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How AI Assistants Actually Decide Which Businesses to Recommend

Each major AI platform uses a distinct retrieval mechanism, index source, and ranking model to select which businesses appear in its responses. Understanding the differences is the first step to being found.

11 min read | February 2026

Each major AI platform — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini — uses a distinct retrieval mechanism, index source, and ranking model to select which businesses appear in its responses. There is no unified AI search algorithm.

The practical consequence is significant. A business that ranks prominently in one platform can be invisible in another, because the underlying indexes differ, the reranking signals differ, and the content requirements differ. As of February 2026, ChatGPT holds approximately 60.5% of the AI search market share, Gemini 13.5%, Perplexity 6.2%, and Claude 3.2%, according to First Page Sage (February 2026). Optimizing for only one platform means missing the majority of AI-driven discovery.

Platform	Market Share (Feb 2026)	Primary Index	Key Differentiator
ChatGPT	60.5%	Bing + Google (fallback)	Real-time web retrieval + Bing Places
Microsoft Copilot	14.3%	Bing	Deep Bing integration
Gemini	13.5%	Google	Knowledge Graph + Google Business Profile
Perplexity	6.2%	Own Sonar crawler	XGBoost reranking, real-time freshness
Claude	3.2%	Brave Search	Precision filtering, inline citations

Source: First Page Sage, February 2026

How Does ChatGPT Decide Which Businesses to Recommend?

ChatGPT selects business recommendations by running real-time searches against the Bing index and, increasingly, against Google's index as a fallback — then applying its own scoring logic to the top 20-30 retrieved results.

ChatGPT's alignment with Google Search results increased from 12% to 33% between April and July 2025, while Bing alignment dropped from 26% to 8%, according to Profound (2025). This shift means Google indexation is now a significant factor for ChatGPT visibility, not just Bing. Tests have confirmed ChatGPT returning content from pages indexed only in Google but not Bing, using Google's cached snippet data.

How the selection process works

1
ChatGPT runs a Bing search for the user's query, typically reviewing 20-30 top results.
2
It identifies 5-8 "most promising" sources from those results.
3
From those candidates, it selects 3-5 sources that meet specific criteria: a visible average star rating, no paywalled content, and verifiable, linkable business data (Joe Youngblood, 2025).
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If Bing results are insufficient, ChatGPT falls back to Google's cached search data.

What businesses can control

Bing Places profile: A complete, verified Bing Places listing helps surface your business in the top 20-30 results ChatGPT reviews. While Bing Places does not dictate ChatGPT's final ranking order, it confirms location and business legitimacy.
Consistent NAP data: Name, Address, and Phone number must match across all directories. Inconsistencies in NAP trigger verification failures that prevent AI recommendations.
No paywalls: ChatGPT explicitly filters out content it cannot fully read. All key business content must be accessible without login.
Bing Webmaster Tools verification: 87% of ChatGPT Search citations matched Bing's top organic results when the same query was tested (Seer Interactive, 2024). Bing ranking remains the primary lever even as Google alignment grows.

How Does Perplexity AI Select Sources and Recommend Businesses?

Perplexity uses a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture with real-time web crawling and an L3 XGBoost reranker to select approximately 3-4 sources from the 10 pages it visits per query.

Unlike traditional search engines that rely on a static pre-built index, Perplexity's Sonar model fetches fresh content at query time via on-demand crawling and trusted API integrations. This means well-optimized content can appear in Perplexity citations within hours of publication — significantly faster than the weeks or months required for traditional SEO, according to Growth Memo's State of AI Search Optimization 2026 report.

Perplexity's three-layer retrieval pipeline

Retrieval

Sonar fetches the top-k passages from the web relevant to the user query, including real-time crawls and curated authority domains such as GitHub, Stack Overflow, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

Reranking

The L3 XGBoost reranker scores candidate passages on four dimensions: semantic depth, trust signals (domain authority, citation history), freshness, and engagement signals.

