Study: ChatGPT, Perplexity & Gemini Each Recommend Businesses Differently Across 104 Cited Sources
TLDR
A logged study of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini responses to ten buyer queries found the three engines cited 104 different sources across 30 answers with almost no overlap, each using fundamentally different recommendation logic.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Per SEOFOMO News, The Happy Cat's August 2026 study tracked first responses from three major AI assistants to identical buyer questions and found each one picks recommendations in a distinct way: ChatGPT cites business websites (tagged with utm_source=chatgpt.com), Perplexity draws from third-party comparison articles and press releases, and Gemini rewards detailed, quotable published content. The researchers published their own baseline — zero appearances in 30 answers — and committed to re-running the identical queries on fixed dates through October, offering both a replicable methodology and a rare transparent measurement of AI visibility performance over time.