What Are The Go-To Generative AI Platforms Shaping Digital Marketing?

In an age where generative AI platforms are no longer a novelty and, in many cases, are now ingrained in day-to-day life, the implications of these AI tools for digital marketing can’t be ignored. Brands that previously held favorable positions in traditional search results may not be on the radar of the different AI tools dominating the digital landscape. Not without intentional strategies to optimize content for these AI search engines, anyway. 

Known as generative engine optimization (GEO), the efforts to appear in generative answer engine responses require a deeper understanding of the most-used AI tools changing the game, and perhaps more importantly, the users behind the engines. As AI platforms continue to evolve, marketers face the familiar challenge of meeting users where they are. Learning how users engage with popular platforms can shape your ability to impact the AI search experience and ultimately gain visibility and credibility in this new landscape.

The Background: What Are Generative AI Tools?

Generative AI platforms are engines that rely on artificial intelligence and large language models to create custom, human-like responses for user search queries and prompts. Depending on what each AI tool is used for, answers may come in the form of text, images, audio, video, or code, but the common theme is that the result is original and responsive based on the context of the conversation. 

ChatGPT was the first widely known and adopted of its kind upon its widespread release in November 2022, maintaining its status as one of the most-used AI tools today. Many other mainstream AI tools for personal and enterprise usage followed shortly after, and a variety of different AI tools are widely used as answer engines today. As the masses increasingly split their focus between traditional linked search results and conversational, AI-driven experiences, marketers must adapt, too.

The Stakes: How Many People Use AI?

Tens, potentially hundreds, of millions of people worldwide engage with AI platforms daily, whether for personal assistance or as an integrated workplace tool. A recent study by the Pew Research Center shows 62% of adults in the U.S. report using AI at least several times a week, and half of those users report “almost constant” or daily use. From a business perspective, a 2025 AI Index Report from Stanford University found organizational usage grew from 55% to 78% of organizations reportedly using the technology between 2023 to 2024. That means in its infancy, generative AI already had the collective attention of half of the businesses surveyed, and now more than ¾ and counting.

What does this mean for marketers trying to engage with consumers and businesses online? Sticking to the status quo risks your business falling behind, while learning how to optimize content for AI search gives you the opportunity to earn prime placement in generative AI platforms. If you have yet to study up on the different AI tools driving a new era of search, now is the time to consider how popular platforms impact your audience’s digital habits.

The Gamechangers: 5 Different AI Tools Most-Used By Today’s Web Users

The most-used AI tools today deliver similar value to their users, serving as a research tool, an idea generator, a conversation partner, or even a decision maker. Many users discover brands while asking niche questions and comparing features across products, enjoying the tailored answers and conversational flow unique to generative AI platforms. AI search allows users to be increasingly specific in their requests and in many cases even establish a rapport for ongoing use. These capabilities influence users at every stage of the decision funnel. 

According to a McKinsey & Company report, 73% of consumers consult AI tools for initial brand awareness, 60% use AI search tools during the consideration phase to narrow down their options, and 61% rely on these tools to make purchase decisions. So, what are these all-powerful platforms shaping how products and services are sought after? Along with research and discovery, each platform has a specific use case it’s best for, which informs who uses these tools and how. Let’s look at how users are engaging with five of the most prominent tools today.

ChatGPT Use Cases

Of the different AI tools now splitting the attention of today’s web users, no platform found itself in the spotlight more so than ChatGPT. Made publicly available by OpenAI in November 2022, the interface provided one of the first generative search experiences to the general public. Today, even industry giants like Microsoft have a stake in ChatGPT, representing its enduring influence in the digital landscape.

Who Uses ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is one of the most widely recognized and utilized generative AI platforms for consumers today, with day-to-day applications across both personal and professional use. As one of the most-used AI tools, ChatGPT usage creates opportunities for brands optimizing their content for AI search. 

What Is ChatGPT Used For?

The ChatGPT interface offers a personalized, conversational user experience, making it a practical, everyday tool for many individuals. Often used to inspire creativity, brainstorm ideas, and refine content, ChatGPT has broad appeal as a private and professional resource for tailored responses and efficiencies.

Perplexity Use Cases

Independently owned and operated, Perplexity emerged on the scene at the end of 2022, establishing itself as an early gamechanger for generative AI platforms. Unlike the different AI tools limited by their training models in those early days, Perplexity was able to pull in live, real-time responses from the internet, going above and beyond as a research tool with access to the world wide web. While other AI platforms have caught up today, Perplexity helped set the scene to make live data the default and continues to serve as a trusted resource for users.

Who Uses Perplexity?

Perplexity is often used in professional and academic contexts, with many students and professionals relying on the AI tool for real-time research. While Perplexity provides original responses to user queries, it prominently cites its sources, making it clear where it got its information from, which is another feature students and professionals appreciate when they need more concrete support to link back to. 

What Is Perplexity Used For?

Perplexity offers exciting opportunities for generative engine optimization because of how it prioritizes its sources. Because Perplexity users trust the tool to dive deep into a topic and back it up with data, the content appearing in these queries gains visibility in front of a highly motivated audience. Users look to Perplexity to summarize complex concepts and support understanding for potentially niche topics.