Generation

The model synthesizes an answer using only the retrieved passages and cites them inline.

Freshness is Perplexity's most critical signal. An article published or updated two hours ago is cited 38% more often than an identical article with last month's dateline, based on empirical testing (Growth Memo, 2026). Content decay begins as early as 2-3 days post-publication without updates, which is a uniquely aggressive recency decay compared to other platforms.

Domain authority matters but can be overcome. Domain authority accounts for approximately 15% of Perplexity's ranking algorithm. A well-researched article on a newer site can outrank established sources if it is more current, more structured, and more semantically complete. Perplexity's Sonar Pro API provides up to double the citations per search compared to standard Sonar, benefiting publishers whose content is already trusted in the index.

What businesses can control

Publish date-stamped content with explicit year references ("February 2026") rather than relative dates ("recently" or "this month").
Implement JSON-LD FAQPage schema — pages with FAQ structured data are cited more often and faster.
Maintain a consistent publishing cadence that updates or refreshes content before the 2-3 day decay window.
Target curated authority domains for mentions: appearances on Reddit, LinkedIn, GitHub, or major industry publications carry outsized weight in Perplexity's trust signals.

How Does Google AI Overviews Select Sources?

Google AI Overviews selects sources through a technique called query fan-out — breaking one user query into multiple simultaneous sub-queries across Google Search, the Knowledge Graph, News, Shopping, and other Google data sources, then synthesizing answers from the highest-E-E-A-T results.

A SurferSEO study of 173,902 URLs found a 0.77 correlation between the number of fan-out sub-queries a page ranks for and its probability of being cited in AI Overviews. Content that covers a topic and its adjacent subtopics comprehensively — rather than targeting a single keyword — performs significantly better in AI Overview citation.

Seven core ranking factors for Google AI Overviews

Source: aimodeboost.com, 2025

1
Semantic completeness — Does the page cover the primary question and the related subtopics the fan-out will explore?
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E-E-A-T signals — Author credentials, cited authoritative sources, and demonstrated real-world experience with the subject.
3
Entity Knowledge Graph density — Pages with 15 or more recognized named entities per 1,000 words receive a 4.8x citation boost.
4
Structured data markup — JSON-LD schema (FAQ, HowTo, Article, Organization) increases AI Overview selection rates by 73%.
5
Content freshness — Recent stats, peer-reviewed sources, and Tier-1 citations increase selection probability by 89%.
6
Vector embedding alignment — Semantic similarity between content and the query's underlying intent, not just keyword matching.
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Multi-modal content integration — Pages combining text, images, video, and schema markup see 317% more citations than text-only pages.

The Knowledge Graph as a trust layer: Google AI Overviews uses the Knowledge Graph to validate entity claims. For local businesses, this means Google Business Profile (GBP) data — categories, service descriptions, photo evidence matching text claims, review ratings, and update frequency — feeds directly into AI Overview confidence scores. A business that claims to be "family-friendly" but has no corresponding photos or review mentions of families is less likely to be surfaced in AI responses about family-friendly options.

What businesses can control

Write answer blocks of 40-70 words immediately after question-framed headings. This format matches the extraction window Google AI Overviews uses.
Optimize Google Business Profile with accurate categories, current photos, and service descriptions that align with how customers phrase queries.
Build topical authority through pillar and cluster content. The citation rate for topic clusters increases from 12% to 41% compared to isolated pages (B2B SaaS study cited in GEO research, 2025).

How Does Claude (Anthropic) Select Which Businesses to Recommend?

Claude uses Brave Search as its primary web retrieval engine. When a user's query requires current business information, Claude queries Brave Search, receives approximately the top 10 results, and applies its own filtering criteria before generating a response with inline citations.

Anthropic listed Brave Search as a subprocessor in its documentation in early 2025, confirmed by TechCrunch (March 2025). Claude's citation behavior differs from Perplexity: it uses inline links or bracketed citations directly where information appears rather than compiling a separate source list. This inline structure means Claude's citations are contextually tied to specific claims.

