ChatGPT vs Perplexity vs Google AI Overviews — where do your customers ask?

⏰ The 30-second version

• Customers meet AI search in roughly three places — ChatGPT (conversation), Perplexity (sources), and Google AI Overviews (top of search).
• All three build answers from web content, but they differ in how they show sources. Perplexity and Google expose source links, so you earn clicks; on ChatGPT, the brand mention itself is the win.
• Prioritize by where your customers already are — for e-commerce, start with Google AI Overviews + ChatGPT.
• Good news: all three reward the same kind of content, so write it well once and you cover all three surfaces at once.

Three surfaces, three personalities

	ChatGPT	Perplexity	Google AI Overviews
How you meet it	Customer chats directly	Customer searches directly	Appears automatically when you Google
Answer format	Conversational recommendation	Answer + source cards	Search summary + sources
The seller's win	Brand mention	Cited source → click	Cited source → click
Monthly search vol. (tool name)	—	368,000	320 (+27%)

ChatGPT is a surface where the mention is everything. The effect is less about link clicks and more about the customer learning your brand. Perplexity is the reverse — sources are the star, so getting cited drives real traffic.

:::viz sim surface="perplexity" question="Is a protein shake okay as a breakfast replacement?":::

Google AI Overviews operates at a different scale. The customer doesn't go looking for AI — the Google they always use pushes AI at them first. For e-commerce sellers, it's the surface where the impact hits fastest.