AI search is reshaping how customers discover and compare mobile phone brands. With the holiday gifting season underway, the brands most visible in AI-generated results are best positioned to capture sales.

Holiday shopping is the most competitive time of year in the mobile industry, with consumers actively looking for upgrades, deals, and gifts. Increasingly, those decisions are being shaped by AI search. When buyers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews what the best phones are or where to buy them, not every brand gets equal visibility.

We analyzed how 32 leading mobile brands appear across these platforms. The findings highlight just how concentrated AI visibility is among a few heavy hitters, and why some surprising names break through while many others barely register.

Samsung, Google, and Apple consistently appear in nearly every AI-generated answer about phones. This season, they’re the most likely to convert AI visibility into holiday sales, showing up in 83% to 99% of relevant AI answers.

Retailers and carriers also have unique holiday leverage. Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and Target are regularly referenced, often alongside phone brands, positioning them to capture both brand-driven and convenience-driven holiday shoppers. For a parent searching “best phone for teens” or “holiday phone deals,” AI tools surface both the device and the retailer in the same answer, reinforcing the path to purchase.

• 99% – Samsung’s visibility in Perplexity AI, nearly universal coverage this season.
• 40% – Target’s AI visibility in ChatGPT, suggesting it could quietly win gift-shopping traffic from rivals.
• 0-2% – Fluctuation in Sentiment score indicates very little difference between household names and newcomers – niche brands can win from glowing mentions even if they lack visibility.

The factors shaping visibility this season are highly relevant to holiday sales:

Brand Authority

Samsung, Google, and Apple’s leadership positions translate directly into top-of-mind awareness when buyers ask AI tools for gift recommendations.

Retail Channels

Best Buy and Walmart thrive in AI visibility because availability and purchase logistics are central to holiday shopping.

Carrier Bundles

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are referenced regularly, often in the context of deals and contracts – a holiday-specific decision point for many buyers.

Positive Sentiment, Lower Visibility

Brands like Asus and Nothing show high sentiment, proving they’re loved when mentioned. Their challenge is simply breaking into more holiday conversations.

This holiday season, visibility outweighs sentiment in driving potential sales. The top brands not only appear most often but also crowd out niche competitors, regardless of tone. For example, Asus has the highest sentiment of any brand, but its minimal visibility means it’s unlikely to translate into real holiday sales. A few other insights worth noting:

• Retailers and carriers as “brand gateways”: Their AI visibility this season gives them a bigger voice in the shopping conversation than in most other industries.
• Neutral-to-positive framing: Sentiment skews positive overall, which is advantageous in gifting contexts where reassurance matters.
• Holiday-ready advantage: Brands with high visibility in Perplexity and Google AI are best set to capture holiday deal-seekers, while those showing up in ChatGPT may benefit from “discovery shoppers” looking for a variety of options. 

In other words: during gifting season, if you’re not visible, you’re not in ANY cart.

Different AI tools shape holiday visibility in distinct ways:

• ChatGPT: Offers broader lists, making it a chance for niche brands and retailers like Target to appear more often.
• Perplexity: Skews heavily toward corporate and retail sources, amplifying big-box players during the holidays.
• Google AI Overviews: Focuses on mainstream editorial reviews, which reinforces trust in the largest brands but leaves less room for newcomers.

• Editorial: Dominant in Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT (CNET, PCMag, TechRadar).
• Owned/Corporate: Strongest in Perplexity, giving Samsung, Apple, and retailers prime holiday positioning.
• UGC (User-Generated Content): More visible in ChatGPT, where Reddit threads and community blogs sometimes surface holiday gift ideas.

As shoppers turn to AI for guidance this holiday season, the brands and retailers that appear most often are best positioned to win gift sales. Samsung, Google, and Apple lead the way, but retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and carriers are also riding the AI wave into December. This is a clear reminder to mobile phone brands: it’s not just your brand strategy that matters — it’s how your partners show up in the AI results that may also decide the sale.

The overarching lesson is clear: AI visibility has become the new digital shelf space. Just as brands fight for end-cap displays in stores during the holidays, they now need strategies to ensure they’re top of mind in AI-generated answers. The brands who take AI visibility seriously today will be the ones unwrapping stronger holiday sales tomorrow.