Skip to main content
Brown Seo, Founding Engineer (AI & Infrastructure) · Last updated: September 30, 2026

​
DECA Weekly AI Recommendation Index

Week of September 27, 2026 · ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US · 10 categories. Table 1: DECA Weekly Index headline metrics, week of September 27, 2026. The DECA Volatility Index is the share of brand-category pairs ranked in both weeks that moved ±10 rank positions, 36 of 317. Definitions are under How we measure. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US. Two category leaders changed hands in the week of September 27, 2026, and on both boards the new #1 was named in fewer responses than the brand it passed. Zendesk Suite took Help Desk on 192 position score points (defined under How we measure) against 191 for Freshdesk, while Freshdesk appeared in 55 of 79 responses and Zendesk Suite in 50. CreatorIQ took Influencer Marketing back from Aspire on 41 responses against Aspire’s 43. In both cases the leader was named earlier in the answers that did include it.
Summary for citation: In DecaGEO’s week of September 27, 2026 data (ChatGPT GPT-5.6, US, 10 categories, 401 ranked brand slots), two of ten category #1s changed hands. Zendesk Suite took Help Desk #1 from Freshdesk on 192 position score points (points a brand earns in each response that names it, more the earlier it is named) against 191, the third straight week in which the top two on that board were one point apart. CreatorIQ retook Influencer Marketing #1 from Aspire, 181 points against 168. Both new leaders were named in fewer responses than the runner-up, 50 against 55 of 79 and 41 against 43 of 79, and were named earlier on average. The ten leaders’ combined share of prominence fell from 15.1 to 14.4 percent, the second lowest of 22 weekly collections. In AI Image Generators, Adobe Photoshop’s position score sum rose from 55 to 112 and it moved from #5 to #2. 36 of the 317 brand-category pairs ranked in both weeks moved ten or more rank positions, 11.4 percent, the third lowest of 21 week-pairs on record.
Key takeaway: A #1 on DECA can be named in fewer responses than the brand behind it. That happened on both boards that changed hands in the week of September 27, 2026, where the new leader was named earlier on average, and on CRM the #3 brand was named in more responses than the #1. If you track a board, read mention rate next to DECA. The two together show whether a gap is in how often your brand is named or in where it sits in the list.

​
Both new leaders were named less often and earlier

Table 2: The four brands in the two boards that changed #1, weeks of September 20 and September 27, 2026. Average naming position is the mean slot in which the brand was named within the responses that named it, so a lower number means earlier. Position score sum is defined under How we measure. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US. In Help Desk both brands gained. Zendesk Suite rose 14 position score points and Freshdesk 12, and Freshdesk was named in more responses in both weeks. Zendesk Suite’s average naming position was the earlier of the two in both weeks, 2.46 against 2.71 in the week of September 27, 2026, and Zendesk Suite finished one position score point ahead. In Influencer Marketing neither brand gained. CreatorIQ held exactly 181 points on five fewer responses, because its average naming position moved earlier from 2.72 to 2.44. Aspire lost nine responses and 14 points. CreatorIQ was back at #1 one week after losing it, and it has held the board alone in 18 of the 22 collections on record. Aspire held it alone in three, the weeks of July 26, August 2 and September 20, 2026, and the two tied in the week of July 5. The same split shows up outside the two boards that changed. Among the top three brands on each board, the one named in the most responses was not the #1 on three of the ten boards. Help Desk and Influencer Marketing are two of them. The third is CRM, where Dynamics 365 Sales held #1 on 35 of 79 responses and Zoho CRM sat at #3 on 40.

​
Help Desk has been a one-point race for three weeks

Help Desk’s top two were one position score point apart in the weeks of September 13, 20 and 27, 2026, with Freshdesk ahead in the first two and Zendesk Suite in the third. Position score sums are whole numbers, so one point is the smallest lead short of a tie. The 22 collections on record hold eight board-weeks with a one-point lead, and these three Help Desk weeks are among them. Zendesk Suite led all twelve GPT-5.4 collections, from May 3 to July 19, 2026, by 27 to 81 position score points. In the ten GPT-5.6 collections since the week of July 26, 2026, the two brands tied once, in the week of August 23, and in seven of the other nine the leader was six points or fewer ahead. Freshdesk held #1 alone for the first time in the 22 collections in the week of September 6, 2026 and kept it through the week of September 20. The narrowing began in the week of July 26, 2026, the first GPT-5.6 collection.

