What happens when someone asks ChatGPT, Google AI, or Perplexity to recommend a product in your industry? Does your brand show up—or do your competitors get all the attention? That’s the question I wanted to explore in my latest OtterlyAI review and demo.
Instead of guessing, I used real monitored AI responses to compare Canva, Adobe Express, and VistaCreate. I looked at the recommendations themselves, the websites AI tools cited, and even how a webpage scored for AI-search readiness.
Disclosure: The YouTube video featured in this article was created as a sponsored collaboration with OtterlyAI.
Watch My OtterlyAI Review & Demo
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What Is OtterlyAI?
OtterlyAI is an AI-search monitoring platform designed to help brands and marketers understand how they appear in answers generated by AI search tools. It goes beyond traditional search rankings by tracking prompts, brand mentions, comparative visibility, and cited web sources. It also includes website-focused GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) audit tools.
Here’s why that matters: your website might rank well in an ordinary search, but an AI-generated answer may recommend a completely different set of brands. OtterlyAI helps you investigate that difference, rather than assuming search rankings tell the whole story.
My Test: Canva vs. Adobe Express vs. VistaCreate
For this demonstration, I tracked 15 questions related to graphic design and content creation in the United States. The results I discuss here are a single-day snapshot from October 25, 2026. The comparison data came from Google, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Copilot; other engines had no data in that snapshot.
1. Search Prompt Monitoring: What Are AI Tools Actually Saying?
I opened a prompt many content creators might ask: “What are the best graphic design tools for social media creators?” In the recorded responses, Perplexity recommended Canva as an all-around option and also discussed other design products. Google’s AI Overview included Canva, Adobe Express, and VistaCreate in its answer.
That was the first useful takeaway for me: the same question can surface different brands depending on the AI platform. OtterlyAI lets me inspect those answers together instead of running and documenting each search manually. Its prompt monitoring is designed to collect fresh responses on a continuing basis.
2. Brand Visibility: How Do the Competitors Compare?
The Brand Report turns individual answers into a comparison that is easier to understand. Here’s what my monitored dataset showed:
| Metric | Canva | Adobe | VistaCreate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand Coverage | 92% | 70% | 20% |
| Share of Voice | 50% | 39% | 11% |
| Average Brand Position | 1.09 | 1.79 | 3.00 |
Brand Coverage reflects how often a brand appeared across the monitored answers, while Share of Voice shows its relative presence among the compared brands. Average Brand Position adds context about placement in the responses. In my snapshot, Canva led the comparison—but that doesn’t make these numbers a permanent ranking of the design market.
3. Citation Tracking: Which Websites Are AI Answers Using?
This feature caught my attention because a brand mention is not the same thing as a website citation. OtterlyAI showed Canva’s homepage cited 13 times, Adobe Express’s homepage 10 times, and a third-party Zapier article cited 6 times in the monitored results.
I opened that Zapier article and found that it discussed Canva, Adobe Express, and VistaCreate. So this wasn’t an example of a competitor being included while Canva was missing. It was a practical way to identify an outside publication being cited by AI answers, then investigate how that publication covers the brands you’re tracking.
For a business owner or marketer, that’s a starting point for content research or potentially relevant outreach—not proof of why an AI system selected a particular citation.
4. GEO Audit: Can AI Crawlers Reach and Understand a Page?
Next, I tested Canva’s social-media page with OtterlyAI’s GEO audit tools. I used the Crawlability Checker to inspect AI-bot access and the Content Checker to look at readiness and structure.
The Content Checker showed 85% for static vs. dynamic content, 62% for readiness analysis, and 84% for structured data analysis. One category—Acronyms and Terminology—scored 58%, with feedback suggesting that certain technical or branded terms could be explained more clearly for readers.
I like that the audit goes beyond a headline score and presents concrete issues worth reviewing. Still, a good audit result does not guarantee that ChatGPT or Google will cite or recommend a page.
5. Claude + OtterlyAI: Ask Questions About the Data
Finally, I connected OtterlyAI to Claude and asked it to compare the three design brands using the monitoring data I’d already collected. Claude pulled the report figures through OtterlyAI’s connector and organized them into a table with engine-by-engine differences.
For example, Adobe appeared in 87% of the monitored ChatGPT answers versus Canva’s 100%. On Perplexity, Adobe appeared in 53% versus Canva’s 73%. That gave me another way to explore the same dataset without manually moving between report screens.
One important distinction: Claude was analyzing the collected OtterlyAI data; it wasn’t one of the search-answer engines represented in this particular snapshot.
Who Could Benefit From This Kind of Tool?
- Small-business owners curious whether AI answers recommend their business or competitors.
- Content creators and bloggers researching what AI systems say about their niche.
- Marketing teams and SEO professionals adding AI-search visibility and citation data to existing reporting.
- Agencies looking for a repeatable way to compare client brands and investigate content opportunities.
What to Keep in Mind Before You Try It
AI-search results can change by platform, prompt, location, and date. One day’s numbers are useful as a baseline, but they don’t establish a trend. You also shouldn’t assume that visibility scores explain why a recommendation happened—or that improving a GEO audit score guarantees more mentions.
Feature access and usage limits can depend on your OtterlyAI plan. Check current pricing and plan details before choosing a subscription.
My Final Take
What I appreciated most was being able to follow a question all the way from the AI-generated answer to the brand comparison, the sources being cited, and a practical website audit. That makes the data easier to turn into questions worth investigating, instead of just another dashboard full of numbers.
If you’re building a business online, AI search visibility is worth understanding alongside your existing SEO and marketing strategy. Watch my full walkthrough above, then explore OtterlyAI to see whether its monitoring and audit features fit your needs.
Let’s talk: Have you ever asked an AI tool to recommend businesses or products in your niche? Did your brand show up? Share what you found in the comments—and subscribe to Inside Your Hustle on YouTube for more hands-on AI tools and business experiments.
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