Claude's content selection priorities

Clarity and precision: Claude filters for content that directly answers the query rather than content that hedges or buries answers. Pages that lead with direct answers in the first paragraph score higher in Claude's evaluation.
Factual grounding: Claude is trained to minimize hallucination. Content that includes verifiable, specific data points — named entities, statistics, dates — provides Claude with the factual anchors it needs to generate a cited response.
Freshness signals: Content that uses year-specific phrasing ("as of February 2026," "updated January 2026") is weighted more heavily than evergreen content without temporal context.
No promotional language: Claude's editorial training actively filters promotional content. Superlatives without data backing ("industry-leading," "best-in-class") reduce citation probability.

What businesses can control

Submit your domain to Brave Search indexation at search.brave.com/submit.
Structure content so the primary answer appears within the first 80 tokens (approximately 60 words) of any section.
Use year-specific phrasing in headers and introductions.
Avoid paywalled content — Claude, like ChatGPT, cannot cite content it cannot access fully.

How Does Gemini Select Businesses to Recommend?

Gemini draws on Google's full ecosystem — organic search rankings, Google Business Profile data, Knowledge Graph entity records, Google Maps, and Google Reviews — making it the platform most tightly integrated with a business's existing Google presence.

Websites in Google's top 10 search results are 3x more likely to be cited in Gemini responses compared to those ranking beyond position 20, according to MAK Digital Design (2026). Gemini's deep integration with Google's index means traditional Google SEO signals — domain authority, backlinks, E-E-A-T, structured data — carry over more directly to Gemini visibility than to any other AI platform.

Google Business Profile as Gemini's structured data layer: In 2026, Google Business Profile functions as a primary structured knowledge base for Gemini. When Gemini's AI evaluates a business for a local recommendation, it synthesizes GBP data including: business categories and service descriptions, review ratings and review content, photos (used to validate text-based claims in the Knowledge Graph), and profile update frequency as a freshness proxy.

Entity clarity reduces Knowledge Graph friction. Google's AI uses large language models to interpret queries and validate entity information against the Knowledge Graph. Businesses that maintain consistent entity signals across their website, GBP, and third-party mentions are more likely to be surfaced accurately. Inconsistent information — different phone numbers, conflicting service descriptions, mismatched business names — introduces ambiguity that reduces AI confidence and therefore recommendation frequency.

The Gemini app's visual local results (rolled out December 2025) display photos, star ratings, and Maps data in rich card formats. Businesses with high-quality GBP photos, verified location data, and strong review signals appear in these cards preferentially.

What businesses can control

Maintain a fully optimized, regularly updated Google Business Profile with photos, service listings, accurate hours, and active Q&A responses.
Build Google organic rankings — Gemini citation is strongly correlated with Google SERP position.
Ensure Knowledge Graph entity consistency: your business name, description, and category must match across your website, GBP, and major directories.
Encourage Google Reviews: Gemini synthesizes review content for its local business summaries.

Platform Comparison: How All Five AI Systems Select Businesses

Factor	ChatGPT	Perplexity	Google AIO	Claude	Gemini
Primary index	Bing + Google (fallback)	Own Sonar crawler	Google + Knowledge Graph	Brave Search	Google (full ecosystem)
Retrieval method	Real-time Bing search	On-demand real-time crawl	Query fan-out across Google	Brave top ~10 results	Google index + GBP + Maps
Freshness weight	Moderate	Very high (2-3 day decay)	High	High	Moderate-high
Reranking model	Internal GPT scoring	L3 XGBoost	E-E-A-T + entity density	Internal Claude filtering	Google ranking signals
Local business signals	Bing Places + NAP	Domain trust + freshness	GBP + Knowledge Graph	Brave index + NAP	GBP + Maps + reviews
Structured data impact	Schema + Bing indexation	FAQPage schema	+73% with schema	JSON-LD + clarity	GBP + Article schema
Paywalls blocked	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Businesses can influence via	Bing Places, NAP, review sites	Content freshness, FAQ schema	GBP, E-E-A-T, fan-out coverage	Brave submission, direct answers	GBP, Google SEO, reviews

