70K AI responses analyzed: core brands barely move while long-tail churns daily

iannuttall · x · 2026-09-24

Glen Allsopp (@viperchill) tracked 70K+ AI responses over 4 weeks across Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT to measure brand volatility:

Only a 0.3% chance the same brand list repeats the next day; core brands change just 11-13% of the time vs 65-78% for long-tail brands.
ChatGPT returns 6 brands per prompt, AI Overviews 5.1; core lists are typically 1-2 names, and half of ChatGPT prompts have no core brands at all.
The leading brand appears first about half the time; otherwise it's often missing entirely. Cited URLs churn but the page-type mix stays stable.
Source mix differs: ChatGPT leans on directories (Clutch, Capterra, G2) while AI Overviews lean on YouTube and Reddit.

Takeaway: long-tail AI search visibility reshuffles daily while core positions are sticky — a strong case for investing in technical SEO and AEO.

More from Venture