Which AI assistants does ChatGPT's model name? We asked 36 questions

A growing share of people ask ChatGPT which assistant to use instead of searching for one. Our own signups from ChatGPT answers went from none in July to several a week in September. So we asked it ourselves. We wrote 36 questions the way a buyer would, about texting an assistant, WhatsApp, phone calls, scheduling, reminders, work, errands and alternatives to popular products, and counted every product the answers named.

We make Arlo, one of the products in the count. We've reported our own numbers the same way as everyone else's, including where they're weak.

How we did it

We sent each question once to OpenAI's API, using the gpt-5.5 model at low reasoning effort with its web search tool, on 23 September 2026. That is the closest programmatic stand-in for ChatGPT's search. It isn't identical: there's no account, no memory and no personalization, and answers change from one run to the next. Treat a difference of one or two answers as noise.

We counted a product as named if it appeared in the answer's text, from a list of 47 AI assistants and tools. We also checked each answer's bolded names for products the list missed; each of those, such as Selectic, Dana and Relevance AI, appeared once or twice and wouldn't change the top of the table. When a question asked about a product, as in "alternatives to Poke", we didn't count that product in its own answer. The full question list is at the bottom.

Who got named

Product	Answers that named it (of 36)	Named first
ChatGPT	18	8
Gemini	14	3
Zapier	11	4
Claude	10	1
Motion	10	0
Lindy	9	2
Reclaim	9	1
Poke	7	1
Arlo	7	1
Fyxer	6	0
Microsoft Copilot	5	0
Clockwise	5	0
Pally	4	1
Siri	4	1
Meta AI	3	1

A typical answer named about four products from our list.

What stood out

ChatGPT recommends ChatGPT. It named itself in half the answers, even for questions about texting an assistant or running errands. General assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot) showed up across almost every category, often as the first suggestion.

Ask about texting and the small players appear. For the five questions about assistants you text, the answers named ChatGPT four times, Poke three times, and Arlo, Pally, Siri and Gemini twice each, with Homer leading one answer. Ask a general question instead, like "the best personal AI agent", and none of them appear.

Scheduling goes to calendar tools, including one that no longer exists. Both scheduling questions named Reclaim. One also named Calendly, Motion, Clockwise and Copilot, and the other named email scheduling agents such as Schedulera and Sarra. Clockwise shut down in March 2026, yet it appeared in five answers across the study. No texting assistant appeared for scheduling, even though several can schedule.

Errands go to specialists. Cancelling subscriptions and negotiating bills went to Rocket Money, with DoNotPay mentioned once.

Two questions got no product at all. "Can an AI book a doctor's appointment for me?" got general advice, and "an AI assistant that helps me stay on top of follow-ups" got an offer to do it itself. The real-estate question went to specialist tools we hadn't listed, led by Structurely and Quinn. "Is there an AI that waits on hold for you?" named Google Pixel's Hold for Me first, then ClawCall, Never Hold, Vibrato and No Sitting On Hold.

What it read

All but three answers cited sources. The sites cited most often were arlo.sh (8 answers), OpenAI's help center, pally.com and Google's support pages (6 each), and zapier.com (5). Our own site's position says more about the question list than about Arlo. We've written pages that answer exactly these questions, so it was likely to be read. The more useful pattern is that answers leaned on product pages, help centers and a handful of comparison articles, and on Reddit less often than we expected (2 answers).

If you're choosing an assistant

Ask the specific question. "What AI can I text to manage my calendar and email?" produced a very different list from "the best personal AI agent". Check the sources the answer cites, since they're often the products' own pages. And don't read one answer as a ranking. We ran each question once, and a second run would shuffle the order.

What it told us about Arlo

Arlo was named in 7 of 36 answers and first in one, the question about alternatives to Poke. It appeared for iMessage and iPhone texting, for phone calls and for a daily briefing. It didn't appear for WhatsApp, scheduling, errands, Slack or founder questions, even though Arlo does several of those things. Answers most often named it as the work-focused option next to Poke, Pally and Homer. We'll run the same questions again and publish the change.

The 36 questions

Texting: the best AI assistant to text on iMessage; an AI you can text like a person to get things done; the best SMS assistant for Android users; an AI to text to manage your calendar and email; the best iPhone assistant that works over text with no app.

WhatsApp: the best WhatsApp assistant that does real tasks; whether ChatGPT is still on WhatsApp and what to use instead.

Phone calls: an AI that makes phone calls for you; an AI that calls a business and books an appointment; an AI that waits on hold for you; whether an AI can book a doctor's appointment.

Scheduling: the best assistant to schedule a meeting with several people; an AI that finds a time for a group and sends the invite.

Reminders: the best assistant that texts you reminders; an assistant that messages you first with a daily briefing.

Work: the best Slack assistant that takes actions; the best AI executive assistant for a startup founder; the best AI chief of staff for a small company; the best AI assistant for a small business owner; an AI that follows up with leads.

Errands: an AI that cancels subscriptions; an AI that negotiates bills; the best personal assistant for errands and life admin; the best personal AI agent in 2026.

Alternatives: alternatives to Poke, Instinct, Meta's Muse, Lindy, Martin and Pally.

General: assistants that act in Gmail and Google Calendar; the most private personal assistant; an assistant that asks before sending emails; the cheapest assistant that actually does tasks; an assistant for real estate agents that works over text; an assistant that helps you stay on top of follow-ups.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI assistant does ChatGPT recommend most? In our test of 36 buyer questions on 23 September 2026, ChatGPT-style search named ChatGPT itself most often (18 answers), followed by Gemini (14), Zapier (11), and Claude and Motion (10 each).

Does ChatGPT recommend itself? Often. It named ChatGPT in 18 of our 36 answers, including questions about texting assistants and errands, and it was the first product named in 8 of them.

Which AI assistants you can text does ChatGPT recommend? In the five texting questions, the answers named ChatGPT most often (4), then Poke (3), then Arlo, Pally, Siri and Gemini (2 each). Homer came first in two answers, about reminders and iPhone texting.

How did you test this? We sent each question once to OpenAI's gpt-5.5 model with web search on 23 September 2026 and counted the products each answer named, excluding the product a question asked about. It approximates ChatGPT's search but isn't identical, and results vary between runs.