Tech & Digital in the Age of AI Search: iPhone Endures, Google Decays, ChatGPT Emerges

When consumers ask “What’s the best smartphone?” or “Which platform is best for hybrid work?” inside ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, they don’t see ten blue links. They see one or two names.

The AIVO 100™ — Tech & Digital ranking shows how AI assistants are rewriting brand visibility across the digital ecosystem. The results highlight entrenched dominance (Apple, Microsoft) but also structural vulnerabilities (Google, Zoom) — and the first entry of AI-native platforms into the Top 10.

Key Findings from the Tech & Digital Top 10

• Apple iPhone (PSOS 94) — Highest score in the entire AIVO 100, with <5% decay across 90 days, double the persistence of most peers. Yet the muted reception of the iPhone 17 raises questions about whether cultural momentum — the fuel for AI recall — is beginning to flatten.
• Microsoft Teams (89) — Strong hybrid work visibility, with recall resilience above 80% across assistants.
• Google Search (88) — Still widely cited, but 40% recall decay in 60 days — the steepest among Big Tech incumbents — as assistants displace traditional search.
• Amazon Alexa (86) — Top-ranked in smart home prompts, though under-indexed in Asia.
• Netflix (84) — High global recall but volatile; -15% in Asian prompts in one quarter.
• Spotify (82) — Over-indexes in Europe, with +85% positive sentiment in music discovery.
• Instagram (81) & YouTube (80) — Strong lifestyle recall, but highly volatile as youth culture narratives shift.
• Zoom (78) — Sharpest decline in the set; -30% visibility in 90 days as hybrid work prompts fade.
• ChatGPT (77) — First AI-native brand to break into the Tech & Digital Top 10, displacing legacy platforms in discovery queries.

Analysis

1.    Category leaders endure — but not forever. Apple’s unmatched PSOS reflects deep cultural embedding, but the flat uptake of the iPhone 17 suggests future erosion is possible if product cycles fail to refresh narrative density.

2.    Incumbents can decay quickly. Google’s 40% recall drop shows how fast default positions vanish once AI assistants redefine the discovery layer.

3.    Cultural volatility drives churn. Netflix, Spotify, Instagram, and YouTube rise and fall with narrative cycles, making visibility harder to stabilize.

4.    AI-native disruption begins. ChatGPT’s entry signals the structural shift: brands built inside the AI ecosystem are now competing head-on with digital incumbents.

Governance Implications

For digital platforms, AI visibility is as material as DAUs or ARPU.

• Persistence gaps must be monitored quarterly — Zoom’s -30% decay is the cautionary benchmark.
• Sentiment signals harden over time — Spotify’s +85% positive sentiment is a moat; Tesla-style negatives show how quickly the reverse can stick.
• Narrative cycles matter — even Apple is not immune if product launches fail to sustain momentum.

In AI search, recall isn’t inherited — it must be renewed. Lost visibility equals lost users.

👉 Explore the full AIVO 100™ — Tech & Digital ranking here: AIVOStandard.org

📩 If you’d like to see how your own brand appears in AI assistants — and how to protect and grow that visibility — contact us to request a verified AIVO audit.

References

Sheals, P. (2025). AIVO Methodology v3.0. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17077554
Sheals, P. (2025). PSOS™ Methodology v1.0. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17081529
AIVO 100™ Global Index of Brand Visibility Across AI Assistants, 2025.

The AIVO Standard™ is the first governance benchmark for AI visibility, providing reproducible, audit-grade measurement of brand presence in large language models via the Prompt-Space Occupancy Score (PSOS™)