The 3 Types of Prompt That Decide Whether AI Recommends You or Your Competitor

When AI decides which brands to recommend, the type of prompt matters more than most businesses realise. In our analysis of 4,500+ prompt executions across 349 brands, we found that most companies only show up in one category of query, and it’s usually the least commercially valuable. The Three Buying Phases That AI Mirrors AI-driven buying behaviour aligns closely with how customers approach their decision-making. Every brand review in our study included 30 prompts split across three intent phases: Informational (10 prompts): These are research-stage queries like "Who are the leading providers of X in the UK?" or "What should I look for when choosing a Y?" Buyers are exploring the market and gathering initial insights. Comparison (10 prompts): Evaluation-stage queries like "Compare the top providers of X" or "What are the differences between A and B solutions?" Buyers have a shortlist and are narrowing down their options. Transactional (10 prompts): Decision-stage queries like "Best value provider of X to buy from" or "Most trusted brand for Y." Buyers are ready to spend money and are asking AI for a clear recommendation. The buyer journey drives these three phases, and AI reflects them. But here’s the key insight: AI treats each phase differently when deciding which brands to mention. AI responds differently at each stage of the buying journey Where Brands Show Up, and Where They Disappear Here’s the pattern from our study: most brands that appear in AI responses only show up during informational queries. Visibility drops sharply at the comparison stage and nearly vanishes at the transactional stage. Take one UK-based specialist retailer as an example. Their overall visibility on ChatGPT was 16%. Sounds decent, right? But when broken down, their informational score was close to 30%, their comparison score fell to around 10%, and their transactional score was near 0%. AI knew the brand existed but refused to recommend them when buyers asked "Which company should I