The engines that matter
- 1.ChatGPT. The largest by audience. Combines training data with Bing retrieval. Conservative on citations, generous on summaries.
- 2.Perplexity. Retrieval-first. Cites sources prominently. Leads with research-heavy buyers.
- 3.Claude. Increasingly cited in B2B and technical categories. Strong long-form reasoning, growing retrieval coverage.
- 4.Gemini. Tight integration with Google. Matters wherever your audience lives in the Google ecosystem.
- 5.Google AI Overviews. Generative answers stitched on top of classic Google results. Leans heavily on top organic content.
What this means for brands
When buyers ask an AI engine for a recommendation, they see two or three named brands and a short answer. The blue link page is gone. If you are not in the answer, you are not in the conversation.
The fundamentals that earn citations are consistent across engines: entity clarity, structured data, atomic answers, factual alignment, and trusted references. Optimise once for those, measure across engines, refine over months.