I ran a market test: I asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini twelve typical buying questions — about cars, hotels, online stores and banks. Exactly the way tens of thousands of buyers now ask them instead of using Google.
About the research. The test was run on the Hungarian market, in Hungarian, in July 2026, using ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Twelve purchase-intent questions across twelve industries, asked the way a real buyer would phrase them. The company names below are Hungarian market leaders and international brands operating in Hungary — you will not recognise all of them, and that is not the point. What matters is the pattern, and that pattern is not Hungarian: it is what an AI answer engine does in any market where nobody has optimised for it yet.
The result surprised even me. It was not small, unknown companies that got left out — it was market leaders, official importers and world brands, an entire row of them, invisible to the AI:
🚗 Buying a new BYD? The AI sends you to the showrooms of Schiller, Duna Autó and AutoWallis. Pappas Auto’s official BYD dealership is not mentioned by either system. And Hovány Csoport, one of the first to bring the Chery brands (Omoda, Jaecoo) to Hungarian buyers? It does not exist in the AI’s answers. Neither does Gablini, even though they are MG’s official partner and the domestic importer of Omoda and Jaecoo.
🏨 A wellness weekend? Both AIs recommend Spirit Hotel in Sárvár first. But Hotel Azúr, Greenfield Bük — and even the world-famous Four Seasons Gresham Palace — appear in neither answer.
💻 Ordering a laptop? Notebook.hu, iPon and Aqua.hu get recommended by name. MediaMarkt and Euronics, the country’s largest electronics retailers: nowhere.
🏦 A mortgage? CIB is in the top group with both AIs. UniCredit, MagNet Bank and Fundamenta do not come up in a single answer.
And here is something especially instructive: some companies exist for only one of the two systems. Petrányi is recommended by Gemini alone. Gemini calls Bramac “the synonym of concrete roof tiles” — yet ChatGPT’s final purchase recommendation names Terrán instead. Brand awareness and AI recommendation are two different things.
What every business leader should take from this test
1. AI does not give you ten blue links — it gives three to five company names. There is no second page where you can still squeeze in.
2. Your Google reviews are a direct ranking factor. Gemini selects on the basis of specific star ratings.
3. The two AIs partly recommend different companies, so you have to optimise for both separately. The field is still open — but not for long.
4. It is not a question of size. Small, specialised online stores also made it into the answers. If they could get in, market leaders have no excuse.
5. AI no longer recommends a brand — it recommends a specific product. “Mapei Keraflex Maxi S1”, “Porotherm 30 Rapid”. Product-level visibility is what you now need.
The lesson? It does not matter that you are the market leader, and it does not matter that you spend millions on marketing — if the AI recommends your competitor instead of you, you are financing their customer acquisition with your own brand awareness.
👉 If you want to know whether the AI recommends your company or your competition, get in touch and we will run the test on your market too.
Have you already checked what ChatGPT answers when someone asks about your product category?
Written by Endre Kovács, SEO and GEO specialist. Read more about the method in our article on what GEO is.