Visibility in the AI Future: Which Brands are Recommended By OpenAI?

The search engine of the future will be different from the “10 blue links” We have been accustomed to from Google until now. Nevertheless, internet search will continue to make recommendations. Today we present a view of the brands that OpenAI recommends.

The progress of generative artificial intelligence in recent months has been breathtaking. Through its close ties with OpenAI (ChatGPT), Bing already has the feature integrated into the search results. Google will have to follow, and is has already announced the first steps.

If you’re short on time, we’ve compiled a summary of the key findings from our data study on brand recommendations from OpenAI here:

  • We asked OpenAI for brand recommendations for 10,000 different product categories.
  • For almost all queries, OpenAI was able to recommend 10 brands. There were only 674 topics for which there was no response – these were often topics from the fields of adult entertainment, health or politics.
  • In total, OpenAI recommended 23,856 different brands. This means each brand was recommended on average around 3.9 times.
  • However, as is so often the case in search, successes are not evenly distributed: 15,795 brands (i.e. 66%) were recommended only once, only 570 brands (2.4%) were mentioned at least 20 times by OpenAI.
  • The top 10 most recommended brands by OpenAI (incl. the number of recommendations): Samsung (1871), Sony (1427), LG (1042), Apple (936), HP (809), Nike (740), Dell (719), ASUS (699), Philips (637), Adidas (637).
  • Some brands are more relevant to OpenAI than others. Apple, Shimano, Wacom and Fluke are particularly high up in the recommendation lists. On the other hand, Mikrotik, BMW and Dual Electronics are at the bottom of the lists more often than not.

Interested in the details and background now? Let’s jump straight into the longer version of our analysis of brand recommendations in the AI future:

Approach: What exactly did we measure and how?

To date, OpenAI is the leading technology for practical text content creation. Although there are signs that other providers or open source solutions may become more important in the future, that remains uncertain. For our analysis, we use the ChatGPT API from OpenAI (for the nerds: chat.completion with gpt-3.5-turbo-0301).

First, we created a list of 10,000 generic keywords from the product environment. For these keywords, large e-commerce domains such as amazon.de or otto.de rank in the first positions in the Google search results, but there are no sitelinks (to exclude brand terms).

To give you can idea of these keywords, here is an excerpt from the keyword list: calculator, washing machine, greenhouse, pendant light, motion detector, night-vision device, domestic waterworks, tomato sauce & side awning.

For the list of 10,000 keywords, we asked OpenAI for 10 recommendations of relevant brands. For only 674 keywords OpenAI did not respond, for all other keywords 10 recommendations were provided.

Whenever the AI did not want to (or could not) respond, it was usually for keywords that contradict American moral or legal practices: Adult entertainment, politics and health seem to be so dangerous for OpenAI that it prefers not to comment.

23,856 different brands but only 2.4% with more than 20 mentions

Since OpenAI also reliably recommended 10 brands for all 9,326 keywords, there were 93,260 results in total.

These results are divided among 23,856 different brands – so on average, each brand is mentioned around 3.9 times in OpenAI’s recommendation lists.

However, the average can sometimes show a distorted picture of reality. This is also the case here. Although most brands are recommended only once, there are some brands that are recommended more than 20 times:

Frequency of brand recommendations from OpenAI
MentionsNumber of brandsShare of brands
115,79566.21%
2 to 55,79824.3%
6 to 101,1044.63%
11 to 205892.47%
over 205702.39%

OpenAI recommends more than half of all brands (66%) only once. Another 24% of brands are mentioned no more than five times for different keywords. Only a very small percentage of brands, namely 2.4%, are recommended more than 20 times in the queries.

We see that the visibility is mainly concentrated on a few, very well-known brands. This is comparable to Google search results, where only a few websites have a Visibility Index of more than one point.

Top Brands: 109 brands had over 100 recommendations from the AI

Next, let’s take a closer look at the particularly successful brands. In the following table that you can scroll through at the end by clicking “Next” you will find the brands that have been recommended at least 100 times by the AI for various keywords:

