CHATGPT'S PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS CHANGE 80.2% WHEN SEARCH IS ENABLED VS DISABLED (STUDY OF 20,000 RESPONSES)

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

ChatGPT's product recommendations depend heavily on whether search is enabled, which means brands should focus less on influencing AI training data and more on influencing the sources AI cites. In a study of 20,000 responses, 80.2% of recommended products changed when search was enabled, and only 15.8% of products that appeared in 100% of non-search responses also appeared when search was enabled. The findings suggest that cited web content plays a major role in recommendation outcomes. Brands should focus on earning mentions in the articles, reviews, and comparison pages that ChatGPT already cites for high-value product queries.