• by Laurie Sullivan , May 8, 2025

Data released today identifies patterns that marketers should consider when developing content strategies and advertising campaigns using artificial intelligence (AI).

BrightEdge found the changes through its Generative Parser technology, which tracks and analyses thousands of AI-generated responses.

While ChatGPT references brands directly in 90% of its responses, Google's AI Overviews mentions brands in only 59%.

When both AI systems mention brands, occurring in approximately 60% of cases, they emphasize completely different brand attributes in nearly all instances.

Despite highlighting different attributes, both AI platforms have similar sentiment distribution. Although positive mentions dominate both systems, they exhibit fundamental different approaches to recommend solutions.

ChatGPT, for example, recommends specific brands as solutions, while AI Overview tends to point users toward review websites, comparison tools, and expert evaluation resources rather than mentions brands.

When asked about digital banking options, ChatGPT typically mentions specific institutions like Ally Bank, while AI Overview references review sites such as NerdWallet that compare various banking services.

"The sentiment across both platforms remains essentially the same, but the discovery pathway for consumers is dramatically different,” says Jim Yu, CEO, BrightEdge.

This creates challenges and opportunities for brands looking to optimize their visibility, he says with suggestions on strategies such as developing unified content strategies that work effectively across all AI platforms and invest in review management programs.

It is important to implement structured data markup to ensure that AI engines accurately understand and represent brand attributes.

Yu also called attention to the significance of ChatGPT shopping. ChatGPT processed more than 1 billion web searches in the past week.

The shopping feature integrates with ChatGPT's conversational interface, presenting users with curated lists of buying options when searching for products.

When users click the "Buy" button, they are redirected to the retailer's website to complete their purchase. Curation is done on ChatGPT, but the brands process the purchase.

BrightEdge AI Catalyst research has identified several key factors affecting brand presence in AI-powered commerce such as 70% of all AI prompts now trigger brand mentions, with an average of 5.15 brands referenced per prompt.

Product-focused categories that consistently generate more brand mentions than service categories should be considered -- as well as shopping-oriented queries such as "Where can I find the best deals on laptops right now?" typically result in five specific brand recommendations.