Frequency of brand recommendations from OpenAI
RankingBrandNumber of recommendations
1samsung1871
2sony1427
3lg1042
4apple936
5hp809
6nike740
7dell719
8asus699
9philips679
10adidas637
11bose583
12panasonic558
13toshiba499
14canon427
15lenovo417
16acer410
17bosch350
18microsoft340
19amazon313
20sharp303
21msi303
22toyota285
23jbl258
24nikon253
25corsair244
26vizio238
27hisense229
28kitchenaid227
29hitachi226
30coca224
31yamaha222
32honeywell222
33tcl220
34sennheiser218
35patagonia215
36under armour210
37cisco210
38levi's209
39casio190
40benq186
41viewsonic181
42tp180
43intel180
44bmw179
45citizen178
46audio178
47nestle177
48gigabyte177
49procter & gamble175
50netgear172
51seiko166
52puma161
53western digital160
54shure159
55timex158
56kingston158
57razer155
58reebok154
59ibm154
60now foods153
61d152
62black+decker152
63belkin151
64akg147
65seagate146
66bulova146
67aoc145
68adata142
69beyerdynamic139
70ge138
71fujitsu138
72pioneer137
73logitech137
74new balance133
75linksys130
76huawei130
77whirlpool129
78garmin128
79makita127
80dewalt126
81google125
82tissot124
83johnson & johnson124
84the north face123
85asics123
86fossil121
87motorola120
88hamilton120
89ryobi119
90transcend118
91pure encapsulations118
92fujifilm118
93amazon web services (aws)117
94price115
95crucial115
96epson114
97frigidaire111
98craftsman111
99hyperx110
100compatibility110
101milwaukee109
1023m109
103kenmore107
104jarrow formulas107
105denon106
106cuisinart104
107honda103
108garden of life102
109orient101

OpenAI’s top recommendations are largely in line with our expectations. Many well-known retail brands are included, although it seems that some US brands are slightly more represented. Comparing these with the top brands on Amazon, we see many matches. This means that the AI appears to make ‘correct’ recommendations.

Above Average: Which brands are recommended first?

As described above, we asked the AI to give us ten suggestions for each product category. The most important and relevant suggestions are at the top of this list, while the less relevant ones are at the bottom – similar to Google search results.

If a brand is moderately relevant and has some recommendations, it should generally be in the middle of the list. This is confirmed by our data: the average ranking of all brands that were mentioned at least 25 times is 5.1, right in the middle.

Now it is interesting to find out which brands deviate from this norm. Are there certain brands that are often at the top of the recommendation lists and vice versa? Are there also brands that usually end up at the bottom of these lists?

Brands with above-average and below-average rankings
Brand⌀ RankingBrand⌀ Ranking
apple1.4mikrotik8.4
shimano1.6outdoor research8.4
wacom1.6innovation8.4
fluke1.7saucony8.5
quality1.8durability8.5
ikea2.1aoc8.5
huion2.1xfx8.5
tempur2.2bullard8.5
amazon web services (aws)2.2team group8.6
dewalt2.3verbatim8.6
3m2.3focal8.6
kohler2.3amana8.8
razor2.4kobalt8.8
keysight technologies2.4dual electronics8.8
sram2.5soundstream8.8
hill's science diet2.6foxconn8.9
herman miller2.6bmw9.0
samsonite2.7festool9.1
optimum nutrition2.7gainward9.1
thermo fisher scientific2.7glycine9.2
tiffany & co.2.7zyxel9.2
honeywell2.8johnson & johnson9.2
royal canin2.8cypress semiconductor9.5
michelin2.8hoka one one9.5
microsoft azure2.8scaleway9.5

On the left-hand side, you will find brands that are favoured by the AI model and are often placed at the top of the recommendation lists. A good example of this is Huion. When the AI recommends this brand, it is almost always at number one.

In contrast, the right-hand side lists brands that the AI tends to place at the bottom of the recommendation lists. They seem to be used more as a kind of “filler material”. The AI does not seem to attach much relevance to these brands.

One brand seldom comes alone: Which competitors does the AI identify?

Although many brands do not want to admit it, they usually compete with others for the same customers and offer similar products. The data we collected clearly shows these correlations:

Many technology brands produce some of the most popular products. When these brands appear together in the lists it’s possible to see competition and relative popularity of these brands. Isolating the TV brand relationships gives us the following picture:

Brands meshed based on their appearance in the AI output. For example, in the TV sector, LG appears with close ties to Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, Hisense, TCL and Toshiba.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that internet search will change more in the coming months and years than in previous years. But how the changes will come about in concrete terms remains to be seen.

Our analysis of brands based on OpenAI responses shows us that measurability of mentions and thus visibility of brands and products in those responses will also play an important role.

Change is a part of the internet. Competition stimulates business, and for Google, a breath of fresh air is helpful after a long period of market dominance. That Google will win the battle for AI search is by no means certain today.

Related posts