We asked 4 AI engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini — the questions buyers actually type, about 30 CRM & sales software brands, on 2026-10-05. That is 340 answers. 58.3% of the mentions we found were not recommendations at all — they were the brand being offered as an alternative to something else.
Every figure below comes from those answers, and the query to re-run them is at the bottom of this page.
Which engine actually names brands?
Not equally. Gemini named a brand in 61.2% of its answers; Perplexity managed 36.5%. That is a 24.7-point gap between two engines asked identical questions on the same day, which is the whole argument for measuring more than one.
{"type":"bar","title":"Share of answers naming a brand, by engine (CRM & sales software)","unit":"%","data":[{"label":"Gemini","value":61.2},{"label":"ChatGPT","value":54.1},{"label":"Claude","value":45.9},{"label":"Perplexity","value":36.5}],"note":"340 answers measured 2026-10-05."}
Do the engines agree on who exists?
18 of the 30 brands were named by all 4 engines, and 2 were named by none of them (Apollo.io, Nimble). The rest sit in between, visible to some engines and invisible to others.
The widest split was monday CRM: Gemini named it in 100% of the answers we asked about it, Perplexity in 0%. That comparison rests on the handful of questions we asked about that one brand, not on the full sample — treat it as a lead to investigate, not a law.
{"type":"bar","title":"How many engines named each brand","data":[{"label":"4 of 4 engines","value":18,"emphasis":false},{"label":"3 of 4 engines","value":4,"emphasis":false},{"label":"2 of 4 engines","value":4,"emphasis":false},{"label":"1 of 4 engines","value":2,"emphasis":false},{"label":"0 of 4 engines","value":2,"emphasis":true}],"note":"Brands, out of 30 measured."}
Brand by brand, the disagreement is easier to see than to describe. These are the 15 brands the engines split hardest on — each cell is how often that engine named that brand.
{"type":"heatmap","title":"Which engine names which brand","unit":"%","cols":["ChatGPT","Claude","Gemini","Perplexity"],"rows":[{"label":"monday CRM","cells":[33.3,33.3,100,0]},{"label":"Bitrix24","cells":[33.3,0,66.7,33.3]},{"label":"Copper","cells":[66.7,0,66.7,0]},{"label":"Freshsales","cells":[66.7,33.3,100,33.3]},{"label":"Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)","cells":[66.7,0,33.3,0]},{"label":"Real Geeks","cells":[66.7,66.7,100,33.3]},{"label":"Salesforce","cells":[66.7,66.7,100,33.3]},{"label":"Salesloft","cells":[33.3,66.7,100,66.7]},{"label":"kvCORE","cells":[50,100,100,50]},{"label":"Propertybase","cells":[50,0,50,0]},{"label":"Zoho CRM","cells":[100,100,50,100]},{"label":"BoomTown","cells":[66.7,66.7,33.3,33.3]},{"label":"Microsoft Dynamics 365","cells":[66.7,66.7,66.7,33.3]},{"label":"Postmark","cells":[33.3,33.3,66.7,33.3]},{"label":"Zillow Premier Agent","cells":[66.7,33.3,66.7,66.7]}],"note":"The 15 brands with the widest spread between engines, out of 30 measured."}
Named is not the same as recommended
A mention is not an endorsement. Of every mention in this study, 38.1% was the engine's first recommendation, while 58.3% was the brand being offered as an alternative to something else. A brand can look visible and still only ever appear as the runner-up.
{"type":"bar","title":"What role the brand played when an engine named it","unit":"%","data":[{"label":"offered as an alternative","value":58.3,"emphasis":true},{"label":"recommended first","value":38.1,"emphasis":false},{"label":"listed in a comparison","value":1.8,"emphasis":false},{"label":"mentioned in passing","value":1.2,"emphasis":false},{"label":"negative example","value":0.6,"emphasis":false}],"note":"Share of all mentions in this study."}
10 brands were named but never recommended first by any engine: Bitrix24, BoomTown, Freshsales, Insightly, Keap (formerly Infusionsoft), LionDesk, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Propertybase, Real Geeks, SugarCRM. For those, visibility work is not the problem — positioning is.
What the engines actually said
Scores are a summary. These are the sentences themselves — one from each engine, about a different brand, exactly as written on 2026-10-05.
ChatGPT, on Bitrix24: "Bitrix24: Offers a free tier with a broad range of features. Includes CRM, project management, and communication tools."
Claude, on BoomTown: "BoomTown is the strongest alternative when workflows must carry verification evidence through configurable lead scoring and behavioral-trigger automation that drives stage-specific nurture and tasking."
Gemini, on Copper: "Ideal for companies heavily reliant on Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google Workspace applications, Copper offers deep integration and advanced automation. It helps manage contacts and sales directly from Gmail."
Perplexity, on Follow Up Boss: "Best overall for most real estate agents: Follow Up Boss. It’s a real-estate-focused CRM with strong lead routing, follow-up tools, and integrations with many lead sources and other agent software."
The engines are not criticising you. They are omitting you.
Of the 168 mentions in this study, 138 were positive in tone and 1 was negative. That is 82.1% positive. Reputation management is not the problem here: when an engine has something to say about a brand it is almost always kind, and when it has nothing to say it simply leaves the brand out. The gap to close is absence, not sentiment.
Which sources are the engines reading?
