When AI engines answer "what is the best..." travel questions, most of them about travel credit cards, Chase is the first brand named in 51.9% of answers. No brand in any of 20 shopping categories leads by as much, and in beauty the top brand is named first in 11.1% of answers.
Analysis of AI answers to 2,000 "best product" and "best service" questions in 20 categories · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.Chase is the first brand AI engines name in 51.9% of answers to "best" travel questions, and it is mentioned somewhere in 70.6% of them.
- 2.HubSpot is the first brand AI engines name in 34% of answers to "best software" questions, the second-strongest lead of 20 categories.
- 3.Kia is named first in 33.3% of AI answers about the best cars, and Hostinger in 31.7% of AI answers about the best web hosting and online services.
- 4.Capital One is mentioned in 66.7% of AI travel answers, close to Chase's 70.6%, yet named first in 12.5% of them against Chase's 51.9%.
- 5.In beauty, the leading brand is named first in 11.1% of AI answers, the weakest lead of 20 categories, so no single brand owns the top spot.
Summary
Ask an AI engine for the best travel credit card and the first name in the answer is Chase more often than every other brand combined. Ask it for the best moisturizer and the first name changes from one answer to the next.
The first brand in an AI answer gets the most attention: it is the one the reader sees before any comparison, and often the one they look up next. Knowing whether your category has a clear AI favorite tells a brand whether it is defending a lead, chasing one, or competing for a spot that is still open.
Chase is named first in 51.9% of AI travel answers, the strongest lead in any of 20 categories. HubSpot, Kia, Hostinger and Purina Pro each lead their category in about a third of answers. In beauty, kids, kitchen and gaming, no brand is named first in more than one answer in six.
What we measured
In September 2026 we asked five AI engines, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews (the AI summary above Google's search results), 2,000 questions of the form "What is the best [product or service]?", about 100 in each of 20 categories, from travel and software to pets and beauty. In travel, 69 of the 100 questions were about travel or airline credit cards; the rest covered hotels and airlines.
In every answer we recorded which brands appeared and which one came first. "Named first" is the share of a category's answers in which a brand is the first one mentioned. "Mentioned anywhere" is the share in which it appears at any point. For each category, the leader is the brand named first most often.
Chase owns travel
Chase is the first name in more than half of travel answers and appears somewhere in 70.6% of them. With most travel questions about credit cards, that makes Chase the default answer for travel rewards in AI, a position no brand in any other category comes close to.
The margin is the story. The next strongest leader in any category, HubSpot in software, is named first in 34% of answers, a much smaller lead, so for a traveler asking an AI engine where to start, the answer usually begins with one bank.
Being mentioned is not the same as being first
Chase and Capital One are both mentioned in about two thirds of travel answers, 70.6% and 66.7%. But Chase is named first four times as often, 51.9% against 12.5%. Delta is mentioned in 24.9% of travel answers and named first in 3.1%.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of AI answers to 2,000 "best product" and "best service" questions in 20 categories · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
| Travel brand | Named first | Mentioned anywhere |
|---|---|---|
| Chase | 51.9% | 70.6% |
| Capital One | 12.5% | 66.7% |
| Delta | 3.1% | 24.9% |
The same pattern shows up elsewhere. Hostinger is mentioned in 61.2% of web hosting and services answers and named first in 31.7%; Kia is mentioned in 61.2% of car answers and named first in 33.3%. Being in the answer and leading the answer are two different results, and a brand tracking only mentions will miss which one it has.
The leader in each category
After Chase, the strongest leads belong to HubSpot in software (34% named first), Kia in cars (33.3%), Hostinger in web hosting and services (31.7%) and Purina Pro in pets (29.5%). Steelcase leads office furniture at 25.9% and Levi's leads apparel at 25.1%.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of AI answers to 2,000 "best product" and "best service" questions in 20 categories · answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, September 2026
| Category | Brand named first most | Named first | Mentioned anywhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | Chase | 51.9% | 70.6% |
| Software | HubSpot | 34% | 50.7% |
| Cars | Kia | 33.3% | 61.2% |
| Web hosting and services | Hostinger | 31.7% | 61.2% |
| Pets | Purina Pro | 29.5% | 63.1% |
| Office | Steelcase | 25.9% | 36.7% |
| Apparel | Levi's | 25.1% | 30.3% |
| Health | Thorne | 18.9% | 35.6% |
| Insurance | USAA | 18.3% | 52.5% |
| Streaming | Apple | 17.1% | 53.6% |
| Gaming | Razer | 15.7% | 39.9% |
| Kitchen | Technivorm Moccamaster | 14.6% | 26.5% |
| Kids | Chicco | 13.7% | 37.8% |
| Beauty | EltaMD | 11.1% | 17.8% |
The strongest leaders are brands that a category's reviews and comparison articles return to again and again, and AI engines repeat the consensus of the sources they read. Where one brand dominates that coverage, as Chase does for travel cards and HubSpot does for business software, it becomes the default first answer. The mentioned-anywhere column shows how far each leader's presence reaches: Purina Pro appears in 63.1% of pet answers, and Kia and Hostinger in 61.2% of theirs.
Some categories have no clear favorite
At the other end, beauty's leader, EltaMD, is named first in 11.1% of answers and mentioned in 17.8%. Kids (Chicco, 13.7%), kitchen (Technivorm Moccamaster, 14.6%) and gaming (Razer, 15.7%) are also open: in each, no brand is named first in more than one answer in six.
These are categories with many strong brands and questions that split into sub-types, from sunscreen to serums or strollers to car seats, so the first name changes with the question. Insurance shows a different pattern: USAA is named first in 18.3% of answers but mentioned in 52.5%, present in most answers without owning the top spot.
What this means for brand marketers
Track two numbers, not one: how often AI engines mention your brand, and how often they name it first. A brand can be mentioned in two thirds of answers and still lead only one in eight. If you lead your category, the gap between those numbers is your risk; if you trail, it shows how much ground there is to take.
In categories without a clear leader, such as beauty, kids, kitchen and gaming, the first spot is winnable. Aim for consistent placement near the top of the expert roundups, review sites and comparison articles AI engines draw on, and publish specific, comparable claims about your products that those sources can repeat. Working with an ai seo company lets you track both numbers for your category across every AI engine.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-favorite-brands-by-category">AI Names Chase First in 51.9% of Travel Answers, the Strongest Lead in 20 Categories - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). AI Names Chase First in 51.9% of Travel Answers, the Strongest Lead in 20 Categories. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-favorite-brands-by-category
AI Names Chase First in 51.9% of Travel Answers, the Strongest Lead in 20 Categories - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/ai-favorite-brands-by-category
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