Every Major AI Assistant Recommends Its Parent Company's Models More Often Than Other Engines Do -- Except One. New 5W Research Finds.

ChatGPT recommends OpenAI models 2.0x more often than other engines. Claude recommends Anthropic only 1.2x more — the lowest self-citation lift of any major AI engine tested. 

MIAMI, July 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- 5W, the AI Communications Firm, today released the AI Companies AI Visibility Index 2026 — the first two-wave public benchmark measuring how AI assistants describe the AI companies themselves across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The Index analyzed 32,200 prompts across two independent waves between January and May 2026. 

The headline finding: every major AI assistant recommended its parent company's models more often than other engines did — at measurable, repeatable margins — except Claude. 

• ChatGPT recommended OpenAI 2.0x more often than other engines did.
• Gemini recommended Google DeepMind 1.7x more often.
• Google AI Overviews recommended Google models 1.6x more often.
• Perplexity surfaced Perplexity in adjacent search-tool queries at 2.4x baseline.
• Claude recommended Anthropic models only 1.2x more often — the lowest of any major engine tested.

The pattern held in both waves. 

OpenAI captured 24.6% of all AI-company Citation Share. Anthropic followed at 14.8%, Google DeepMind at 13.7%, Meta AI at 9.7%, and xAI at 5.7%. The top five together accounted for 68.5% of cited responses. 

The structural finding that distinguishes this category from every other 5W has measured: GitHub and ArXiv together supply 31.2% of citations — second only to Wikipedia (24.3%). In banking, venture capital, and credit cards, top citation sources are editorial publishers. In AI, code repositories and research papers function as primary source material. 

"The most uncomfortable finding in our entire AI Visibility Index series is in this dataset. Every major AI assistant favors its parent company's models in recommendation queries — at measurable, two-wave-stable margins. The exception is Claude. That asymmetry is the story," said Ronn Torossian, Founder and Chairman of 5W. "And the structural story underneath it is that AI company communications strategy looks nothing like any other industry's. GitHub and ArXiv are the new tier-one outlets." 

Additional findings from the Index: 

• Anthropic over-indexes in safety queries at 31.2% — substantially above its 14.8% overall share.
• DeepSeek surfaces in 18.4% of technical queries — third only to Meta and Mistral — despite less than 2% combined Citation Share for Chinese labs in U.S. consumer queries.
• xAI under-indexes at 5.7% Citation Share despite outsized social-media share of voice.
• Application-layer AI companies — Glean, Harvey, Cursor, Replit — surface in less than 1.5% of foundation-model queries but capture 8–22% inside vertical prompts.

The full Index, dataset, and methodology are available at 5wpr.com/ai-visibility-index/ai-companies/.

About 5W

5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research to help clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research. Founded in 2003, 5W is recognized as a Top U.S. PR Agency by O'Dwyer's, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, honored as a 2026 Top Place to Work in Communications by Ragan, and named to Digiday's WorkLife Employer of the Year list. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors — Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit — and B2B specialties including Corporate Communications, Reputation Management, Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing across Social, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. Learn more at 5wpr.com.

Media Contact:
[email protected]

SOURCE 5W Public Relations