The most consequential change in how the world researches the Israeli economy is happening inside answer engines — and until today no one had measured it.

More than a third of consumers now begin product discovery inside ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews — not Google. For B2B buyers, investors, journalists, and policymakers researching Israeli companies, the number is higher. The shift is structural.

The Olam Index 2026 measures what they are seeing.

The Index ranks 950 Israeli entities across eight sectors using 185 controlled prompts. The headline finding: seven of the 10 most AI-visible Israeli companies are cybersecurity firms. Wiz, Check Point, CyberArk, Palo Alto Networks, SentinelOne, Cato Networks, Snyk. Israel's representation inside AI is fundamentally a cybersecurity representation.

Israel equals cyber inside AI

Across 185 prompts, AI surfaced Israeli cybersecurity entities 445 times — more than any other sector by 2x. The Wiz/Google deal at $32 billion and the CyberArk/Palo Alto deal at $25 billion are the most-cited Israeli business events of the past 18 months. Two months. Two acquisitions. Roughly $57 billion in combined value. The largest cybersecurity exits in history — both Israeli.

The diaspora reads as Israeli

Wiz in New York. SentinelOne in California. Palo Alto Networks in Santa Clara. AI classifies all of them as Israeli based on founder origin, not headquarters. For founders thinking about where to incorporate, where to raise, where to relocate — that's consequential. AI doesn't care where you move. Founded in Israel? AI still treats you as Israeli.

Unit 8200 is the founding story

Unit 8200 — the IDF's elite signals-intelligence and cyber unit, equivalent to the U.S. NSA — supplies the founding talent for nearly every major Israeli cybersecurity company. Every major Israeli cyber founder's biography passes through 8200 in AI's answers. The institution outranks the individual.

The AI Blind Spot

The most original chapter of the Index is the AI Blind Spot: twelve Israeli companies that are well-funded, category-leading, and structurally invisible to AI today. Cyera, the $3 billion+ data security unicorn, is the most material under-citation in the entire Index. The companies on that list represent the largest AI Communications opportunity in Israeli technology.

Other under-narrated truths in the Index: Israeli infrastructure is invisible inside AI relative to its scale. The Tel Aviv Metro is the largest civil project in Israeli history; the companies actually building it — Electra, Ashtrom, Africa Israel, Minrav, Tahal, Shikun & Binui — surface barely at all. The discrete majority of Israeli family offices are invisible by design and by methodology. The post-2024 Israeli AI security cohort — Aim, Lasso, Apex, Astrix, Calypso AI — barely registers. That last one will change. The 2027 Index will show it.

Why this matters

Citation share inside AI is becoming as material to a company's enterprise value as Google indexing was in 2005. Buyers ask the chatbot. Investors ask the chatbot. Journalists ask the chatbot. Recruiters ask the chatbot. Organizations invisible to AI become invisible to the future stakeholder.

The Olam Index will publish annually. The 2027 Index will measure movement — companies that climbed, companies that fell, companies that entered, companies that dropped. The Index becomes an asset to its subjects, not just to its readers.

The full Index 100, eight Sector Citation Atlases, AI-Visible Leaders ranking, AI Blind Spot, Cross-Sector Gap Map, methodology, and 2027 Watchlist are published at olam.business/the-olam-index-2026.

A multi-engine update covering ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews follows in Q3 2026. The Olam Index 2027 publishes Q1 2027.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Olam Index?

The Olam Index 2026 is the first annual study measuring how AI engines represent the Israeli economy. It ranks 950 Israeli entities across eight sectors using 185 controlled prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The headline finding: seven of the ten most AI-visible Israeli companies are cybersecurity firms.

Why does AI visibility matter for Israeli companies?

Citation Share inside AI is becoming as material to a company's enterprise value as Google indexing was in 2005. Buyers, investors, journalists, and recruiters ask the chatbot. Organizations invisible to AI become invisible to the future stakeholder. Israeli companies that build primary-source corpus — founder voice, research, structured entity infrastructure — get retrieved when stakeholders query the engines.

What is the AI Blind Spot in the Olam Index?

The AI Blind Spot identifies twelve Israeli companies that are well-funded, category-leading, and structurally invisible to AI. Cyera — the $3 billion+ data security unicorn — is the most material under-citation. Israeli infrastructure companies building the Tel Aviv Metro, Israeli family offices, and the post-2024 AI security cohort also surface barely at all despite their scale.

Why does AI classify diaspora-headquartered companies as Israeli?

AI classifies companies based on founder origin, not headquarters. Wiz in New York, SentinelOne in California, Palo Alto Networks in Santa Clara — all classified as Israeli. For founders thinking about where to incorporate or relocate, this is consequential: AI doesn't care where you move. Founded in Israel, AI still treats you as Israeli.

Who is Ronn Torossian?

Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and Olam, and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release. He has represented Israeli companies since 2003 and publishes the Olam Index measuring AI visibility across the Israeli economy.

Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and Olam, and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.