While Philippine brands lead with an 83% visibility rate in AI answers, Spiralytics reveals that 95% of those recommendations rely on third-party sources rather than the brands’ websites.
MANILA, Philippines — September 10, 2026 — Philippine companies appeared in 83.2% of the AI answers they should have been part of, versus 40% for a comparison group of US brands, according to a 2026 study by digital marketing agency Spiralytics.
Conducted between June 4 and August 3, 2026, the study generated 1,146 real buyer questions for 26 brands, screened each one, and judged every winnable question across ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity, reading and storing all 1,911 answers. It pointed to an opening for local businesses as consumers shift from traditional search to conversational AI. A brand named in AI answers is emerging as a second scoreboard in online presence and visibility alongside traditional SEO.
Spiralytics highlights a structural gap for marketing and corporate communications: 95% of the sources AI engines cited when answering about Philippine products and services do not belong to the brands themselves. Instead, the engines rely on third-party editorial coverage, news, industry roundups, and online directories.
“Surprisingly, backlink authority did not predict AI visibility anywhere in our data,” says Gabe Tagala, Head of SEO at Spiralytics. “It does not mean SEO is obsolete. Links still matter where rankings live. But AI keeps a different score: whether the engine can tell which company you are, and if reputable third parties can vouch for you,” he continues.
Key Findings from the 2026 Study
- Engines behave like different editors. Google Gemini was the most brand-friendly for Philippine queries with a 62.6% mention rate, followed by Perplexity at 57.4% and ChatGPT at 45.2%.
- Absence is sticky. Philippine brands are not in the three engines’ responses for 1 in 6 commercial questions they should have appeared in. In repeat testing on one brand across 11 identical runs, 90% of unanswered questions stayed unanswered every time, suggesting that AI omission persists until the brand’s identity or third-party coverage changes.
- Local naming is a struggle. Engines confused Philippine entities with overseas namesakes, declined to commit to who a company is, or folded subsidiaries into their parent conglomerates.
In the US comparison group, competitor websites already hold 60.7% of AI citations; in Philippine answers, they hold 36%, leaving the editorial and directory layer largely unclaimed. While citation opportunities remain, Spiralytics recommends local brands strengthen their entity signals, earn media coverage, and actively track their digital footprint.
“This window won’t stay open,” says Jimmy Cassells, co-founder and CEO of Spiralytics. “Brands who will move now and treat SERP and AI visibility as a connected strategy are the ones that will still be recommended a year from now,” he adds.
For businesses looking to evaluate their current standing in AI search results, access Spiralytics’ free AI visibility scan that runs a brand’s real buyer questions through ChatGPT and reports where their name appears and who is recommended instead.
The full study, methodology, and honesty notes are available at https://www.spiralytics.com/blog/ai-search-philippines-study/.