Somantra finds Google AI and ChatGPT disagree on Australia’s top insurance brand

By AI, Created 5:20 PM UTC, May 18, 2026, /AGP/ – New research from Somantra says AI search is reshaping how Australians discover insurance brands, with Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT naming different top recommendations most of the time. The report tracked more than 34,000 AI search conversations across 18 brands and found major visibility gaps, especially on ChatGPT.

Why it matters: - AI search is becoming a new channel for brand discovery in insurance, and Somantra’s report suggests the winners are not always the brands that lead traditional SEO. - The findings show that recommendation patterns differ sharply across platforms, which could change where insurers invest for visibility, trust and consumer acquisition. - Somantra says 84.1% of detailed insurance questions on ChatGPT produced no brand mention, pointing to a large pool of unanswered demand.

What happened: - Somantra released an AI Search Visibility Report on May 11, 2026, analysing how Australian insurance brands appear across AI search tools including ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. - The research tracked 18 insurance brands across more than 34,000 real consumer AI search conversations. - NRMA led total AI search visibility with 12,522 mentions. - Allianz followed with 12,477 mentions. - AAMI ranked third with 11,878 mentions. - Budget Direct ranked fourth with 9,765 mentions. - Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT agreed on the top recommended insurance brand only 34.5% of the time. - In nearly two out of three overlapping conversations, the two platforms picked different brands as the top recommendation.

The details: - Budget Direct received about three times more mentions on Google AI Overviews than on ChatGPT. - Bingle was the only major brand found to be more visible on ChatGPT than on Google AI Overviews. - Ozicare, ING, Qantas Insurance and Coles Insurance had minimal ChatGPT visibility despite existing SEO presence. - On ChatGPT, NRMA, Allianz, AAMI and RACV accounted for 50% of all insurance mentions. - On Google AI Overviews, Allianz, AAMI, NRMA and Budget Direct made up 50% of mentions. - Canstar was the most cited source overall for insurance recommendations. - Reddit ranked as ChatGPT’s third most trusted source for insurance advice, ahead of many traditional publisher and comparison sites. - Car insurance generated 27,353 total AI mentions. - Home insurance generated 21,746 mentions. - Motorcycle insurance generated 14,528 mentions. - Pet insurance and life insurance were significantly underserved categories. - The report gave examples of high-intent unanswered prompts including how to claim pet insurance for overseas pets, what car insurance discounts are available for new cars, and how to insure a motorcycle with a history of accidents.

Between the lines: - The report suggests AI systems are concentrating attention around a small group of dominant brands, which could make early visibility gains harder for lagging insurers. - Somantra argues the shift is moving digital marketing from ranking websites to influencing the sources AI models trust, learn from and cite. - The concentration of brandless answers shows a gap that insurers may try to fill through answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization. - The strongest opportunities may be in underserved verticals where competition for AI mentions is still relatively open.

What’s next: - Somantra says AI search is evolving into a multi-turn conversational funnel, where brand consideration develops during the conversation rather than through static rankings. - Insurers that want more AI visibility may need to adapt their content, authority signals and source strategy to perform across multiple AI platforms. - More brands are likely to test how they appear in both Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT as AI search becomes more important in consumer decision-making.

The bottom line: - In Australian insurance, AI search visibility is no longer a single leaderboard. The same brand can win on one platform and lose on another, and that gap may now matter as much as traditional search rankings.