Two in three consumers worldwide use ChatGPT to search for products, according to a survey carried out in March 2026 by the market research firm Euromonitor. Unlike a traditional search engine, an artificial intelligence assistant only suggests a handful of products. To understand how a product is included in a selection, Euromonitor asked ChatGPT and Gemini 1,000 questions about scalp care in the UK and the US. The results were published on 7 October 2026.
The questions mimicked those asked by real shoppers, featuring a variety of profiles, tones and writing styles. For each response, the institute noted the brands mentioned, the words used to describe them and the sources cited.
Each assistant has its own brands
ChatGPT and Gemini do not recommend the same products. The Nizoral brand appears in 58 per cent of Gemini’s responses, compared with 24 per cent on ChatGPT. Briogeo is mentioned in 40 per cent of Gemini’s responses, compared with 9 per cent on ChatGPT. “A brand can therefore be very prominent for one user and almost absent for another asking the same question.”
Brand websites largely ignored
The two assistants do not draw on the same sources. ChatGPT relies mainly on the media, particularly beauty-specialist outlets (32 per cent of its sources), and on medical sources (17 per cent). Gemini favours product listings from retailers such as Target, Boots or Superdrug (58 per cent). Brand websites, meanwhile, account for no more than 3 per cent of sources. What the AI retains about a brand therefore depends primarily on what others say about it.
AI decides what a brand is for
Consumers rarely …
