Hikoo, from 0 to 74% of AI answers in 4 months

Plenty of buyers don't search Google for a tool anymore. They ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, and the brand named in the answer makes their shortlist. Getting brands into those answers is Hikoo's job, so the team did it for Hikoo first and measured everything from April to October 2026.

• In April 2026, Hikoo appears in no AI answer.
• In August 2026, Hikoo is named in 74% of answers to its key question.
• On that question, Hikoo is ahead of the other French GEO tools, Qwairy and Meteoria.
• On "which tool does GEO for me?", Hikoo gets ahead of Otterly and Peec AI, the two European leaders.
• Over the last 7 days, Copilot names Hikoo in 27% of its answers and Gemini in 20%.
• In one month, the share of AI answers linking to tryhikoo.com doubled.

Hikoo was called Inook until 21 January 2026. With a brand new name, nobody was writing about it. From 13 January to 15 April, Hikoo asked AI engines questions every day, such as "Which software helps a brand get cited by AI?". Not one answer named Hikoo.

Product quality had nothing to do with it. An AI engine recommends what it has already read, in its training data or in the pages it checks while answering. Until the web talks about a brand, that brand doesn't exist for ChatGPT or Gemini.

On 15 April 2026, Hikoo added a question to its tracking that describes exactly what it does, "Which French startups work on GEO or optimisation for generative AI?". Three days later, ChatGPT named Hikoo on it for the first time. By July, Hikoo came up in 65% of answers. In August, 74%.

On a question about French startups, Hikoo's direct competition is the other French GEO tools. From 15 April to 29 October 2026, Hikoo is named in 41% of answers, Qwairy in 27% and Meteoria in 9%. Only the agency GNSYX, which sells consulting rather than a tool, keeps level with Hikoo.

AI engines don't all react the same way. On that question, Gemini names Hikoo in 65% of its answers, ChatGPT in 33%.

Peec AI (Berlin) and Otterly (Vienna) are the two European tools AI engines name most across all the questions Hikoo tracks. On a question limited to French startups, their absence proves nothing. The real test is the questions where every tool competes.

On "Which tool does GEO for me, not just the tracking?", the question that best describes what Hikoo offers, Hikoo is named in 19% of answers, ahead of Otterly (13%) and Peec AI (6%). On tracking a brand in Claude or Mistral, Hikoo sits at 16%, ahead of Peec AI (14%) and Otterly (11%). On picking a GEO tool for a French SME, all three are still ahead of Hikoo.

Nothing secret, and nothing another brand couldn't repeat. From April to October 2026, the team stuck to three rules.

• Pick the right questions. On "what is the best GEO tool?", a newcomer stands no chance against the leaders. On "which French startup does GEO?", Hikoo belongs, and that's where it showed up first.
• Publish the pages AI engines cite. AI engines mostly reuse comparisons and practical guides. Between April and July, Hikoo published a comparison of French GEO tools, competitor alternative pages and method guides. They're now its most cited pages.
• Measure every week. Hikoo asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode the same questions every day, then counts who gets named. Without that, the team would've been publishing blind.

The pages in question. French GEO tools | Peec AI alternatives | Comparing AI visibility

Across all tracked questions, progress is slower. Hikoo went from 0% of answers in mid April to 15% in late October 2026, with ups and downs from one fortnight to the next. The dashboard shows 16% over the last 7 days.

Copilot, Microsoft's assistant, is the AI engine recommending Hikoo most right now, in 27% of its answers over the last 7 days. Gemini follows at 20%, then ChatGPT at 13%. Google AI Mode lags behind at 5%. So the same brand can be recommended by one engine and ignored by another.

We'd rather say it. On the most general questions, such as "what are the best tools to track visibility in AI?", Profound, Otterly and Peec AI are still ahead of Hikoo. Those tools have been on the market longer than Hikoo, which has carried this name since January 2026. The press, comparison sites and rankings have been writing about them for months, and AI engines lean on those sources to answer.

On method questions, such as "how do I improve my visibility in ChatGPT?", AI engines name almost no tool. That's the work for the coming months. We'll update this page whether the figures go up or down.

Going further. Which questions a brand is named on | Finding the sources of AI answers

• An unknown brand starts from zero, however good the product. The web has to talk about it before AI engines recommend it.
• Start with the questions where you belong most. The first mentions come quickly there. It took Hikoo four months to go from 0 to 74% on its key question.
• Comparisons and practical guides are the pages AI engines reuse the most.
• Track each AI engine on its own. Copilot can recommend you while Google AI Mode ignores you.
• Measure over several months. From one fortnight to the next, the figures move a lot.

Doing the same for your brand. Free AI visibility audit | Question and engine tracking | Content agent

Every day, Hikoo asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode a fixed list of questions in French. The questions are written the way a marketing lead looking for a tool would ask them. For each brand, Hikoo counts the share of answers that name it.

Tracking started on 13 January 2026. The question list was extended in April and May, then narrowed in late October. Every figure on this page comes from the Hikoo dashboard for tryhikoo.com on 29 October 2026, untouched.

The method in detail. Which questions a brand is named on

• How long does it take to get recommended by AI engines?

  For Hikoo, four months passed between the start of tracking on its key question, on 15 April 2026, and 74% of answers in August. Before that, the brand sat at zero on general questions for three months, while the web started talking about it. It depends on the industry and the competition, but a brand starting from nothing should expect a few months.

• What is a key question in GEO?

  It's the question asked to AI engines that best describes what a brand sells. For Hikoo, it's "Which French startups work on GEO or optimisation for generative AI?". It's the first one to track, because the brand belongs there most and the first mentions show up there.

• Why does Hikoo get ahead of Otterly and Peec AI on some questions?

  Because those questions describe exactly what Hikoo does, a tool that does GEO instead of only measuring it, and Hikoo published the pages that answer them. On the most general questions, Profound, Otterly and Peec AI are still ahead, because they're older and more present in the press. On a precise question, fitting the question matters more than the size of the brand.

• Can the figures in this case study be checked?

  They're the figures from the Hikoo dashboard for tryhikoo.com, read on 29 October 2026. The tracked questions are quoted word for word on this page, and anyone can ask AI engines the same ones. An AI answer changes from one time to the next, which is why Hikoo measures every day, over several months.

• Can I do the same for my brand?

  Yes. The free Hikoo audit shows in a few minutes whether AI engines name a brand and on which questions. Tracking over time is what was used for this study.

Next target, the general questions, where Hikoo is still quiet. We'll publish the new figures in three months.