AI Search Framing 🧠

The Maze: AI search is not neutral. It chooses what to highlight and how to explain it. New analysis shows ChatGPT and Google often surface the same brands, but frame them in fundamentally different ways, reshaping how users discover, compare, and decide in commerce.

• ChatGPT mentions selection in 54% of shopping answers and deals in 50%, positioning brands as tools that do things for users
• Google AI Overviews mention selection in 51% of cases but deals in only 41%, framing brands through competitive rank and market position
• Across intents, ChatGPT shows brands more consistently, while Google sharply limits visibility depending on query type

Why it matters: AI search is becoming the first storefront. How a brand is described now matters as much as whether it appears. Framing shifts power from ranking to narrative, with direct consequences for ecommerce, media spend, and brand control.nce now depends less on growth stories and more on stability, pricing, and jobs.

AI search engines increasingly agree on which brands matter, but disagree on how to talk about them. The gap is not visibility, but narrative. ChatGPT frames brands as helpers. Google frames them as competitors.

• ChatGPT highlights selection in 54% of brand mentions and deals in 50%, using functional language like offers, provides, enables that focuses on utility and outcomes
• Google AI Overviews show similar selection at 51% but lower deal emphasis at 41%, instead anchoring brands in price comparison and competitive positioning
• This framing changes perception: one engine answers what a brand does for you, the other answers how it stacks up against rivals

The takeaway is subtle but powerful. Even when brands appear equally often, the story users hear pushes them toward exploration in one case and evaluation in the other.

Words drive decisions. ChatGPT uses functional language roughly three times more often than Google AI Overviews, signaling a different mental model of search.

• Functional phrasing appears in 13% of ChatGPT answers versus just 4% in Google AI Overviews, a 3x gap that shapes how brands are understood
• ChatGPT language emphasizes actions and outcomes, positioning brands as problem solvers rather than listings
• Google limits this language to reduce persuasion risk, prioritizing neutrality and comparison over guidance

This creates a paradox. Google protects objectivity but sacrifices clarity. ChatGPT guides users forward, but risks influencing choice. The result is two AI systems optimizing for different definitions of trust.

ChatGPT behaves like a digital marketplace. Google behaves like a selective editor. The difference shows up clearly when intent changes.

• ChatGPT surfaces 10 or more brands in 44% of answers, while Google does so in only 5%, even for similar shopping prompts
• For where to buy queries, ChatGPT shows brands 100% of the time, versus 39% for Google AI Overviews
• For deals and coupons, ChatGPT remains at 100% brand visibility, while Google drops to 12%, sharply narrowing choice

This consistency favors exploration and discovery. Google’s restraint favors precision and monetization control. Neither approach is neutral. Each shifts power between platforms, brands, and users.

AI Overviews are not one product. They behave differently by device, and desktop is where Google leans into authority and scale.

• Desktop AI Overviews appear just 33% as often as mobile, but deliver 180% more screen space for deeper explanations
• Keyword coverage on desktop is 139% higher than mobile, expanding semantic reach and long tail visibility
• Larger screens allow Google to deliver fewer but more comprehensive AI answers, closer to editorial content than search snippets

The implication is strategic. Mobile AI search drives discovery. Desktop AI search drives decisions. Brands that optimize for only one miss half the funnel.

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