financial technology and data company is named in 1.7% of answers.

Overall score
43Overall score
  • Visibility37
  • Citations6
  • Sentiment83
  • Site quality80
  • AI readiness7
Summary of account
Named by AI in
38.3%
23 of 60 answers
Share of mentions
36.5%
of the mentions of it and its 5 peers
AI readiness
1/14
technical checks passed. Typical for its sector: 4
Rank in its sector
34 of 574
by overall score, where the typical financial technology and data company scores 29

Get the full report on Gusto as a PDF

Enter your work email to download it.

We’ll use your email to follow up about this report. Privacy policy

Line itemsSection 01

Every question, and where the company came up

Gusto came up on 9 of 15 questions. Open any window to read that answer.

  1. 01What are the best online payroll solutions for small businesses?4/4
  2. 02How can I fix issues with employee benefits enrollment on my HR platform?0/4
  3. 03How do I find a reliable HR platform for managing employee benefits and compliance?3/4
  4. 04How do all-in-one HR platforms compare to standalone payroll software?0/4
  5. 05What should I do if my payroll software isn’t calculating taxes correctly?0/4
  6. 06Can traditional accountants or bookkeepers replace online payroll and benefits software?1/4
  7. 07Is it worth investing in an online HR and payroll solution for a company with under 50 employees?0/4
  8. 08What are the main differences between integrated HR/payroll platforms and traditional payroll services?1/4
  9. 09Does paying extra for built-in compliance and tax filing features make sense for mid-sized businesses?0/4
  10. 10Are there simple tools for businesses that only need basic payroll without extra HR features?3/4
  11. 11What is the typical monthly cost range for small business payroll and HR software in the US?2/4
  12. 12What are the top alternatives to full-service online HR platforms for small businesses?4/4
  13. 13How can an HR platform help streamline onboarding for remote employees?0/4
  14. 14Are there affordable payroll solutions with integrated benefits administration for startups?4/4
  15. 15What’s the easiest way to track employee time and PTO using online HR tools?1/4
Total namedOpenAI: 7/15Claude: 6/15Perplexity: 4/15Gemini: 6/15All assistants: 23/60
named the companyanswered without naming itdid not answer

Columns, left to right: OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini. Across the study, on 50% of the questions where a company is named, only one AI assistant names it.

Transaction detailSection 02

What Perplexity actually said

An answer that names the company

Perplexitynamed the company

“What are the best online payroll solutions for small businesses?”

For most U.S. small businesses, Gusto is the best overall online payroll solution because it combines easy payroll processing, tax filing, direct deposit, benefits, and basic HR tools. QuickBooks Payroll is especially strong if the business already uses QuickBooks, while OnPay is a good value for straightforward payroll and ADP RUN or Paychex fit companies expecting more growth or support needs.

Best options

Provider · Best for · Main strengths · Potential drawback

Gusto · Best overall and easiest setup · User-friendly payroll, a …

The AI’s answer as we received it, shortened and not checked for accuracy.

PayeesSection 03

Where the mentions went

The companies these answers named, and how the mentions were split between this company and its peers.

Also named

CompanyTimes named
  1. 01
    OnPay
    18
  2. 02
    Justworks
    13
  3. 03
    Paychex
    9
  4. 04
    Paylocity
    2

Share of mentions

CompanyShare
  1. Gusto
    36.5%
  2. OnPay
    20.6%
  3. Paychex
    15.9%
  4. Justworks
    15.9%
  5. ADP RUN
    9.5%
  6. Paylocity
    1.6%
ReferrersSection 04

Websites the AI used as sources

How many times each website was listed as a source in these answers

  1. 01
    gusto.com (its own website)
    24
  2. 02
    peoplemanagingpeople.com
    23
  3. 03
    rippling.com
    13
  4. 04
    adp.com
    13
  5. 05
    joinhomebase.com
    10
  6. 06
    hibob.com
    9
  7. 07
    quickbooks.intuit.com
    9
  8. 08
    hrcloud.com
    8
  9. 09
    bamboohr.com
    7
  10. 10
    patriotsoftware.com
    7

Gusto is in the study as an accounting, tax or payroll company.

By assistantSection 05

Which AI assistants named the company

Answers naming it, out of answers received

OpenAI
7/15
Gemini
6/15
Claude
6/15
Perplexity
4/15
Market comparisonSection 06

How Gusto compares with all 2,219 companies

Every tower is a company in the study, taller for a higher overall score and lit where AI assistants named it. Its own group stays lit. Hover a tower to see it, and click to open it.

What makes up the score

Each part is scored out of 100.

Visibility
37

How often AI assistants name the company, and how that compares with its peers

Citations
6

How often AI uses the company's own website as a source

Sentiment
83

How positively AI describes the company

Site quality
80

How well built the website's own pages are

AI readiness
7

How easily AI tools can read and use the website

Visibility is calculated from the answers on this page. How the score is built.

Against its sectorSection 07

Compared with financial technology and data companies

574 companies in this sector. The gold tick on each bar is the typical company.

Overall score
43
Ranks 34 of 574. Typical company: 29
Named in answers
38.3%
Ranks 13 of 574. Typical company: 1.7%
AI readiness
7
Ranks 533 of 574. Typical company: 29
Against its categorySection 08

Compared with accounting, tax and payroll companies

32 companies in this category. The gold tick on each bar is the typical company.

