AI has its own league table.

Lloyds Banking Group serves more UK customers than any other bank group, about 28 million. Across eight everyday banking questions, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude put it first in 3% of their answers without web search and 2% with it. Monzo, with little more than half as many customers, gets 27% both ways, whichever question we leave out. Even on the plainest question, the best bank account in Britain, AI names Lloyds first in none of 90 answers without web search and none of 36 with it.

People are already asking. In research for the FCA in April 2026, 16% of British bank customers said they use AI to support their personal finances.

We ran the same test in six markets with public size figures, with the rule written down beforehand. In three of them, AI's most frequent first pick is not the market's leader, with web search on or off.

Two of those three rest on one question, and we would rather say so than have you find out. USAA leads only because we asked a question from military families. Without it, State Farm leads. Aldi leads thanks to the question on the cheapest shop, where AI usually names Lidl in the next breath. Without it, Tesco leads, or M&S when AI searches. Monzo needs no such help.

Inside the markets the gaps get wider:

• Google sells 3% of America's phones and gets at least 14% of AI's first picks.
• HP and Dell sell almost half of America's PCs. AI names them first in 5% of answers, 10% when it searches.
• Amica writes 0.4% of America's car insurance. Ask who to trust with a claim and AI says Amica.
• On is America's fourth-biggest running shoe brand. It comes first in none of 720 answers without web search and none of 288 with it.

AI knows most of the big names. It mentions Sainsbury's in about two answers of three, yet starts with it in 7% of answers without web search and 1% with it. In insurance, groceries and airlines, the bigger the brand, the more often AI names it, and who comes first follows size much less closely. Size gets you on the list. It does not put you at the top.

We had an AI model sort what the assistants say about 44 brands in seven markets. For 11 of them, one reason runs through at least half of what AI says, with web search and without. For seven of the 11, price does. Aldi's word is price, in more than eight answers of ten. Marks & Spencer's is quality, Hoka's is cushioning, and AI talks price about most big car insurers. About Amica, which writes 0.4% of the market, it talks service and claims, in about three answers of four.

A company can move faster than its word. Lloyds Banking Group calls itself the largest UK digital bank, with around 22 million mobile app users. Monzo now counts more than 16 million customers in all. Yet apps come up in 53% of the answers that name Monzo and 22% of those that name Lloyds, 57% and 23% with web search, and some of Lloyds's are other companies' apps. AI also decides when you come up. It brings Monzo up when someone wants to budget, in 85 of 90 answers. It brings Lloyds up most when someone struggles to open an account, with a poor credit history or no UK credit file, in 60 of 90.

The word can also be out of date. Southwest ended free checked bags for most customers in May 2025. Without web search, 153 of the 465 answers that name it still offer them as a plain fact. Gemini: "Every passenger gets two free checked bags." With web search on, 28 of 179 still do, and 10 say the policy ended. ChatGPT gets it right each time. On the one question we re-ran on the newer Claude, 9 of the 14 answers that mention Southwest's checked bags say they now cost money.

We also predicted that brands with one clear word would come first more often. That did not hold: the word does not put you first. None of this shows in a sales report or a brand tracker, and we cannot see what it does to sales. But AI has written a one-line brief for your brand.

Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2, 2026. Give the assistants web search, and 49 of 287 answers about US airlines still name it. 17 warn that it has closed. 13 offer it as an option, without a word about the closure. The other 19 treat it as flying, in tables of fees, rankings or cautions about bag charges. On cheap flights, one answer in three still offers it, and 10 of those 12 list their sources. Without web search, 211 of 720 answers name it, and not one says it has closed.

Spirit is the extreme case, not the only one. Strike bought Purplebricks for £1 in 2023, and strike.co.uk now takes you to Purplebricks. Without web search AI still names Strike in 38% of answers about estate agents, and in 15% with it. OnePlus stopped launching new phones in North America in July, and AI still names it in 16% of answers without web search and 7% with it.

Give an assistant web search and its favorite changes on 45% of questions. Before the run we wrote down that at least five favorites in eight would hold. They did not. Chance explains part of the change: split the answers without web search in two and the favorite changes on 21% of questions. The rest is the search.

Claude names Mailchimp for a small firm's first email tool in 30 answers of 30. In the 8 answers where it searched, it names MailerLite in 7. Gemini names Remote for hiring abroad from memory and Deel when it searches. Emma is AI's favorite mattress until it searches.

With web search on, a handful of sources sit behind the answers. Which? appears in 44% of the answers on British supermarkets that list sources. RunRepeat appears in 39% on running shoes and NerdWallet in 32% on US car insurance. In business software AI reads the vendors: Deel's own site appears in 31% of the answers on HR and payroll, HubSpot's in 30% on CRM.

The site Gemini and Claude cite most in email marketing belongs to Sequenzy, a vendor founded in 2025. It has done what the guides to AI visibility advise: a file written for AI crawlers, a table of facts "for buyers, journalists, and AI assistants", buttons that open ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini with a question ready. Gemini and Claude cite it in 93 of the 178 answers where they list sources. ChatGPT cites it in none of 95. AI names Sequenzy in 4 of 288 answers. In the answers that cite it, AI names Mailchimp, MailerLite and Klaviyo first, about as often as anywhere else.

The citations may still bring Sequenzy visitors; we cannot see that. We have not measured what happens when a page changes, and we will not sell you a tactic we have not tested.

Among British banks ChatGPT leans to Starling, with web search or without. Gemini and Claude clearly prefer Monzo. On electric cars the three share a favorite on at most one question of eight. Some choices are settled: run Microsoft 365 and even ChatGPT tells you to buy Copilot, in every answer. And sometimes AI names no one: ask ChatGPT who should sell your house, and more than half the time it names no firm.

They also answer differently. In the sample of 320 answers an AI model classified one by one, ChatGPT gives a clear pick in about six answers of ten, Gemini in about four and Claude in three. With Claude, being first more often means being first on a list.