Answer engines are not interchangeable, and these guides cover how each one decides which brands to name. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Perplexity assemble answers from different mixes of training memory and live retrieval, which is why the same brand can be recommended by one and invisible in another. Read the one you are losing.
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Two clocks: training frozen at February 2026, search fresh at answer time. The current cutoff dates — and a two-minute test to tell which layer answered you.
Google is no longer one box. Gemini the assistant, AI Overviews above the results, and the new conversational AI Mode each assemble answers differently — and each is a distinct visibility surface you can win or lose.
Anthropic’s Claude has a reputation for caution and nuance — it hedges, it qualifies, it declines to overclaim. That temperament changes what it takes to be named in its answers, and rewards brands that are genuinely well-documented.
The assistant that used to say “check a few retailers” now names specific products, quotes prices and links out. For brands that sell things, that shift turns AI answers into a shelf — and shelf placement is earnable.
Parametric memory, live retrieval, and consensus across sources — the mechanics behind the model's shortlist, and where you can realistically intervene.
AI Overviews now sit above the results your SEO team fought for. How they're assembled, what gets cited, and how to track your presence in them.
Perplexity cites every claim it makes — which makes it the most transparent engine to optimize for. A close look at what earns a citation slot.
Check any page for AI readiness in about a minute — free, no signup, full checklist either way.