How often does AI recommend against a brand?
Rarely. Of 1,290,741 reviewed AI statements about brands, 5,403 said a brand was not recommended for the stated need.
AI recommends against a brand in only 0.42% of reviewed statements
Negative claims and explicit rejections
- Negative claim6.5%
- Explicit rejection0.42%
AI recommends against a brand in only 0.42% of reviewed statements
A reviewed statement is one brand described in one sentence of an AI answer, using cleaned brand names so that aliases count as the same brand. An explicit rejection is a statement that says the brand is not recommended for the stated need.
The Parse index contains 5,403 explicit rejections across 1,290,741 reviewed statements. Explicit rejection is too rare to use as a general measure of negative brand language.
Negative claims are much more common than explicit rejection
A negative claim is a criticism or limitation recorded in the same reviewed statement. The Parse index contains 84,531 statements with a negative claim, or 6.5%. It contains 5,403 explicit rejections, or 0.42%.
BrightEdge reports negative sentiment by engine. This study measures the narrower decision that a brand is not recommended for a stated need. The two measures should not be combined.
- statements with a negative claim
- 84,531statements with a negative claim6.5%
- explicit rejections
- 5,403explicit rejections0.42%
Takeaway
Only 1.2% of answers contain an explicit rejection
The explicit rejections appear in 3,816 of 314,909 answers. They appear somewhere in 2,308 of 16,769 prompts, or 13.8%, because prompts were run more than once.
A prompt can produce an explicit rejection on one run and omit it on another. The answer rate measures what a user saw in one response.
- answers with an explicit rejection
- 1.2%answers with an explicit rejection3,816 of 314,909
- prompts with any explicit rejection
- 13.8%prompts with any explicit rejection2,308 of 16,769
ChatGPT Search has the highest rejection rate
ChatGPT Search has a 0.71% rejection rate. ChatGPT is at 0.43%, Google AI Mode at 0.26%, and Google AI Overviews at 0.12%.
These rates count individual statements, and each engine produced a different mix of statements about brands. One average across all engines would hide the engine difference.
ChatGPT Search has the highest rejection rate
Rejection rate by engine
- ChatGPT Search0.71%
- ChatGPT0.43%
- Google AI Mode0.26%
- Google AI Overviews0.12%
The gap between the two current engines holds on the same 15,996 prompts
We restricted ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode to the same 15,996 organic prompts. ChatGPT Search has a 0.71% rejection rate across 495,970 reviewed statements. Google AI Mode has a 0.27% rate across 487,876 statements.
These matched prompts, meaning the same prompts asked on both engines, remove different questions as the full explanation. The engines can still name different brands and produce different numbers of statements.
- ChatGPT Search
- 0.71%ChatGPT Search3,522 of 495,970 statements
- Google AI Mode
- 0.27%Google AI Mode1,291 of 487,876 statements
- organic prompts measured on both engines
- 15,996organic prompts measured on both engines
Risk warnings explain 17.9% of explicit rejections
No reason was recorded for 44.1% of explicit rejections. Risk warnings account for 17.9%, inferior comparisons 15.6%, conditional decisions 15.1%, fallbacks 6.8%, and budget-only decisions 0.31%.
A reason can tell a marketer whether the problem is safety, fit, comparison, or price. The group with no recorded reason needs a look at the actual sentences.
Risk warnings explain 17.9% of explicit rejections
Reason mix for explicit rejections
- No reason recorded44.1%
- Risk warning17.9%
- Inferior comparison15.6%
- Conditional15.1%
- Fallback6.8%
- Budget only0.31%
Takeaway
Workflow needs have the lowest rejection rate of the labeled needs
General needs have a 0.47% rejection rate. Pricing and contract needs are at 0.28%, feature requirements at 0.26%, and workflow needs at 0.09%.
A buyer-need type is the repeated purpose behind a prompt. The result shows where an explicit rejection appears, not which need type has more demand.
Workflow needs have the lowest rejection rate of the labeled needs
Rejection rate by buyer-need type
- General0.47%
- Pricing and contract0.28%
- Feature requirement0.26%
- Workflow0.09%
Blockchain and food brands have the highest large-group rates
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency has a 1.1% rejection rate. Food and Beverage is at 1.0%, Privacy and Security at 0.92%, and Financial Services at 0.80%.
Sales and Marketing is at 0.19%. Compare industry groups only after checking the sample threshold and the brands included in each group.
Blockchain and food brands have the highest large-group rates
Highest and lowest industry-group rates that met the threshold
- Blockchain and Cryptocurrency1.1%
- Food and Beverage1.0%
- Privacy and Security0.92%
- Financial Services0.80%
- Media and Entertainment0.23%
- Manufacturing0.22%
- Professional Services0.20%
- Sales and Marketing0.19%
Datadog and Jira Software have the most explicit rejections
Datadog has 74 explicit rejections across 4,272 reviewed statements. Jira Software has 69 across 2,800. ClickUp has 42. HelloFresh and PayPal each have 38.
