Which skincare brands AI assistants recommend — and why the four disagree
Across 720 query-checks (4 engines × the skincare buyer-intent bank), CeraVe is the most-recommended brand, followed by La Roche-Posay and Theordinary. But the four engines do not agree: the same brand can be near-invisible on one and dominant on another — CeraVe ranges from 10.0% on ChatGPT to 38.9% on Google AI Mode.
"Shown" is not the same thing on every engine
ChatGPT and Copilot answer these questions with product cards — a store's product literally appears on a shelf. Perplexity and Google AI Mode answer in prose — a brand is named in the text, with no shelf. This index counts both, but labels them: product vs mention. A brand can win the text answer and still be missing from the shelf where the shopper actually clicks to buy.
The text engines name more brands; the shelf engines name fewer
Google AI Mode (41 brands) surfaces the widest set of brands; ChatGPT (16 brands) the narrowest. For a brand, that means Perplexity and Google AI Mode are easier to appear in at all, while ChatGPT and Copilot are where a small group of well-fed catalogues take most of the space.
How to read your store's page
Every brand has its own page — e.g. CeraVe, The Ordinary, Paula's Choice — with an engine-by-engine breakdown, the stages where it appears, the brands named in its place, and the full query list behind a work email.
Related on the AEOsome blog.