Why a Multi-Platform Approach Is Necessary

No single optimization effort reaches all five platforms because each platform draws from a different underlying index. The platforms that matter most by market share — ChatGPT at 60.5% and Gemini at 13.5% — use overlapping but not identical signals. Perplexity, despite 6.2% market share, drives high-intent research traffic that converts at above-average rates.

Research from Semrush (2025) predicts that LLM-driven traffic will overtake traditional Google search volume by late 2027. Some businesses are already reporting 800% year-over-year increases in referrals from AI platforms. The businesses building multi-platform AI visibility now are establishing citation patterns that will compound as AI search adoption accelerates.

The five actions that improve visibility across all platforms simultaneously

1

Allow all AI crawlers

GPTBot (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot (Claude), PerplexityBot, and Googlebot must be permitted in robots.txt. Blocking any of these eliminates that platform's ability to index your content.
2

Write direct answer paragraphs

Every question-framed heading should be followed by a 40-80 word direct answer that stands alone without surrounding context. This format satisfies the extraction requirements of all five platforms.
3

Implement full schema markup

FAQPage, Article, and Organization JSON-LD schema increases citation rates across Google AI Overviews (+73%), Perplexity, and Gemini. Include Organization sameAs links to 5-10 verified third-party profiles.
4

Maintain NAP consistency

Consistent Name, Address, and Phone data across all directories is a verification prerequisite for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.
5

Include attributed statistics

The Princeton GEO study (KDD 2024) found that adding statistics to content increases AI visibility by 33% and adding quotations increases it by 41%. Every major claim should cite a specific source, data point, and year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does optimizing for Google SEO also get my business into ChatGPT?

Partially. ChatGPT's alignment with Google's index increased from 12% to 33% between April and July 2025 (Profound, 2025), so Google rankings now matter more than they did in 2024. However, ChatGPT also independently evaluates sources for clarity, paywalled content, star ratings, and verifiable NAP data. Ranking on Google helps but does not guarantee ChatGPT visibility.

What is query fan-out and how does it affect which businesses Google AI Overviews shows?

Query fan-out is Google AI Overviews' technique of breaking one user query into multiple simultaneous sub-queries across web results, the Knowledge Graph, News, Shopping, and other Google data sources. A SurferSEO study of 173,902 URLs found a 0.77 correlation between the number of fan-out queries a page ranks for and its probability of appearing in AI Overviews. Businesses with content covering multiple related subtopics benefit most.

How does Perplexity AI decide which sources to cite?

Perplexity uses a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture that visits approximately 10 relevant pages per query and cites 3-4 of them. Its L3 XGBoost reranker scores candidate sources on semantic depth, trust signals, freshness, and engagement. Content decay begins 2-3 days after publication without updates. The platform weighs freshness most heavily, with recently updated content cited 38% more often than identical older content (Growth Memo, 2026).

Which search index does Claude (Anthropic) use for web searches?

Claude uses Brave Search as its primary web retrieval engine. Anthropic listed Brave Search as a subprocessor in its documentation in 2025 (TechCrunch, March 2025). Claude returns the top approximately 10 Brave results, then filters and evaluates those sources for clarity, precision, and factual accuracy before citing them inline. Submitting your content to Brave Search indexation is the primary technical lever for Claude visibility.

Does Gemini use Google Business Profiles to recommend local businesses?

Yes. Google Business Profile (GBP) is the primary structured data source Gemini uses for local business recommendations. GBP categories, service descriptions, review ratings, photos, and update frequency all feed into how Gemini understands and surfaces a business. Websites in Google's top 10 search results are 3x more likely to be cited in Gemini responses than those ranked beyond position 20 (MAK Digital Design, 2026).

