ChatGPT Recommends Your Competitor, Not You. Here's the Uncomfortable Reason Why.

TL;DR

If ChatGPT doesn’t mention your SaaS when users ask for recommendations, it’s because you lack presence in the sources LLMs use. This is fixable, but requires understanding where AI recommendations actually come from and building presence in those places over time.

You just asked ChatGPT to recommend project management tools. Your competitor showed up. You didn’t.

That’s not random. That’s a signal. And if you ignore it, you’re ceding ground in the fastest-growing discovery channel for B2B software.

I talk to SaaS founders every week who are baffled by this. They have a great product. They have customers who love them. But AI assistants act like they don’t exist.

Here’s why. And more importantly, here’s what to do about it.

The Visibility Gap

AI Visibility Gap

The difference between how often your product should be recommended based on quality and how often it actually gets recommended by AI assistants. Most SaaS companies have a significant gap because they’ve neglected the signals that LLMs rely on.

LLMs don’t browse your website. They don’t read your marketing copy. They don’t know you exist unless you exist in their training data.

That training data comes from: - Reddit discussions - Forum threads - Review sites - Technical documentation - News articles - Academic and industry publications

If you’re not present in these sources, you’re invisible to AI. Understanding how LLMs actually pick software to recommend is the first step toward fixing this.

The Five Reasons You’re Not Getting Mentioned

1. Insufficient Reddit Presence

This is the number one cause. LLMs are heavily trained on Reddit data. When someone asks for software recommendations, the AI is essentially synthesizing thousands of Reddit threads where users asked similar questions.

If your product rarely appears in those threads, or appears with low upvotes, you won’t make the recommendation.

68% of ChatGPT product recommendations (Internal Research 2025)

can be traced to patterns in Reddit discussions.

2. No Recent Mentions

LLMs increasingly use retrieval systems that weight recent information. If all your mentions are from 2023, you’re competing with products that have active 2025-2026 discussions.

Recency signals that you’re still relevant, still being discussed, still worth recommending.

3. Vague Positioning

LLMs match products to specific queries. “We help businesses succeed” doesn’t match anything. “CRM for real estate agencies under 50 agents” matches specific queries.

If your positioning is generic, LLMs can’t confidently match you to specific questions.

4. Lack of Comparison Content

When users ask “What’s better, Tool A or Tool B?”, LLMs look for content that directly compares those tools. If no one’s comparing you to competitors, you don’t appear in comparison queries.

5. Negative Signal Ratio

LLMs see everything. If the discussions about your product are more negative than positive, that affects recommendations. This isn’t just about star ratings. It’s about the sentiment in actual discussions.

Diagnosing Your Specific Problem

AI Visibility Audit

How to identify why you're not getting AI recommendations

Test Current Visibility

Ask ChatGPT and Claude: “What are the best tools for [your category]?” and “What’s a good [your category] for [your target customer]?” Note whether you appear and how you’re described.

Search Reddit

Search Reddit for your brand, your category, and your competitors. Count how many threads mention you versus competitors. Note the sentiment and upvote counts.

Check Review Sites

Look at your presence on G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius. How many reviews do you have? How recent are they? How do you compare to competitors?

Analyze Positioning

Read your own website as if you were an AI trying to understand what you do. Is it clear? Specific? Could you confidently recommend yourself for a specific use case based on this?

Identify the Gap

Based on this audit, which factor is your biggest weakness? That’s where you need to focus.

The Path to Visibility

Once you’ve identified your gaps, here’s how to address them:

If Reddit Presence is the Problem

Start participating in relevant subreddits. Not promoting, just helping. Answer questions. Share insights. Build reputation over 6+ months before ever mentioning your product. Our Reddit marketing playbook walks through this process step by step, and you should also know the common Reddit marketing mistakes to avoid.

If you can’t invest that time, consider agencies with established Reddit presence who can participate authentically on your behalf.

If Recency is the Problem

Reignite discussions. Launch features publicly. Encourage customers to share their experiences. Create newsworthy moments that generate fresh mentions.

Activity breeds activity. One good launch thread can trigger ongoing discussion.

If Positioning is the Problem

Get specific. Pick your ideal customer segment and own it completely. “Best CRM for solopreneurs” beats “CRM software” every time.

Update your website, docs, and profiles with this specific positioning. Consistency across sources reinforces the association. For detailed tactics on this, see how to optimize your landing page for LLM recommendations.

If Comparisons are Missing

Create honest comparison content on your own site. Encourage users to write about their experience switching to you. Participate in comparison threads on Reddit with balanced takes.

If Sentiment is Negative

Address the underlying issues. Respond to criticism publicly and constructively. Ship fixes for common complaints. Let improved product quality change the conversation over time.

The Timeline Reality

Here’s what most founders don’t want to hear: fixing AI visibility takes 6-12 months minimum.

LLMs retrain periodically. The conversations that feed those training updates need time to accumulate. Building Reddit presence can’t be rushed without triggering spam detection.

This is a long game. The companies winning AI visibility in 2026 started building their presence in 2024. To quantify exactly where you stand versus your competition, run a competitive AI visibility audit and track your progress with a systematic AI mention tracking process.

But here’s the good news: starting late is better than not starting at all. And your competitors who aren’t working on this will fall further behind.

Can I pay for AI visibility?

Not directly. You can’t buy placement in ChatGPT responses. You can invest in authentic presence building through agencies, customer activation programs, and content marketing that eventually feeds AI training data.

What if I have a new product with no presence?

New products face the cold start problem. Focus on building authentic discussions quickly through launch campaigns, beta user communities, and founder participation in relevant forums. It takes longer, but it’s possible.

Do LLMs favor certain types of products?

LLMs favor products that are discussed clearly and positively. B2B products with clear use cases and active user communities tend to get better recommendations than products with vague positioning or quiet customer bases.

Key Takeaways

AI recommendations come from training data, primarily Reddit and review sites
The five common causes: low Reddit presence, outdated mentions, vague positioning, no comparisons, negative sentiment
Audit your visibility by testing ChatGPT queries and searching Reddit
Address your specific gaps with targeted tactics
Timeline is 6-12 months minimum for meaningful improvement
Starting late is still better than not starting
You cannot buy AI visibility, only build it