Using AI Assistant Answers for Market Research

AI assistants summarise what the web says about a market, so their answers are a quick way to see how competitors are positioned, which features buyers care about, and which sources are treated as trusted. They are a useful research input, but not a replacement for talking to customers, because answers can be incomplete or wrong.

What AI answers can tell you

Who the “default” choices are

Ask “what are the best options for X” several times across assistants. The brands that appear again and again are the ones the web treats as category leaders. If you sell bookkeeping software and three competitors show up in nearly every answer, they own the default position you need to challenge.

How each competitor is described

Look at the words used. One competitor might be “the affordable choice”, another “best for agencies”, another “strong integrations”. These short labels show the positioning each brand has earned. If no clear label exists for your brand, that is a gap.

Which sources shape opinion

Assistants that show citations, like Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews with their source links, reveal which review sites, blogs, forums and publications feed the answers. That tells you where your PR and content efforts are most likely to matter.

What buyers worry about

Ask follow-ups like “what are the downsides of [competitor]?” or “what should I check before choosing a wedding photographer?” The concerns listed often mirror real buyer objections, which you can address on your own pages.

A simple research routine

1. List 15 questions across discovery, comparison and objection types.
2. Ask each one in at least three assistants and save the answers.
3. Build a table: brands mentioned, descriptions used, sources cited.
4. Highlight patterns that appear in more than one assistant.
5. Check surprising findings against real data, such as customer interviews or sales notes.

Limits to keep in mind

• Answers vary. The same question can give different answers on different days. Look for patterns, not single results.
• Some facts are outdated or wrong. Models can mix up companies or repeat old pricing. Verify before acting.
• Small niches are thin. In very local or specialist markets, the assistant may have little to say. That itself is a finding: there is room to become the main source.
• It is a summary of the public web, not of buyers. It shows what is written, not necessarily what people decide.

Turning research into action

Use what you learn to sharpen your message, your pages and your PR plan. Start with the finding that appears most often, because it is the one buyers are most likely to see. If every answer says competitors are “easier to set up”, publish a clear setup guide and a short video transcript showing how long setup really takes. If a trade publication is cited often, consider how you can contribute useful expertise there. Our article on how AI chooses between similar brands explains why clear differences matter. For question discovery, see keyword research for AI queries.

How Keboost helps

Keboost automates the slow part of this research. It tracks your chosen prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot, records which brands and sources appear, and shows how that changes over time. It then helps you create content to fill the gaps you find. Run a free AI visibility check to see a first snapshot of your market.