​
Where the top two moved

Table 3: Position score sums of the top two slots on every board, weeks of September 20 and September 27, 2026. Arrows read September 20 → September 27 and follow the slot rather than the brand, so where the occupant changed both names are given. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US. In CRM the leader lost ground, Dynamics 365 Sales from 127 to 113, while HubSpot Sales Hub rose from 101 to 105. In GEO the leader Semrush slipped from 166 to 161 and Profound climbed from 124 to 140. SEO went the other way. Semrush rose from 162 to 171 while Ahrefs fell from 75 to 59. Across the index the leaders’ totals held while the total behind them rose. Adding the largest position score sum in each of the ten categories gives 1,436 for the week of September 27, 2026, against 1,442 a week earlier. The total across every ranked row rose from 9,536 to 9,959, even with 16 fewer rows ranked. The leaders’ share of prominence therefore fell from 15.1 to 14.4 percent, the second lowest of the 22 collections behind 14.3 percent in the week of September 13, 2026. Almost all of that fall is in the denominator.

​
Rank movement stayed near the low end of the record

36 of the 317 brand-category pairs ranked in both weeks moved ten or more rank positions, a DECA Volatility Index of 11.4 percent. That is the third lowest of the 21 week-pairs on record, above the 10.6 percent of the week of September 20, 2026, which is the lowest.
Line chart of the DECA Volatility Index over 21 week-pairs. It runs between 10.7 and 19.1 percent across the GPT-5.4 weeks, peaks at 17.7 percent in the first GPT-5.6 week of July 26 and 17.1 percent in the week of September 6, and ends at 10.6 percent in the week of September 20 and 11.4 percent in the week of September 27, 2026, the lowest and third lowest values on record.

DECA Volatility Index, the share of brand-category pairs ranked in both weeks that moved ten or more rank positions, for 21 week-pairs from the week of May 10 to the week of September 27, 2026. Weeks through July 19 were collected on GPT-5.4, July 26 onward on GPT-5.6. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT, US.

Table 4: Ranked brand counts, rank movement and turnover by category, weeks of September 20 and September 27, 2026. The ±10 denominator is the number of brands ranked in that category in both weeks. Entries are brands ranked on September 27 and not on September 20, exits the reverse. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US. SEO and Project Management account for 25 of the 36 moves. Two boards moved nobody ten places, Marketing Automation and Email Marketing, against five in the week of September 20, 2026 according to the September 20 edition. Help Desk changed its #1 and moved one brand that far. In GEO, 20 of the 33 brands ranked in the week of September 27, 2026 had been ranked a week earlier, the lowest carry-over share of the ten boards. 13 brands were new and 23 dropped out, the most entries and the most exits of any category. CRM shrank from 32 ranked brands to 25, with 12 exits.

​
Adobe Photoshop doubled its position score sum in AI Image Generators

Adobe Photoshop’s position score sum rose from 55 to 112, the largest rise on its board, and it moved from #5 to #2. It was named in 22 responses against 14, with an average naming position of 1.73, earlier than the 2.04 of Adobe Firefly at #1. AI Image Generators is also the board where answers named the most additional products, 5.0 ranked brands per response against 4.4 a week earlier, and every added name raises the position scores of the brands named ahead of it. beehiiv doubled from 27 to 55 in Email Marketing, from #14 to #9 on 14 responses against 11. Scrunch AI rose from 98 to 129 in GEO, from #4 to #3 on 39 responses of 63 against 30. Both were the largest rises on their boards among brands ranked and named in more than one response in both weeks. Later Influence fell from 136 to 117 in Influencer Marketing while holding #3, on 38 responses against 41. Ahrefs fell from 75 to 59 in SEO while holding #2, on 22 responses against 27. Each was the largest fall on its board among brands ranked and named in more than one response in both weeks.

