One of the biggest things we’ve learned from using HubSpot AEO is that ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity don’t necessarily evaluate your brand the same way.
You can track the same buyer questions across different AI engines and see very different results.
Your brand might be highly visible in Gemini (and Google AI Overviews) but barely mentioned in ChatGPT. Perplexity might cite your content directly, while another platform recommends a competitor.
So, how should HubSpot users approach AEO across different AI platforms?
The answer isn’t to build three completely different strategies.
It’s to understand what each platform appears to trust and use HubSpot AEO to identify where your brand’s evidence is weak.
1. Start with the questions your buyers actually ask
Traditional SEO usually starts with keywords.
AEO starts with questions.
Instead of only asking: “Where do we rank for this keyword?”
Start asking: “When a potential customer asks AI this question, does our company appear in the answer?”
HubSpot AEO can help you track relevant prompts, compare your visibility against competitors, see changes over time, and investigate the sources influencing AI answers.
This gives marketers a very different way to think about search visibility.
You’re not only optimizing for clicks anymore. You’re optimizing for influence during the buying process.
2. For ChatGPT, focus on brand consensus
From our testing, ChatGPT appears to behave more like a consensus engine.
It can look beyond what your website says about your company and consider signals such as:
- Reviews
- Industry directories
- External brand mentions
- Community discussions
- Author and company entities
- Historical reputation
- Third-party validation
That means publishing more content on your own website isn’t necessarily enough.
If your website says you’re an expert, that’s a claim. But if your website, customer reviews, webinars, industry websites, videos, case studies, communities, and other sources all reinforce that expertise, AI has much more evidence to work with.
So when HubSpot AEO shows weak ChatGPT visibility, ask: Does the rest of the internet support what we’re saying about ourselves?
3. For Gemini, make sure Google understands your company
Gemini appears much more connected to Google’s broader ecosystem.
That means many traditional SEO fundamentals still matter:
- Technical SEO
- Schema markup
- E-E-A-T
- Clear entities
- Google Business Profile
- Google Reviews
- YouTube
- Helpful, well-structured content
For Gemini, one of the questions I like to ask is: How well does Google actually understand this company?
- Does Google clearly understand who your organization is?
- Who your experts are?
- What topics you’re authoritative about?
- What products or services you provide?
- Where you operate?
Schema and strong entity relationships can help connect those dots.
Ranking in Google and appearing in Gemini aren’t exactly the same thing, but if Google fundamentally misunderstands your company, you’re making it harder for Gemini to understand it too.
4. For Perplexity, become a source worth citing
Perplexity feels much more like a live research and citation engine. That creates a major opportunity for companies producing genuinely useful source material.
Think:
- Original research
- Statistics
- Case studies
- Comparison articles
- White papers
- Recent insights
- Expert commentary
- Clearly sourced content
- Content that directly answers buyer questions
Instead of simply telling AI that you’re an expert, publish the evidence an AI engine would want to cite. If HubSpot AEO shows that competitors are being cited and you’re not, investigate those sources.
What evidence do they provide that you don’t?
That gap can become your content roadmap.
The bigger goal: AI consensus
This is probably the most important takeaway.
I don’t think marketers should build a separate strategy for ChatGPT, another for Gemini, another for Perplexity, another for Claude, and another every time a new AI platform appears.
The goal should be AI consensus.
Different AI engines may weigh signals differently, but they all need credible evidence before confidently recommending a company.
That evidence can come from: Real expertise + useful content + clear entities + customer stories + reviews + citations + videos + external mentions + consistent messaging.
When those signals reinforce each other across the web, you’re giving multiple AI systems reasons to reach the same conclusion about your company.
Don’t just measure mentions
Another important lesson from HubSpot AEO is that not all AI visibility is equal. I think about AI visibility in four levels:
Mentioned → Cited → Recommended → Preferred
Being mentioned is a start.
Being cited means your content is helping create the answer.
Being recommended means AI considers your company a credible solution.
Being preferred means you’re being positioned ahead of competitors.
That’s why marketers should look beyond a visibility score.
Ask: What is AI actually saying about our company when we appear?
A practical HubSpot AEO workflow
If you’re getting started, I wouldn’t immediately go publish 20 more blog posts.
First, use HubSpot AEO to understand what AI already believes about your brand.
Test the questions buyers actually ask. Compare your visibility against competitors. Review the citations influencing those answers. Look for outdated or conflicting information about your company.
Then start closing the gaps.
Improve your technical SEO and schema. Strengthen your company and author entities. Turn sales questions into useful articles. Turn webinars and conversations into videos and educational content. Publish customer stories, comparisons, research, and real-world insights.
Then distribute that expertise beyond your own website and keep measuring what changes.
The goal isn’t to manufacture hundreds of AI-generated pages.
It’s to take the real expertise already inside your company and make it easier for AI systems to discover, understand, verify, and trust.
That’s where I think HubSpot AEO becomes especially valuable.
Instead of asking only: “Are we ranking?”
We can start asking: “What does AI believe about our company, what evidence is shaping that answer, and what can we do to improve it?”
For anyone already using HubSpot AEO: Are you seeing noticeable differences in your brand visibility between ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity?
I’d be interested to hear which platform has been the easiest, or hardest, for your brand to improve.
Here’s an article and the recording from our HubSpot User Group Webinar about this:
HubSpot AEO for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity: How to Improve AI Brand Visibility for Different LLMs
I’m also hosting a couple of AEO AMA sessions at UNBOUND 2026. Here are the links if you’d like to register:
How to Build a Sustainable Multichannel Marketing Loop for AEO Growth?
Reserve your spot → How to Build a Sustainable Multichannel Marketing Loop for AEO Growth?
How Do You Actually Measure AEO?
Reserve your spot → How Do You Actually Measure AEO?
