Not all AI search is the same
When people talk about "AI search" they often treat it as one thing. It's not. There are at least five major AI platforms where people ask questions and get recommendations, and each one works differently.
Our chiropractic AI citation study found that only 8.7% of recommended businesses appeared across all three AI models we tested. That means a business recommended by ChatGPT probably isn't recommended by Perplexity or Gemini. Each model has its own view of who's best.
Understanding how each platform works isn't optional anymore — it's the foundation of any serious AI visibility strategy. Here's what you need to know about each one.
ChatGPT
User base: Over 200 million weekly active users. The most widely used AI assistant in the world.
How it finds information: ChatGPT uses Bing search for real-time information. When you ask a question, it fires off multiple search queries in parallel, retrieves results, and synthesizes them into a single answer. It can also browse specific web pages when needed.
What it does well: ChatGPT excels at conversational, multi-turn queries. "My back hurts after lifting boxes. Should I see a chiropractor or a PT? Who's good near me?" It handles complex, nuanced questions better than traditional search.
How it picks businesses: ChatGPT heavily weights well-structured content it can extract clear answers from. Businesses with dedicated service pages, FAQ sections, and consistent information across the web tend to get recommended. It also considers review profiles and community mentions.
The key insight for ChatGPT: since it routes through Bing, your Bing search visibility matters. Many businesses focus exclusively on Google and forget that Bing has its own index with different ranking factors.
Perplexity
User base: Growing rapidly — millions of searches daily. Increasingly popular among professionals and researchers.
How it finds information: Perplexity runs its own search engine and also pulls from indexed content across the web. Every answer includes inline citations so users can verify sources. It treats search as its primary function, not a secondary feature.
What it does well: Perplexity is search-first. It provides the most transparent answers with clear source attribution. Users who value being able to check sources gravitate here. It also handles real-time information well, pulling fresh content quickly.
How it picks businesses: Perplexity values freshness and source diversity. It pulls heavily from community platforms — Reddit appears in over 90% of Perplexity's answers for local business queries. Review sites, comparison articles, and forums are weighted heavily.
The key insight for Perplexity: your presence on third-party platforms matters enormously. What people say about you on Reddit, in forum threads, and on review sites directly influences whether Perplexity recommends you.
Google Gemini
User base: Integrated into Google's ecosystem. Available through the Gemini app, Google search, and Android devices.
How it finds information: Gemini is deeply integrated with Google's search index. It cannot fetch web pages independently — it relies entirely on Google's infrastructure. This means your Google search visibility is the foundation of your Gemini visibility.
What it does well: Gemini is strong for local queries because of its integration with Google Maps and Google Business Profiles. When someone asks about businesses in their area, Gemini can pull from the most comprehensive local business database in the world.
How it picks businesses: Google Business Profile completeness and accuracy are critical for Gemini. Review volume, photos, Q&A sections, and business attributes all feed into recommendations. Well-structured websites with proper schema markup get additional weight.
The key insight for Gemini: if your Google Business Profile isn't complete and optimized, you're invisible to Gemini. This includes photos, business hours, service categories, Q&A, and ensuring all information is consistent with your website.
Google AI Overviews
Reach: Appearing on an increasing percentage of Google search results. This isn't a separate app — it's replacing traditional search results at the top of the page.
How it works: When someone searches Google, AI Overviews generates a direct answer at the top of the results page, pulling from various sources in Google's index. The traditional blue links are pushed below this answer.
Why it matters most: AI Overviews has the largest potential impact of any AI search feature because it reaches every Google user, not just those who actively choose to use an AI tool. People who would never open ChatGPT still see AI Overviews at the top of their Google results.
How it picks content: AI Overviews cites pages that aren't even in the top 20 organic results about 60% of the time. This means traditional SEO ranking alone doesn't determine whether you appear in the AI answer. Content structure, directness of answer, and schema markup all influence selection.
The key insight for AI Overviews: this is where traditional SEO and AEO overlap most directly. Your Google ranking matters, but so does how your content is structured. Pages with clear FAQ sections, answer blocks, and proper schema markup get cited at dramatically higher rates.
Claude
User base: Growing among professionals, researchers, and technical users. Developed by Anthropic.
How it works: Claude can search the web when enabled, but its primary strength is in analyzing and reasoning about content rather than real-time search. It's increasingly used for research, analysis, and complex decision-making.
Current local relevance: Claude is less focused on local business recommendations compared to ChatGPT or Perplexity. However, its user base is growing rapidly and its web search capabilities are expanding. Businesses that optimize now will be positioned when Claude's search features mature.
The key insight for Claude: while Claude isn't the primary driver of local business recommendations today, its user base skews toward high-value professionals. Being present in Claude's answers reaches a valuable audience.
What this means for your business
The fragmentation across AI models creates both a challenge and an opportunity.
The challenge: You can't optimize for just one platform and call it done. With only 8.7% overlap in recommendations across models, being visible in ChatGPT says nothing about your visibility in Perplexity or Gemini.
The opportunity: The structural fundamentals work across all platforms. Clean website structure, dedicated service pages, FAQ sections, consistent business information, proper schema markup, and fresh content — these things help you everywhere.
Our research consistently finds the same pattern: the businesses that get recommended aren't doing anything exotic. They have clear, well-organized content that AI can easily find, understand, and cite. And right now, fewer than 2% of businesses have done this work.
Want to see how you currently appear across AI models? Check your AI visibility for free — it takes 30 seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which AI model is most important for my business?
It depends on your industry and location, but for most local businesses, Google AI Overviews has the broadest reach since it appears directly in Google search results. ChatGPT and Perplexity are the most-used standalone AI search tools. The best approach is optimizing for all of them since the structural fundamentals are similar.
Why do different AI models recommend different businesses?
Each AI model uses different data sources, ranking signals, and retrieval methods. ChatGPT routes through Bing, Perplexity runs its own search engine, and Gemini uses Google's index. They also weight factors like freshness, community mentions, and content structure differently.
How often do AI models update their recommendations?
AI recommendations are not static — they can change with every query. Models are also regularly updated with new training data and improved retrieval methods. Content freshness matters significantly: pages updated within the last three months are cited at 3x the rate of older content.
Can I optimize for just one AI model?
You can, but you'd be leaving significant visibility on the table. Since each model recommends different businesses, optimizing for just ChatGPT means you're invisible in Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews. The good news is that the structural fundamentals work across all of them.
Do AI models use my Google reviews for recommendations?
Yes, but not in the same way Google does. AI models consider reviews as one signal among many. Community discussions on platforms like Reddit and Quora actually appear in AI answers more frequently than review scores alone.
Want to see how AI search sees your business?
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