Search behaviour in Singapore is splitting. Plenty of people still type a query into Google and click a blue link. But more and more start somewhere else entirely — they open ChatGPT or Perplexity and simply ask: "What's the best accounting software for an SME in Singapore?" or "Which agency should I use to build an AI chatbot?" The assistant answers in plain language, often naming specific companies.
That shift matters because these answers don't come from ads or from your Google ranking. They come from what the AI has learned about who's credible. If your company isn't part of that picture, you simply aren't considered.
How ChatGPT decides who to name
ChatGPT draws on two things: its training data (a large slice of the web) and, when browsing is enabled, live search results. In both cases it favours brands that appear repeatedly across credible, independent sources — news, industry blogs, forums like Reddit, review sites and directories. The more your company is associated with a clear area of expertise across those sources, the more likely it surfaces when someone asks.
The key point: ChatGPT isn't reading your homepage and deciding you're the best. It's aggregating what the rest of the web says about you. Your off-site footprint is the signal.
How Perplexity is different
Perplexity leans more heavily on live web search and shows its citations openly. That makes it slightly more "winnable" in the short term: pages that are crawlable, well-structured and genuinely authoritative on a specific question are exactly what it pulls from and links to. Clear, well-organised content with strong topical depth tends to get cited.
The practical takeaway is that ChatGPT and Perplexity reward overlapping but not identical things. Getting cited across both is the discipline we call Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
What this means for Singapore companies
Two things are true at once. First, this is real and already happening — buyers are using AI to shortlist providers before they ever contact one. Second, almost no Singapore companies are optimising for it yet. That combination is an opening.
Here are the kinds of queries where a well-positioned company should appear:
Right now, most of these return generic advice or a handful of big names. The first company to build real authority in a category owns that answer — and because AI models are slow to change who they cite, early movers hold the position.
How to get cited
The work is part on-site, part off-site. On-site: clear, structured, genuinely useful content and schema. Off-site: branded mentions on the sources AI reads. The challenge is volume — doing this consistently is more work than most teams can spare, which is why an SEO agent that runs the execution makes it sustainable.
Next step: Want to know if ChatGPT and Perplexity currently name your company? Get a free AI audit — we'll check and show you the gaps.
For the full picture on automating this with AI, read what agentic SEO is, or the plain-English guide to GEO and AEO.