The engines cited salesforce.com more than any other source (139 citations, 4.4% of all citations in this study). But the long tail is the real story: the top 10 domains together account for only 23.3% of citations. There is no short list of sites to get listed on — the engines are reading widely.
{"type":"bar","title":"Most-cited sources across every answer","data":[{"label":"salesforce.com","value":139},{"label":"pipedrive.com","value":78},{"label":"monday.com","value":77},{"label":"g2.com","value":75},{"label":"zapier.com","value":66},{"label":"zoho.com","value":66},{"label":"forbes.com","value":62},{"label":"techradar.com","value":62},{"label":"pipeline.zoominfo.com","value":53},{"label":"blog.salesflare.com","value":51}],"note":"Citations counted across 340 answers. \"Engines\" column below shows how many of the 4 cited each source."}
| Source | Citations | Engines citing it |
|---|---|---|
| salesforce.com | 139 | 3 of 4 |
| pipedrive.com | 78 | 4 of 4 |
| monday.com | 77 | 3 of 4 |
| g2.com | 75 | 4 of 4 |
| zapier.com | 66 | 3 of 4 |
| zoho.com | 66 | 2 of 4 |
| forbes.com | 62 | 3 of 4 |
| techradar.com | 62 | 4 of 4 |
| pipeline.zoominfo.com | 53 | 2 of 4 |
| blog.salesflare.com | 51 | 3 of 4 |
Who do the engines bring up instead?
These names were never in our sample — the engines volunteered them while answering about someone else. Less Annoying CRM came up against 6 of the 30 brands we measured. If you are in this category, these are the brands you are being compared to whether you like it or not.
{"type":"bar","title":"Names the engines volunteered, by how many of our brands they appeared against","data":[{"label":"Less Annoying CRM","value":6},{"label":"Wise Agent","value":4},{"label":"Bigin by Zoho","value":4},{"label":"EngageBay","value":4},{"label":"Brevo","value":3},{"label":"Lofty","value":3},{"label":"Salesforce Essentials","value":3},{"label":"Salesforce Starter Suite","value":3},{"label":"Attio","value":3},{"label":"BoldTrail","value":2}],"note":"Not part of the sample; named by the engines on their own."}
Every brand we measured
Visibility is the share of scored answers in which an engine named the brand. HubSpot CRM led at 100%; Nimble came last at 0%.
| Brand | Visibility | Answers naming it |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot CRM | 100% | 8 of 8 |
| ZoomInfo | 100% | 12 of 12 |
| HubSpot | 92% | 11 of 12 |
| Zoho CRM | 88% | 7 of 8 |
| Gong | 83% | 10 of 12 |
| HubSpot Sales Hub | 75% | 9 of 12 |
| kvCORE | 75% | 6 of 8 |
| Pipedrive | 75% | 9 of 12 |
| Follow Up Boss | 67% | 8 of 12 |
| Real Geeks | 67% | 8 of 12 |
| Salesforce | 67% | 8 of 12 |
| Salesloft | 67% | 8 of 12 |
| Freshsales | 58% | 7 of 12 |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 | 58% | 7 of 12 |
| Zillow Premier Agent | 58% | 7 of 12 |
| BoomTown | 50% | 6 of 12 |
| Outreach | 50% | 4 of 8 |
| monday CRM | 42% | 5 of 12 |
| Postmark | 42% | 5 of 12 |
| Bitrix24 | 33% | 4 of 12 |
| Copper | 33% | 4 of 12 |
| Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) | 25% | 3 of 12 |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | 25% | 3 of 12 |
| LionDesk | 25% | 3 of 12 |
| Propertybase | 25% | 2 of 8 |
| Insightly | 17% | 2 of 12 |
| Close | 8% | 1 of 12 |
| SugarCRM | 8% | 1 of 12 |
| Apollo.io | 0% | 0 of 12 |
| Nimble | 0% | 0 of 12 |
What to do with this
- Measure every engine, not one. The spread between the most and least generous engine in this study was 24.7 points. A check against a single engine tells you about that engine.
- Check the role, not just the mention. 58.3% of mentions here put the brand in the alternative slot. Moving from alternative to first recommendation is a positioning problem, not a visibility one.
- Follow the citations, not the keyword list. The engines quoted a wide spread of sources here; salesforce.com was the single most cited. Earning a place on the pages an engine already reads is what changes an answer.
- Zero is a starting point, not a verdict. 2 of 30 brands scored zero here. The first mention on any engine is the milestone that proves the sources are being read.
- Do not budget for reputation defence you do not need. 82.1% of mentions here were positive. Spend on being present, not on being liked.
What this does not show
- Each brand was measured on the questions our generator writes for that brand, not on one shared question set, so this is an average of per-brand measurements and not a like-for-like ranking.
- Per-brand splits between engines rest on the few questions asked about that brand, not on the full sample of 30.
- These are measurements taken on 2026-10-05. AI answers change; a score here is a reading on that date, not a permanent property of the brand.
Reproduce this
The raw answers are stored per brand, per engine, per question. The figures above come from:
select "brandName", "stratum", "visibility", "mentionCount" from "StudyResult" where "studyId" = 'cmute7fuc000gjx0474ierpgf' order by "visibility" desc
Want the same measurement for your own brand? The free check runs this exact pipeline.
Originally published on GeoBuddy Blog.
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