According to a Business Standard analysis of 375 AI-generated recommendations across five consumer categories, a handful of brands consistently dominated AI responses. Apollo Hospitals emerged as the clear leader in private hospital chains, appearing in 68 of 75 responses with a 90.7% recommendation share and ranking first in 57 responses. In health insurance, HDFC ERGO dominated with a 98.7% recommendation share, appearing in 74 of 75 responses and ranking first in 72 responses. Private banking showed similar concentration, with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank appearing in all 75 responses, though HDFC Bank was preferred as the first recommendation in 49 responses compared to 22 for ICICI Bank.
As reported by Business Standard, marketing teams are beginning to focus on Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) rather than traditional search engine optimisation. Rrahul S Ranjan, managing director of Mrig Sight Media, told Business Standard that AI assistants have evolved from simple question-and-answer tools into decision-making engines that increasingly influence consumer choices. The agency now routinely checks how brands appear across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity alongside traditional search rankings. According to Ranjan, marketing budgets are likely to shift towards expert content, independent research, digital public relations and authoritative media coverage because these are the signals AI models rely on most.
Unlike other categories, skincare showed more evenly distributed recommendations. According to the Business Standard analysis, Minimalist recorded the highest recommendation share at 92%, followed by Cetaphil at 84% and CeraVe at 64%. Unlike hospitals or insurance, AI assistants did not consistently favour one brand, with Minimalist and Cetaphil being almost evenly matched as the first recommendation. This suggests AI views skincare as a more competitive category with several credible alternatives.
Veera Ravindra Divi, an independent AI systems researcher, told Business Standard that companies can influence AI recommendations only indirectly. According to Divi, the strongest signals come from credible third-party reviews, comparison articles, trusted publications, Wikipedia, discussion forums such as Reddit and well-structured factual content. Shipra Jena, founder of AI-first communications firm PitchOne PR, emphasized that the biggest misconception is that brands can simply optimise their own websites to influence AI assistants. Research by Muck Rack's Generative Pulse, which analysed more than 25 million AI citations, found that 84% of citations came from earned media, while paid and advertorial content accounted for just 0.3%.
As reported by Business Standard, Jaspreet Bindra, co-founder and CEO of AI & Beyond, believes AI could ultimately make competition more merit-based because these systems increasingly reward topical authority, expertise and trusted information rather than sheer marketing budgets. The analysis suggests that AI currently tends to favour established market leaders, but challenger brands can outperform on highly specific or niche queries where they demonstrate stronger expertise and clearer relevance. For India Inc, this may become one of the defining marketing challenges of the AI era, where companies cannot directly control what AI recommends, but can improve their chances by building credibility, authority, and consistent digital trust.