This table ranks volume, not risk. Brands with more statements about them have more chances to appear in an explicit rejection.
Datadog and Jira Software have the most explicit rejections
Brands by number of explicit rejections
| Datadog | 74 | 4,272 | 1.73 |
| Jira Software | 69 | 2,800 | 2.46 |
| ClickUp | 42 | 4,284 | 0.98 |
| HelloFresh | 38 | 715 | 5.31 |
| PayPal | 38 | 623 | 6.1 |
| Splunk | 36 | 1,182 | 3.05 |
| Salesforce | 34 | 2,186 | 1.56 |
| Ethereum | 34 | 1,098 | 3.1 |
| BetterHelp | 33 | 610 | 5.41 |
| Trupanion | 27 | 507 | 5.33 |
| Tether | 27 | 406 | 6.65 |
| DraftKings | 23 | 1,707 | 1.35 |
| FanDuel | 23 | 1,270 | 1.81 |
| Talkspace | 22 | 795 | 2.77 |
| Notion | 21 | 4,113 | 0.51 |
| GoDaddy | 21 | 131 | 16.03 |
| Asana | 19 | 3,187 | 0.6 |
| Atlassian | 19 | 1,091 | 1.74 |
| Solana | 19 | 729 | 2.61 |
| ADP | 18 | 679 | 2.65 |
Blur and OpenSea have the highest rates among brands with enough data
Blur has an 8.8% rejection rate across 204 reviewed statements. OpenSea is at 7.2% across 249. Tether is at 6.7%, PayPal at 6.1%, and Healthy Paws Pet Insurance at 5.7%.
The rate table requires at least 200 reviewed statements and 10 explicit rejections. The threshold removes small samples from the leaderboard.
Blur and OpenSea have the highest rates among brands with enough data
Brands by rejection rate
| Blur | 8.82 | 18 | 204 |
| OpenSea | 7.23 | 18 | 249 |
| Tether | 6.65 | 27 | 406 |
| PayPal | 6.1 | 38 | 623 |
| Healthy Paws Pet Insurance | 5.69 | 14 | 246 |
| Bitcoin | 5.47 | 18 | 329 |
| BetterHelp | 5.41 | 33 | 610 |
| Factor | 5.36 | 17 | 317 |
| Trupanion | 5.33 | 27 | 507 |
| HelloFresh | 5.31 | 38 | 715 |
| Jenkins | 4.85 | 11 | 227 |
| ASPCA | 4.26 | 11 | 258 |
| Green Chef | 4.22 | 17 | 403 |
| Novo | 4.19 | 14 | 334 |
| Embrace Pet Insurance | 3.61 | 11 | 305 |
| Robinhood | 3.53 | 18 | 510 |
| Elasticsearch | 3.5 | 15 | 429 |
| Vanguard | 3.36 | 14 | 417 |
| EveryPlate | 3.25 | 14 | 431 |
| Ethereum | 3.1 | 34 | 1,098 |
We left out statements that were unclear or unverified
The measured set contained 1,864,552 candidate statements and five duplicate records. We counted each record once.
We excluded 162,188 statements from prompts outside the organic prompt set, 272,043 statements we could not match to a known brand, and 155,946 statements that had not passed source review. These groups can overlap. That leaves 1,290,741 reviewed statements as the base for every rate here.
- candidate statements
- 1,864,552candidate statements
- outside the organic prompt set
- 162,188outside the organic prompt set
- with no matching known brand
- 272,043with no matching known brand
- did not pass source review
- 155,946did not pass source review
- reviewed statements included
- 1,290,741reviewed statements included
What marketers should do
The Parse index contains explicit rejections for 2,557 distinct brands across 2,308 prompts. A general sentiment score cannot show which buyer need produced the decision.
Audit the answer sentence, buyer need, and reason when a brand is explicitly rejected. Correct a factual error when the answer is wrong. Address the product limitation when the answer is accurate. Then rerun the same prompt across the same engines.
- distinct brands explicitly rejected
- 2,557distinct brands explicitly rejected
- prompts with any explicit rejection
- 2,308prompts with any explicit rejection
Takeaway
How we measured
We analyzed 1,290,741 reviewed statements across 314,909 AI answers, 16,769 organic prompts, and 139,399 distinct brands on ChatGPT, ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode from October 19, 2025 through July 9, 2026.
- rejection rate
- 0.42%rejection rate
- reviewed AI statements about brands
- 1.3Mreviewed AI statements about brands
- explicit rejections
- 5,403explicit rejections
- distinct brands explicitly rejected
- 2,557distinct brands explicitly rejected
Get the data
Sources
These are the pages this study used.
- BrightEdge: Google AI Overviews are 44% more likely to criticize brands than ChatGPT · accessed July 16, 2026
- Semrush: 2026 AI search methodology · accessed July 16, 2026
- EMNLP 2025: Bias beware in product recommendations · accessed July 16, 2026
- Consumer product recommendation bias in large language models · accessed July 16, 2026