Why does my business need to be optimized for multiple AI platforms separately?

Each AI platform uses a different index and different ranking signals. ChatGPT pulls from Bing and increasingly Google, Perplexity uses its own real-time crawler, Claude uses Brave Search, and Gemini draws on Google's full ecosystem. A business that ranks strongly in one system can be invisible in another. As of February 2026, ChatGPT holds 60.5% AI search market share, Gemini 13.5%, Perplexity 6.2%, and Claude 3.2% (First Page Sage, 2026). Ignoring any platform means missing a material share of AI-driven discovery.

What structured data types most improve AI citation rates?

JSON-LD schema markup increases AI citation selection rates by 73% on average (aimodeboost.com, 2025). The highest-impact types are FAQPage (cited faster and more frequently by Perplexity and Google AI Overviews), Article, HowTo, and Organization schema with sameAs links to verified profiles. Google AI Overviews adds a +317% citation advantage for pages combining text, images, video, and schema markup together.

How important is NAP consistency for AI business recommendations?

NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency is a baseline verification signal across all AI platforms. Before recommending a business, AI systems cross-reference the name, address, and phone number across directories. Inconsistencies introduce factual uncertainty that prevents recommendations. ChatGPT specifically requires that sources present an average star rating, no paywalled content, and verifiable, linkable business data to qualify for citation (Joe Youngblood, 2025).

How quickly can new content appear in Perplexity AI results?

Well-optimized content can appear in Perplexity citations within hours of publication. Perplexity's real-time crawling fetches new content at query time rather than relying on a static index. This is significantly faster than traditional SEO, which can take weeks or months. However, content decay begins 2-3 days after publication, making regular updates essential for sustained visibility (Growth Memo, 2026).

What is the single most important thing a business can do to appear in more AI recommendations?

Ensure your content is indexed by all major retrieval indexes (Google, Bing, Brave Search), contains direct answer passages of 40-80 words after every question-framed heading, includes verified structured data (FAQPage, Article, Organization schema), and maintains consistent NAP data across all directories. The Princeton GEO study (KDD 2024) found that adding statistics to content boosts AI visibility by 33% and adding quotations boosts it by 41%.

Key Takeaways

1
Each major AI platform uses a different primary index: Bing plus Google (ChatGPT), a proprietary Sonar crawler (Perplexity), Google's full ecosystem (Gemini and AI Overviews), and Brave Search (Claude).
2
No single optimization effort covers all five platforms. A multi-platform approach is required because each platform applies different retrieval logic, reranking signals, and content requirements.
3
Perplexity's content decay begins 2-3 days after publication, making it the platform most sensitive to freshness. Regular content updates are essential for sustained Perplexity visibility.
4
Google AI Overviews uses query fan-out across the Knowledge Graph, rewarding content that covers a primary topic and its related subtopics comprehensively.
5
Claude's primary retrieval source is Brave Search. Brave Search indexation submission is the most direct technical action for improving Claude visibility.
6
Gemini is the platform most dependent on a business's existing Google presence: Google Business Profile data, organic rankings, and review signals are the primary levers.
7
Five actions improve cross-platform visibility simultaneously: allow all AI crawlers in robots.txt, write 40-80 word direct answer blocks, implement full schema markup, maintain consistent NAP data, and include attributed statistics in every major claim.

Published February 22, 2026. Found by AI helps businesses track and improve their visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini from a single dashboard. Check Your AI Visibility to see how AI finds your business today.

Sources: Seer Interactive (2024), Joe Youngblood (2025), Profound (2025), TechCrunch (March 2025), Growth Memo — State of AI Search Optimization 2026, Princeton GEO Study (KDD 2024), First Page Sage (February 2026), SurferSEO study (173,902 URLs), aimodeboost.com (2025), MAK Digital Design (2026).