AI Visibility Rankings · Analytics

Customer research platforms: AI search visibility ranking (2026)

How AI search engines rank customer research platforms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Customer research platforms used to gather feedback, recruit participants, run studies, and surface actionable insight for product and marketing teams. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Refreshed Jul 02, 2026

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity answer questions about customer research platforms, SurveyMonkey comes up most often, appearing in 12.5% of relevant AI responses across the 20 brands tracked. Respondent and Maze round out the top three, though with noticeably lower visibility. If someone asks an AI assistant to recommend a customer research tool today, SurveyMonkey is the name they are most likely to hear first.

The rankings reflect which sources AI engines treat as authoritative. The top cited domains include youtube.com, gwi.com, rivaltech.com, greenbook.org, and thecxlead.com. These are a mix of industry research publishers and niche analyst sites rather than mainstream review aggregators like G2 or Capterra. That means AI visibility here is driven more by editorial coverage and thought leadership content than by star ratings or user review volume.

For a buyer using this page to choose a platform, the rankings are a useful signal but not the whole picture. A brand that appears frequently in AI answers has earned topical authority through third-party coverage and published research. Check whether a platform you are considering has recent coverage on the sources listed above, since AI engines weight those domains heavily and that coverage often surfaces specific use-case strengths that a vendor's own website will not highlight.

At a glance

Category leader SurveyMonkey 12% visibility · named in 1 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand SurveyMonkey 12% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in customer research platforms

Top cited domain youtube.com Referenced by AI across the customer research platforms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 12pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 18 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this categoryauto-generated

SurveyMonkey sits alone at the top with a composite score of 12.5, the only brand matching both visibility and citation at 12.5% each. Respondent shares the same visibility figure but records zero citation, giving it a composite of 8.8. That gap between rank 1 and rank 3 is steep: Maze, Lyssna, User Interviews, and QuestionPro all score 3.8, while seven other tracked brands including Qualtrics and UserTesting score zero. The category average visibility is just 1.2%, making SurveyMonkey roughly ten times more visible than the mean.

A clear divergence exists between being named and being cited. Respondent appears in AI responses at 12.5% but receives no source citations, suggesting Google AI Mode mentions it conversationally without linking to its domain. Conversely, Maze, Lyssna, User Interviews, and QuestionPro each hold 12.5% citation rates despite zero visibility scores, meaning AI cites their content as a source without naming them as recommended platforms. This named-versus-trusted split is a defining structural pattern in this category.

All ten tracked brands list Google AI Mode as their top engine, confirming the audit is anchored entirely on that single engine. The top cited sources in the category are third-party properties: youtube.com, gwi.com, rivaltech.com, greenbook.org, thecxlead.com, cometly.com, getperspective.ai, and quantilope.com. None of these are the primary domains of the ranked brands themselves, which means Google AI Mode is drawing category authority from independent review and research sites rather than from the platforms being evaluated.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

SurveyMonkey 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #1
+12pp
Respondent 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #2
+12pp

The ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	SurveyMonkey surveymonkey.com	12%	12%	Google AI Mode
SurveyMonkey is the only brand with matched visibility and citation both at 12.5%, roughly ten times the category average visibility of 1.2%, and a new entrant this period.
2	Respondent respondent.io	12%	0%	Google AI Mode
Respondent matches SurveyMonkey on visibility at 12.5% but records zero citation, producing a composite of 8.8 versus SurveyMonkey's 12.5, a significant trust gap.
3	Maze maze.co	0%	12%	Google AI Mode
Maze holds a 12.5% citation rate despite zero visibility, meaning Google AI Mode references its content as a source but never names it as a recommended platform.
4	Lyssna lyssna.com	0%	12%	Google AI Mode
Lyssna mirrors Maze exactly with 0% visibility and 12.5% citation, sharing a composite score of 3.8 and indicating its domain is cited but the brand is not surfaced by name.
5	User Interviews userinterviews.com	0%	12%	Google AI Mode
User Interviews also scores 0% visibility and 12.5% citation, identical to Maze and Lyssna, suggesting a cluster of citation-only brands with no named AI presence at rank 3-5.
6	QuestionPro questionpro.com	0%	12%	Google AI Mode
7	Qualtrics qualtrics.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	UserTesting usertesting.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Sprig sprig.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	Survicate survicate.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Hotjar hotjar.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	Typeform typeform.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	Dovetail dovetail.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Wynter wynter.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	dscout dscout.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	Great Question greatquestion.co	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Askable askable.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Alchemer alchemer.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	Fuel Cycle fuelcycle.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	Discuss discuss.io	0%	0%	Google AI Mode

Sources AI engines trust in this category

Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on customer research platforms, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.

youtube.comgwi.comrivaltech.comgreenbook.orgthecxlead.comcometly.comgetperspective.aiquantilope.com

How to read this ranking

Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.

Visibility = being named

A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →

Citation rate = being trusted

Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →

Top engine differs by brand

The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →

Rankings move month to month

AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →

Get your own customer research platforms brand audited

The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.

Audit your customer research platforms brand → Browse all rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about customer research platforms AI visibility

Who leads AI visibility in the customer research platforms category?

SurveyMonkey leads with a composite score of 12.5, the only brand achieving both 12.5% visibility and 12.5% citation. Respondent ranks second with a composite of 8.8, driven by visibility alone.

What is the average AI visibility score for customer research platforms?

The category average visibility is 1.2% and the average citation rate is 3.1%, making it a low-visibility category where most brands score zero.

Which brands are cited by AI but never named as recommended platforms?

Maze, Lyssna, User Interviews, and QuestionPro each record 12.5% citation but 0% visibility, meaning Google AI Mode uses their content as a source without naming them as platform recommendations.

What sources does Google AI Mode anchor on for customer research platform queries?

The top cited sources are third-party properties including youtube.com, gwi.com, rivaltech.com, greenbook.org, and thecxlead.com, none of which are the primary domains of the ranked platforms.

Are any major brands like Qualtrics or UserTesting visible in Google AI Mode for this category?

No. Qualtrics, UserTesting, Sprig, and Survicate all record 0% visibility and 0% citation, giving them a composite score of zero despite being well-known platforms.

Which brands showed the biggest AI visibility gains in the most recent period?

SurveyMonkey and Respondent are the only brands listed as visibility risers, both moving from 0% to 12.5% visibility, making them new entrants to AI-visible status this period.