Claude Use Cases

Launched in March of 2023, Anthropic’s “Claude” came onto the scene promising a more ethical AI interface for users. While the generative engine still absorbs knowledge from human content across the web, it also has its own set of standards built-in to curate more ethical, safety-informed responses. This approach, known as constitutional AI, aims to handle sensitive information carefully and consistently for better-curated responses.

Who Uses Claude?

Claude has broad appeal for personal and business use alike, but it particularly excels in executing complex tasks and analyzing large quantities of data. As an ethically informed generative AI platform, Claude’s use is breaking ground in sensitive industries like legal, financial, and medical. Technology and software organizations are also significant enterprise users, with professionals relying on the tool for coding efficiencies.

What Is Claude Used For?

Claude is uniquely adept at working with code, summarizing large volumes of data to streamline programming and help professional developers problem-solve. Similarly, it also stands out as a debugging tool to help troubleshoot coding errors. When users place a problem in front of Claude, they expect to leave with better understanding and tangible takeaways they can use in their work.

Microsoft Copilot Use Cases

Known as “Bing Chat” in its infancy, Microsoft Copilot is an amalgamation of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence capabilities, with iterations designed for searches in web browsers as well as enterprise applications, which are bundled into the Microsoft365 Copilot platform. The Copilot brand has been growing since 2023, with Microsoft365 Copilot as the most widely adopted enterprise version preferred in workplaces today. While it does offer base capabilities from a web browser, the AI tool is most useful for individuals or businesses with a Microsoft account, providing robust support and automation capabilities within the Microsoft Office Suite.

Who Uses Copilot?

According to Microsoft, many Fortune 500 companies have experimented with Microsoft Copilot’s enterprise use cases for tailored business efficiencies. With growing usage across small businesses, as well, professionals operating within the Microsoft Office Suite like Word, Teams, and Outlook gain an AI partner for workplace success.

What Is Copilot Used For?

Acting as an AI assistant embedded in the Microsoft Office Suite, professionals gain value from Copilot as a tool to summarize content, analyze data, and automate routine tasks within their daily workflow. As one of the most-used AI tools for enterprise applications, Copilot enhances efficiencies using workplace-specific data to tailor its use cases for the individual and the business as a whole.

Gemini Use Cases

Originally branded as Google’s “Bard,” the tool that has since become Gemini launched in December of 2023, before being rebranded as Gemini in February 2024. Google has a long history of using artificial intelligence in its algorithms to serve users with the most relevant results, but Gemini is Google’s contribution to the growing prominence of generative AI platforms. Gemini informs the AI Overview snippets that appear directly in search results, but it also has its own conversational capabilities to help contextualize concepts for users. 

Who Uses Gemini?

Gemini is one of the most-used AI tools today due to its integration with Google, the search engine giant itself. Android and Google users embedded in Google’s digital ecosystem, including Gmail, Docs, and YouTube, use the tool directly from within the Google Suite. However, its most prominent application is powering AI search capabilities like AI Overviews and Google AI Mode in search results. Even if users aren’t interacting with Gemini directly, it still has a powerful reach, pulling in various sources to support its original responses to user queries.

What Is Gemini Used For?

Gemini’s use cases vary between individual users and businesses, but it has proven itself as a useful AI tool for personalized experiences across Google’s platforms. Whether it’s serving up highly specific answers for niche user queries in Google’s Overview or assisting with email drafts in Gmail, Gemini enables a tailored experience today’s users are learning to expect in an increasingly savvy digital world. This includes real-time image generation to edit and refine an image based on user prompts, giving users creative capabilities with its ability to understand text and visual cues.

The Opportunity: Get In Front Of Savvy Users With Generative Engine Optimization

While the different AI tools taking over the digital landscape are still growing, generative engine optimization (GEO) has emerged as a strategic evolution to complement search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Where SEO positions website content for visibility in traditional search engines, GEO focuses on driving success in generative search platforms like the most popular generative tools we listed above. Here, success isn’t as clear-cut as your website ranking in a top position in search, but rather ensuring your website has valuable content these AI platforms can pull from to source and cite while they engage users in conversational chats.

Providing value has always been what SEO is about, too, but GEO offers value in a more relational, contextual way, creating different opportunities for brand visibility. As generative search becomes the new norm, businesses must strategically optimize content for AI search and traditional search platforms to execute a successful content strategy.

Work With Blue Compass For Strategic GEO Solutions To Optimize Content For AI Search

With our strong background in technical and on-page SEO, our team at Blue Compass is at the forefront of GEO best practices, providing ongoing guidance to help businesses keep up with evolving AI technology. We’re here to help businesses balance SEO and GEO to future-proof digital marketing strategies as a trusted brand. Our generative engine optimization services help optimize your content for AI search, while remaining true to proven SEO principles to maintain prominent positions in traditional search. Contact us to learn more about how generative AI platforms are impacting the future of marketing or to get started with GEO.