Your competitors in AI search may look different from the list in your marketing plan.
An answer engine might recommend a niche provider, a marketplace or a newer brand with a clear use case. It may also use publishers, review sites and directories to shape the answer.
The useful question is not simply, “Which brands appear?” Look at what each brand is known for, when it is recommended and which sources support that position.
This reveals the version of the market your customers may encounter before they ever reach your website.
Try this prompt in a fresh chat with web search enabled:
Help me map the competitive landscape in AI search for this category:
Category: [CATEGORY]
Audience: [AUDIENCE]
Market: [LOCATION]
My brand: [BRAND]
Known competitors: [COMPETITORS]
Identify 10 realistic questions customers might ask while researching and comparing solutions in this category. Research current public information and assess which brands are most relevant to each question.
Create a competitor map showing:
- Brands that appear repeatedly
- The audience or use case associated with each
- The differentiators attributed to them
- The types of sources supporting their visibility
- Questions where my brand appears or is absent
- Competitors I may have overlooked
Separate observed information from your inferences. Do not assume frequency in this exercise represents a fixed ranking.
You are not looking for competitors to copy. You are looking for the questions and positions your brand can credibly own.
Happy prompting!
How to get ChatGPT to recommend your brand
Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini who to shortlist, and those answers name a small set of brands. This session shows how that shortlist gets built, where you sit against your competitors right now, and how you can make sure you're the top recommendation.
Omni Eclipse is hosting a free webinar on the 13th of August. Save your seat →