October 2026
The brands AI recommends most, and the reporting on why.
The Gist 100 ranks the brands that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews name when buyers ask what to choose, from CRM software to running shoes.
The list · October 2026
HubSpot, Stripe and Shopify lead the Gist 100, the brands AI assistants name most when buyers ask what to choose.
Case study · 4 min read
Ramp is in 281 of 285 AI answers about spend management software and comes first in 84%.
84%of AI answers name Ramp first
Read the case studyCase study · 4 min read
The largest CRM vendor by market share is not the brand the answers name most. HubSpot scores 99 and Salesforce 83.
99 vs 83Share of CRM answers naming HubSpot vs Salesforce
Read the case studyCase study · 4 min read
Owala scores 75, one point above Hydro Flask, yet it is the first brand named in 57% of AI answers, against 12% for YETI.
57% vs 12%Named first in answers, Owala vs YETI
Read the case studyThe Gist 100October 2026
Put every category together and rank each brand by how firmly it holds its own. A score is the share of AI answers in a brand’s category that name it, so a CRM platform and a running shoe can sit side by side.
Every category has its own ranking, with the long read on what the answers show and who the companies are.
B2B
B2C
What the answers show when you look across categories.
Analysis · 4 min read
Outside sources name the market leader in six categories. AI answers name that brand first in two. In the other four it ranks second to sixth, 14 to 41 points behind the most-named brand, so market size and AI standing need separate scoreboards.
Analysis · 4 min read
In 8 of 32 categories, the most-named brand is not named first most often. Gmail scores 96 in email management but is first in 8 percent of answers. Fathom is first in 52 percent of notetaker answers, Fireflies.ai in 10. These counts measure how often a brand appears and how often it is named first.
Analysis · 4 min read
AI answers cite a ranked brand’s own site in 68% of business software answers and 24% of consumer ones. A vendor’s site is the most-cited website in 9 of 16 business categories and none of the consumer ones. Being cited is not the same as being named.
Analysis · 4 min read
Ask an AI assistant for a budget option and the top brand changes in 24 of 32 categories. Technivorm Moccamaster scores 67 overall and 0 on the budget question, while Carrd goes from 19 to 100. An overall score can hide how a brand fares on price questions.
Analysis · 4 min read
HubSpot scores 99 in CRM software and 29 for its Service Hub in customer support software. Zoho has a top-ten product in seven categories and leads none. Five of 13 companies with products in several categories lead one, and none leads two. A lead stays in its category.
Analysis · 5 min read
In 15 of 32 categories the most-named brand scores 90 or more. In seven, no brand reaches 75. Business software averages a leader score of 90.7 against 77.3 for consumer categories, so a score needs reading against its own category.
One brand at a time: how it shows up, and what the answers lean on.
Case study · 4 min read
Ramp is in 281 of 285 AI answers about spend management software and comes first in 84%. Answers cite its own site in 64%, but Google AI Overviews names Ramp in 96% while citing ramp.com in 2%. The counts show what the answers hold, not why.
Case study · 4 min read
The largest CRM vendor by market share is not the brand the answers name most. HubSpot scores 99 and Salesforce 83. Assistants name HubSpot first in 49% of answers and Salesforce first in 26%. The gap sits in four of eight questions, and the lead stays in CRM.
Case study · 4 min read
Owala scores 75, one point above Hydro Flask, yet it is the first brand named in 57% of AI answers, against 12% for YETI. A close score can hide who is named first, and how far a brand swings by question, from 100 to 5.
Short takes on what is changing in AI search, each with what to do about it.
OpenAI says ChatGPT Ads passed a $1 billion annual run rate in under 200 days and is now open to small businesses in much of the world. An ad buys a labeled spot beside the answer, and OpenAI says it does not change what the answer recommends.
AI Overviews now appear on about four in five US Google searches that include a brand name, according to Ahrefs, up from about three in five in July. For searches of a brand’s exact name, the summary leans on Wikipedia, YouTube and LinkedIn more than on the brand’s own site.
Profound, the best-funded startup in AI visibility, raised $180 million at a $1.8 billion valuation on September 15. It is good news for the category, and a sign that the leader is building for very large marketing teams.
Google now shows every site owner how often its pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and its official guide says optimizing for them is still SEO. That is true of Google’s AI, and it tells you nothing about anyone else’s.
Fixed questions, four assistants, counted answers.
The Gist 100 counts which brands AI assistants name when buyers ask what to choose. This is the full method: the questions, the four assistants, how names are counted, how the score works and what the list cannot tell you.
Read the methodologyPlain-English guides to showing up in AI answers.
One short page per term, with the answer in the first sentence.
No. The Gist 100 is a measurement and is never for sale. Partner lists are labeled, and paid partnerships say so on the page.
No. The list shows which brands AI assistants name when buyers ask what to choose. Being named often usually reflects how much has been written about a brand, and where.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. Every entry shows the brand’s score in each one.
A score is the share of AI answers in a brand’s own category that name it. The list ranks brands by how firmly they hold their category, so a CRM platform and a shoe brand can sit side by side.
AI answers vary by wording, by day and by assistant. The list combines eight questions, four assistants and ten answers each, so it shows the pattern and not one answer.
Run the free scan. It shows how often AI answers on your topic name your brand, whether they link to your website, and which other brands they name.
See which brands appear in AI recommendations for your category, and where your brand stands among them.
Check my brand, freeChoose which optional analytics and advertising Gist can use. You can change your choices in Privacy settings. Privacy policy