Overall score
43
Ranks 5 of 32. Typical company: 38
Named in answers
38.3%
Ranks 3 of 32. Typical company: 15.0%
AI readiness
7
Ranks 30 of 32. Typical company: 29
AI agentsSection 09

Ready for AI agents

What this website publishes for an AI agent to read, use and pay through, on a scale of six levels.

  1. 0
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5

Level 2: Bot-aware. Explicit AI bot rules and declared Content Signals.

To reach level 3:
  • Markdown negotiation

Some checks could not run. With them, up to level 3 would be possible.

The website turns away requests that do not come from a browser. AI agents that say what they are meet the same refusal.

Can an AI agent check out here?

Not by itself. Gusto publishes none of the agent payment protocols we look for. An agent would have to click through the website like a person.

Agent payment protocols
  • x402Not present
  • MPPNot present
  • AP2Not present
  • ACPNot present
  • UCPNot present
Interfaces for AI agents
  • MCP Server CardNot present
  • A2A Agent CardNot present
  • Agent SkillsNot present
  • API CatalogNot present
  • llms.txtPublished
  • WebMCPCould not check
Show every check, for your technical team
Discoverability
100 of 100
  • robots.txtPassed

    A valid robots.txt with crawl rules at the site root.

    study: 86.1%
  • SitemapPassed

    An XML sitemap listing the pages, ideally referenced from robots.txt.

    study: 87.9%
  • Link headersCould not check

    Send Link headers such as rel="api-catalog" or rel="describedby" on the homepage.

    study: 1.5%
  • DNS for AI DiscoveryNot present

    Advertise agent endpoints with SVCB records under _agents.

    study: 4.3%
Content accessibility
100 of 100
  • Markdown negotiationCould not check

    Return a markdown version when asked with Accept: text/markdown, for example at the CDN.

    study: 6.2%
  • llms.txtPassed

    An llms.txt that tells language models what the site offers.

    study: 31.0%
Bot access control
68 of 100
  • AI bot rulesPartly met

    Add explicit robots.txt groups for the main AI crawlers.

    study: 92.7%
  • Content SignalsPassed

    Content-Signal lines in robots.txt declaring search, AI input and AI training preferences.

    study: 2.3%
  • Web Bot AuthNot present

    Only relevant if you run your own agents or crawlers: publish a signing key directory.

    study: 0.3%
APIs, auth and MCP
0 of 100
  • API CatalogNot met

    List public APIs in a linkset at /.well-known/api-catalog.

    study: 1.3%
  • OAuth discoveryNot met

    Publish OpenID Connect or OAuth server metadata under /.well-known.

    study: 6.3%
  • OAuth Protected ResourceNot met

    Serve protected resource metadata at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource.

    study: 5.3%
  • auth.mdNot met

    Publish an auth.md describing how agents sign in.

    study: 0.2%
  • MCP Server CardNot met

    Offer an MCP server and publish its server card under /.well-known.

    study: 0.8%
  • A2A Agent CardNot met

    Publish an agent card at /.well-known/agent-card.json.

    study: 0.2%
  • Agent SkillsNot met

    Publish a skills index with the main tasks agents can do.

    study: 1.0%
  • WebMCPCould not check

    Register key actions such as search or cart as WebMCP tools.

    study: 0.0%
  • ARD manifestNot met

    Publish an ai-catalog.json listing every agent interface.

    study: 0.2%

Score 53 of 100 · 81% of checks could run · checked on October 9, 2026 · gusto.com · 2,200 companies scanned

See how every company did, and how this was measured.

AI readinessSection 10

The checks behind the AI readiness score

1 of 14 passed. This list is for your technical team. The percentage is how many companies in the study pass each check.

These 14 checks ran during the audit and are what the AI readiness part of the overall score counts. The scan above ran later and is stricter on Link headers and Markdown, so a check can pass here and not there.

Show the 14 checks

Discoverability

  • Not metrobots.txt publishedstudy: 85.1%
  • Not metXML sitemapstudy: 79.4%
  • Not metHTTP Link headers (RFC 8288)study: 42.5%

Content Accessibility

  • Not metMarkdown content negotiationstudy: 7.4%
  • Not metllms.txt publishedstudy: 28.1%
  • PassedToken budget (page weight)study: 97.3%

Bot Access Control

  • Not metExplicit AI bot rulesstudy: 11.5%

API / Auth / MCP

  • Not metAPI Catalog (.well-known/api-catalog)study: 1.1%
  • Not metOAuth Authorization Server discoverystudy: 5.2%
  • Not metOAuth Protected Resource discoverystudy: 4.6%
  • Not metMCP Server Cardstudy: 0.2%
  • Not metA2A Agent Cardstudy: 0.0%
  • Not metWebMCP toolsstudy: 0.3%
  • Not metAgent Skills declaredstudy: 0.1%
Take it with you

Get the full report on Gusto as a PDF

Every number on this page in a PDF you can keep and share with your team. Enter your work email to download it.

We’ll use your email to follow up about this report. Privacy policy

ShareSection 11

Share this result

Overall score 43 of 100 badge for Gusto

A badge of this result that you can show on your own website. Copy the code below.

<a href="https://aeo-audit.rezolve.com/us/finance/gusto.com"><img src="https://aeo-audit.rezolve.com/finance/badges/gusto.com.svg" alt="Overall score 43 of 100, Finance AI Visibility Study 2026" width="280" height="64"></a>
End of statement
All 2,219 companiesHow we measured this
Next step

Want AI assistants to name your company?

Book a 30-minute demo to see Rezolve Ai in action and what it can do for your business.

Request a demo