Who AI recommendsOriginal data, captured 24 Oct 2026

Who AI recommends for AI customer support software

What Google AI Mode and Perplexity named, in order, when asked “best AI customer support software for startups 2026”, and the pages they cited.

By Shruti Kaushik · Download the dataset (JSON)

Asked “best AI customer support software for startups 2026” on 24 October 2026, Google AI Mode named 6 vendors, led by Zendesk AI, Intercom (Fin AI) and Help Scout, and Perplexity named 7, led by Intercom Fin, Freshdesk Freddy AI and Tidio Lyro. 3 of the 10 vendors appeared in both answers, but they split on first place: Zendesk AI for Google AI Mode, Intercom Fin for Perplexity.

Captured on: Google AI Mode 24 October 2026, 19:55 IST; Perplexity 24 October 2026, 19:56 IST.

Which AI customer support software does Google AI Mode recommend for startups?

Google AI Mode named 6 vendors for “best AI customer support software for startups 2026” on 24 October 2026, in this order: Zendesk AI, Intercom (Fin AI), Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Gorgias and My AskAI. Zendesk AI came first. 3 of the 6 names carried a link in the answer. The answer cited 5 sources from 5 domains.

#	Vendor, as named	Link in answer
1	Zendesk AI	zendesk.com/in/service/ticketing-system/customer-service-management-software
2	Intercom (Fin AI)Own site also cited	fin.ai/learn/best-ai-customer-support-software
3	Help Scout	None shown
4	HubSpot Service Hub	hubspot.com/inbound-marketing-for-consumer-goods
5	Gorgias	None shown
6	My AskAIOwn site also cited	None shown

Also mentioned, not counted as picks: Freshdesk (mentioned as a helpdesk My AskAI plugs into).

Which AI customer support software does Perplexity recommend for startups?

Perplexity named 7 vendors for the same question, in this order: Intercom Fin, Freshdesk Freddy AI, Tidio Lyro, Zendesk AI, Help Scout AI, Chatbase and Nextiva. Intercom Fin came first. Its Links tab listed 13 sources from 12 domains. The answer was personalised: it addressed the signed-in account’s own company by name. A logged-out buyer may see a different list.

#	Vendor, as named	Link in answer
1	Intercom Fin	None shown
2	Freshdesk Freddy AI	None shown
3	Tidio Lyro	None shown
4	Zendesk AI	None shown
5	Help Scout AI	None shown
6	ChatbaseOwn site also cited	None shown
7	NextivaOwn site also cited	None shown

Personalisation seen on screen: Answer included a "My recommendation for Klype" section. Vendors that appeared only in that personalised part are listed as mentions, not picks.

Do Google AI Mode and Perplexity agree?

3 of the 10 distinct vendors named appeared in both answers: Zendesk AI, Intercom (Fin AI) and Help Scout. They split on first place: Google AI Mode led with Zendesk AI, Perplexity with Intercom Fin. Only Google AI Mode named HubSpot Service Hub, Gorgias and My AskAI. Only Perplexity named Freshdesk Freddy AI, Tidio Lyro, Chatbase and Nextiva.

Vendor	Google AI Mode	Perplexity
Zendesk AI	#1	#4
Intercom (Fin AI)	#2	#1
Help Scout	#3	#5
HubSpot Service Hub	#4	Not named
Gorgias	#5	Not named
My AskAI	#6	Not named
Freshdesk Freddy AI	Not named	#2
Tidio Lyro	Not named	#3
Chatbase	Not named	#6
Nextiva	Not named	#7

Which sources did the AI answers cite?

Google AI Mode cited 5 sources and Perplexity cited 13, with no domain in common. Not one cited page appeared in both lists. Vendor pages were the most common source type, with 14 of 18 citations, followed by publisher articles with 3. Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn together supplied 1. G2 and Capterra-style review sites supplied none.

Cited domain and type	Google	Perplexity
sobot.ioVendor page	0	2
blog.hubspot.comVendor page	0	1
businesswire.comPublisher	0	1
chatbase.coVendor page	0	1
cloudtalk.ioVendor page	1	0
fin.aiVendor page	1	0
geekflare.comPublisher	0	1
gumloop.comVendor page	0	1
infobip.comVendor page	0	1
lindy.aiVendor page	1	0
murf.aiVendor page	0	1
myaskai.comVendor page	1	0
nextiva.comVendor page	0	1
reddit.comReddit	1	0
startuphub.aiPublisher	0	1
taskade.comVendor page	0	1
zoom.comVendor page	0	1

Counts are cited URLs per domain. Type is the author’s classification: vendor page (a software company’s own site), listicle (a third-party list or comparison page), G2/Capterra (review marketplaces), Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, publisher (news and media).

