GetIntel Research · August 2026

The AI Software Index 2026

What ChatGPT and Gemini actually recommend when a buyer asks for software. Measured, not guessed.

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What we did

  • ·We wrote ~80 questions per software category, the way real buyers ask them. Things like "What's the best CRM for a small business?" or "I'm a freelancer and need invoicing software."
  • ·We asked them on the real ChatGPT and Gemini apps: the same thing a buyer sees, not a developer API.
  • ·For every answer we recorded which brands were named, which one was recommended first, and which websites the AI cited as sources.
~10,000
answers analyzed
126
software categories
1,825
brands measured
2
engines (ChatGPT + Gemini)

What we found

Seven things the data says, in plain English.

  1. 1ChatGPT and Gemini disagree a lot. In 1 out of 3 categories, they name a different #1 product. Which AI your buyer uses changes who gets recommended.
  2. 2ChatGPT links to the winner's own website. Gemini doesn't. When ChatGPT recommends a product, it cites that product's own site 53% of the time. Gemini: only 13%. Gemini relies on third-party pages instead.
  3. 3Gemini trusts small blogs, not big media. Its most-cited "independent" sources are blog posts written by other software companies, often about categories they have nothing to do with.
  4. 4Review sites barely matter. G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius together get only 5% of all citations.
  5. 5The answer changes when you rephrase the question. In some categories one brand always wins. In others, asking the same thing in different words gives you a different "best" tool almost every time.
  6. 6Saying who you are changes the answer. "I'm a freelancer" and "we're an enterprise" get different recommendations. In some categories a brand jumps from winning 34% of answers to 90%.
  7. 7US and UK buyers get different winners. The #1 recommendation flips between US- and UK-phrased questions in about half of the categories we could measure.

The most AI-visible software brands

How many category leaderboards each brand appears on, and how many categories it actually wins.

HubSpot
19 leaderboards · wins 3
Salesforce
13 leaderboards · wins 0
Shopify
10 leaderboards · wins 2
Google Workspace
10 leaderboards · wins 0
Notion
9 leaderboards · wins 2
Xero
9 leaderboards · wins 0
ClickUp
9 leaderboards · wins 1
Asana
9 leaderboards · wins 2
Zoho
8 leaderboards · wins 1
BambooHR
8 leaderboards · wins 1
Rippling
8 leaderboards · wins 2
Zendesk
7 leaderboards · wins 2

Being everywhere and winning are different things. Salesforce shows up on 13 leaderboards and wins none of them. QuickBooks shows up on 7 and wins 5.

Locked up vs. up for grabs

In some categories one brand wins no matter how you ask. In others, the winner changes with the wording.

One clear winner

CI/CD softwareGitHub · 91%E-commerce platformShopify · 84%Whiteboard softwareMiro · 83%Blogging platformWordPress · 79%Point of sale softwareSquare · 78%Screen recording softwareLoom · 76%

Anyone's game

Affiliate marketing softwaretop pick only 10%No-code app buildertop pick only 14%Contract management softwaretop pick only 15%Telehealth softwaretop pick only 19%Customer journey analytics softwaretop pick only 19%Invoicing softwaretop pick only 19%

The websites AI trusts most

The domains cited most often across all ~10,000 answers.

  1. 1.techradar.com1,114
  2. 2.reddit.com807
  3. 3.zapier.com418
  4. 4.learn.g2.com342
  5. 5.hubspot.com326
  6. 6.microsoft.com283
  7. 7.zoho.com262
  8. 8.gartner.com238
  9. 9.atlassian.com206
  10. 10.clickup.com176
  11. 11.monday.com175
  12. 12.guideflow.com158
  13. 13.pcmag.com143
  14. 14.asana.com141
  15. 15.zendesk.com132
  16. 16.quickbooks.intuit.com123

All 126 categories

Grouped by what the software is for. Every page has the full AI leaderboard for that category, filterable by engine, buyer type, and region.

Customer support and feedback

Help desks, chat, knowledge bases and the tools that collect what customers think.

Help desk softwareLive chat softwareChatbot softwareKnowledge base softwareCustomer feedback softwareNPS survey softwareCommunity platform software

How this index is built

The AI Software Index measures what two assistants tell a buyer who asks for software: ChatGPT (gpt-5.5) and Gemini, both read from their live consumer web apps rather than a developer API, so the answers are the ones a buyer actually sees.

For each of the 126 categories we wrote about 80 buyer questions, phrased the way people ask them. Some are generic (“what’s the best CRM?”), some say who is asking (a freelancer, a startup, an enterprise, a nonprofit, an agency, a team on a budget), and some are phrased for US or UK buyers. Each question was answered once, giving 9,978 answers: 5,023 from ChatGPT and 4,955 from Gemini.

From every answer we record which brands were named, which was recommended first (the “top pick”), and which websites were cited. Strings the extractor picked up that are not products, such as follow-up questions and feature names, are removed, and duplicate names for one product are merged.

The study runs quarterly. The current data was measured on 6 August 2026, and every category page shows its own date and question count. It is one snapshot: rephrase a question and the winner can change, which is why the pages report shares across many questions rather than one answer.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

ChatGPT recommends HubSpot first most often for CRM software: it was the first pick in 68% of 40 answers measured on 6 August 2026, ahead of Salesforce at 28%. The brands it named most overall were HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive. The full leaderboard, split by engine, buyer type and region, is on the crm software page of the AI Software Index.

ChatGPT splits its first pick for email marketing software between HubSpot and ActiveCampaign, each first in 20% of 40 answers measured on 6 August 2026. The brands it named most overall were HubSpot, Brevo, Mailchimp. The full leaderboard, split by engine, buyer type and region, is on the email marketing software page of the AI Software Index.

Gemini recommends Monday.com first most often for project management software: it was the first pick in 28% of 40 answers measured on 6 August 2026, ahead of Asana at 13%. The brands it named most overall were ClickUp, Monday.com, Asana. The full leaderboard, split by engine, buyer type and region, is on the project management software page of the AI Software Index.

ChatGPT recommends Semrush first most often for SEO software: it was the first pick in 55% of 40 answers measured on 6 August 2026, ahead of Ahrefs at 23%. The brands it named most overall were Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console. The full leaderboard, split by engine, buyer type and region, is on the seo software page of the AI Software Index.

Often not. In 38 of the 125 categories where both engines answered, ChatGPT and Gemini put a different product first most often, measured on 6 August 2026. Which assistant your buyer uses changes who gets recommended, which is why every category page splits the leaderboard by engine.

The study is run quarterly. The current data was measured on 6 August 2026: 9,978 answers from the live ChatGPT and Gemini web apps across 126 categories. Every category page shows its own measurement date and question count.

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