Claude and OpenAI Gain Gen Z Brand Consideration
YouGov found that Claude and OpenAI were among the fastest-rising brands in consideration among U.S. Gen Z adults in Q2 2026. Claude's score rose from 14.2% to 28.1%, while OpenAI's increased from 10.1% to 22.1%, according to YouGov. Search Engine Journal reports that only 28% of Americans trust AI assistants for answers, highlighting a gap between awareness and confidence.
YouGov found that Claude and OpenAI ranked among the fastest-rising brands by consideration among U.S. Gen Z adults in Q2 2026. Claude's consideration score rose from 14.2% in Q1 to 28.1% in Q2, while OpenAI's increased from 10.1% to 22.1%, according to YouGov's July 29 analysis.
YouGov defines consideration as the share of consumers who would consider purchasing from a brand. Its quarterly ranking drew on daily BrandIndex surveys tracking more than 2,000 brands, and measured percentage growth in each brand's average consideration score relative to the preceding quarter.
AI brands enter a consumer-brand ranking
Claude recorded the highest Q2 consideration score among the brands included in the ranking, YouGov reported. ChatGPT, which YouGov tracks separately from OpenAI in BrandIndex, rose by more than 50%, from 16.3% to 25.4% among Gen Z respondents.
OpenAI entered the quarter following a Super Bowl campaign focused on Codex and continued to release updates to ChatGPT's default GPT-5.5 Instant model during May and June. The source described Anthropic's first Super Bowl campaign as emphasizing that Claude would remain free of advertising.
The ranking was led by Johnnie Walker, whose consideration among Gen Z adults of legal drinking age rose from 7.5% to 20.0%, illustrating that the AI companies appeared alongside conventional consumer brands rather than in a separate technology category.
Consideration does not establish trust
Search Engine Journal, citing the YouGov findings and additional trust data, reported that only 28% of Americans trust AI assistants for answers. The figure introduces an important distinction: a respondent's willingness to consider an AI brand is not the same measure as confidence in an assistant's output.
For teams working on generative-engine optimization, that distinction can affect how visibility metrics are interpreted. Brand awareness and favorable consideration can help determine whether users try an assistant, while answer trust is more closely connected to source quality, citation practices, retrieval accuracy, and the reliability of responses in consequential tasks.
The reported figures do not identify why respondents trust or distrust specific assistants, nor do they measure task-level accuracy. They nonetheless provide a consumer-market indicator that AI providers are becoming recognizable brands among younger U.S. adults, even as broader confidence in assistant answers remains limited.
Key Points
- 1YouGov recorded sharp Q2 Gen Z consideration gains for Claude, OpenAI, and ChatGPT, placing AI brands in a broad consumer-brand ranking.
- 2Claude reached 28.1% Gen Z consideration, the highest Q2 score among ranked brands, while OpenAI rose to 22.1%.
- 3Reported trust levels show brand consideration and confidence in AI answers are distinct measures, complicating visibility metrics used in GEO programs.
Scoring Rationale
The survey offers useful consumer-market evidence that leading AI providers are gaining brand consideration among younger U.S. adults. It is relevant to teams evaluating AI discovery and GEO, but it does not introduce a model, product, or technical capability change.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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