Every cited URL (18)

Google AI Mode

fin.ai/learn/best-ai-customer-support-software (Vendor page)
myaskai.com/blog/best-ai-customer-service-startups-2026 (Vendor page)
reddit.com/r/AI_CustomerService/comments/1q5f8k9/top_7_ai_customer_service_platforms_in_2026 (Reddit)
cloudtalk.io/blog/ai-customer-service (Vendor page)
lindy.ai/blog/best-customer-service-chatbots (Vendor page)

Perplexity

sobot.io/blog/best-ai-customer-service-software-2026-agentic-ai-mobile-first-era (Vendor page)
murf.ai/blog/best-ai-customer-support-tools (Vendor page)
nextiva.com/blog/ai-customer-service-tools.html (Vendor page)
sobot.io/blog/ai-customer-service-solutions (Vendor page)
blog.hubspot.com/service/ai-customer-service-software (Vendor page)
geekflare.com/guides/best-customer-service-software (Publisher)
chatbase.co/blog/ai-tools-for-customer-support (Vendor page)
zoom.com/en/blog/zoom-cx-2026-gartner-magic-quadrant-for-ccaas (Vendor page)
businesswire.com/news/home/20261023338705/en/Planhat-Named-a-Leader-in-the-2026-Gartner-Magic-Quadrant-for-Customer-Success-Management-Platforms (Publisher)
infobip.com/blog/ai-customer-experience-platform (Vendor page)
gumloop.com/blog/ai-agents-for-customer-support (Vendor page)
taskade.com/blog/ai-customer-support-software (Vendor page)
startuphub.ai/ai-news/insights/2026/ai-customer-support-tools-2026 (Publisher)

What do the cited pages have in common?

Only 7 of the 18 cited pages have “best”, “top”, “vs”, “alternatives” or “comparison” in the URL. 14 sit on software vendors’ own sites, often a blog post ranking the category. 0 are third-party listicles. 6 carry 2026 in the URL. Intercom (Fin AI), My AskAI, Chatbase and Nextiva were both named and cited from their own sites.

List-style URLs: 7 of 18 cited pages have “best”, “top”, “vs”, “alternatives” or “comparison” in the path.
Year in the URL: 6 of 18 include 2026.
By type: Vendor page 14, Publisher 3, Reddit 1.
Google AI Mode named Intercom (Fin AI) at #2 and cited its own page fin.ai/learn/best-ai-customer-support-software.
Google AI Mode named My AskAI at #6 and cited its own page myaskai.com/blog/best-ai-customer-service-startups-2026.
Perplexity named Chatbase at #6 and cited its own page chatbase.co/blog/ai-tools-for-customer-support.
Perplexity named Nextiva at #7 and cited its own page nextiva.com/blog/ai-customer-service-tools.html.

What should a company missing from this answer do?

A company missing from these answers should get onto the pages the engines already cite, publish its own dated comparison page for this exact question, and take part in the Reddit threads that get cited. Each step below names the specific pages from this run, so the work starts from what the engines read rather than from guesswork.

Get onto the third-party pages that fed these answers. 3 of the 18 citations came from listicles, publishers and review sites. The most cited here were businesswire.com, geekflare.com and startuphub.ai. Ask each author to evaluate your product for their next update, with a demo account and a clear one-line positioning for startups.businesswire.com/news/home/20261023338705/en/Planhat-Named-a-Leader-in-the-2026-Gartner-Magic-Quadrant-for-Customer-Success-Management-Platforms · geekflare.com/guides/best-customer-service-software · startuphub.ai/ai-news/insights/2026/ai-customer-support-tools-2026
Publish your own answer to this exact question. Vendor-owned pages supplied 14 of the 18 citations. Write a dated page that answers “best AI customer support software for startups 2026” honestly, with a comparison table, who each option suits, and the year in the URL. Pages like fin.ai/learn/best-ai-customer-support-software were cited for this question.fin.ai/learn/best-ai-customer-support-software
Join the Reddit threads buyers read. Reddit was cited for this question. Answer in the threads where founders compare options, with your affiliation disclosed and a useful comparison rather than a pitch.reddit.com/r/AI_CustomerService/comments/1q5f8k9/top_7_ai_customer_service_platforms_in_2026

What are the limits of this data?

This is one run of one question per engine, on 24 October 2026, from a signed-in browser in India. AI answers change between runs, by location and by account: Perplexity personalised its answers to the asking company, and a reload of one question changed Google AI Mode’s first pick. Treat these lists as a dated snapshot.

One run per engine on one date. A second load can return a different list: on the AI SDR tools question, a reload one minute later changed Google AI Mode’s first pick.
Location: the browser was in India, and Google AI Mode localises answers.
Personalisation: both engines were used from signed-in accounts. Perplexity addressed the account’s own company by name in this answer.
Vendors count only when presented as an option; other mentions are listed separately, with the context seen.
Source types are the author’s classification, made by domain owner. The JSON lets you re-classify.

How was this data captured?

Each question was phrased as “best <category> for startups 2026” and opened once in Google AI Mode and once in Perplexity on 24 October 2026. The rendered answer was read with a script, vendors were recorded in order of first appearance, and every source in the answer’s source list was saved with its path.

Google AI Mode was opened at its udm=50 search address, and the full source panel was read after expanding “Show all”. Perplexity was opened with the question in the address and its Links tab was read. Paths were kept and query strings dropped, except YouTube video ids. Products from the same company keep the answer’s wording in the tables and are matched as one vendor when comparing engines. Nothing was estimated or filled in.