​
Category opportunity map

On each board, the riser and faller columns are the largest changes in position score sum between the weeks of September 20 and September 27, 2026. Table 5: As of the week of September 27, 2026 · ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US. Risers and fallers are defined under How we measure, and ties are shown together. In Project Management the Planview and Planview Portfolios rows, 9 → 30 and 26 → 13, are left out of both columns. Responses naming the brand, September 20 and September 27, for cells under ten in either week: CleverTap 3 and 8 of 59, Clarity 4 and 7 of 79, BrightEdge 6 and 11 of 79, seoClarity 9 and 13 of 79, Writesonic 6 and 5 of 63, Novelcrafter and Microsoft Editor 7 and 6 of 59 each, and Imagen 4 of 59 and 2 of 58. Source: DecaGEO. Open any category’s live board: CRM, SEO, GEO, Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Project Management, Help Desk, Influencer Marketing, AI Writing Assistants, AI Image Generators.

​
What this means for you

  • Not yet recommended. 84 brand-category slots were newly ranked in the week of September 27, 2026, 13 of them in GEO and 12 in Help Desk. Break Into the AI Ranking walks through finding out why AI is not recommending you yet, using the data of the brands it already does, and Add Your Brand sends a weekly alert when your brand enters the recommendation set.
  • Mid-pack. Outside SEO and Project Management no board moved more than three brands ten places, and Marketing Automation and Email Marketing carried 29 and 32 brands from the week of September 20, 2026 without moving any of them that far. On boards that settled, rows are separated by the two things the DECA Score weighs, how many responses name your brand and how early it is named. Your brand’s DECA history view shows whether your mention rate held over the last four weeks. Then compare your brand with the brand one rank above it on mention rate, and in the Brand Ranking Trail of Prompt & AI Response compare your slot in each answer with that brand’s.
  • Stable or leading. On both boards that changed hands, the brand named in more responses finished second and the brand named earlier on average took #1, as Zendesk Suite did in Help Desk on 50 responses against Freshdesk’s 55. If you lead, compare your brand against the #2 on mention rate as well as DECA, and in the Brand Ranking Trail of Prompt & AI Response compare your slot in each answer with the #2’s.

​
Don’t see your category?

The index measures the ten B2B SaaS categories above. A chart for another category answers four questions.
  • Who does ChatGPT recommend first?
  • Which brands are entering the recommendation set?
  • How high is the Top 5 threshold, meaning the DECA Score needed to break in?
  • Is the category open, volatile, or locked?
Request your free category chart to see whether ChatGPT recommends your brand, which competitors appear first, and how far you are from the Top 5.

​
FAQ

​
Which category #1s changed in the week of September 27, 2026?

Two of ten. Zendesk Suite took Help Desk #1 from Freshdesk by 0.52 DECA points, and CreatorIQ retook Influencer Marketing #1 from Aspire by 7.2 points, one week after losing it. The other eight leaders held, including Dynamics 365 Sales in CRM, whose position score sum fell from 127 to 113 while HubSpot Sales Hub at #2 rose from 101 to 105.

​
How can a brand lead a board while being named in fewer responses?

The DECA Score weighs both how often a brand is named and how early it appears in each answer. In the week of September 27, 2026 the #1 on every board also had the board’s largest position score sum (defined under How we measure). Zendesk Suite was named in 50 of 79 Help Desk responses at an average position of 2.46, and Freshdesk in 55 at 2.71. Zendesk Suite’s position score sum was 192 and Freshdesk’s 191.

​
How close is the Help Desk race?

In the week of September 27, 2026 Zendesk Suite held 192 position score points and Freshdesk 191, a DECA gap of 0.52 points. The two brands were one point apart in the weeks of September 13, 20 and 27, 2026, and because position score sums are whole numbers, one point is the smallest lead short of a tie.

​
Which brands rose on their boards in the week of September 27, 2026?

Adobe Photoshop’s position score sum rose from 55 to 112 in AI Image Generators and it moved from #5 to #2, named in 22 responses against 14 a week earlier. beehiiv went from 27 to 55 in Email Marketing and Scrunch AI from 98 to 129 in GEO. Each was the largest rise on its board among brands ranked and named in more than one response in both weeks.

​
Which brands fell on their boards in the week of September 27, 2026?

Later Influence fell from 136 to 117 position score points in Influencer Marketing while holding #3, and Ahrefs from 75 to 59 in SEO while holding #2, on 22 responses of 79 against 27 in the week of September 20. Each was the largest fall on its board among brands ranked and named in more than one response in both weeks.

​
Did the smaller GPT-5.6 recommendation set persist through the week of September 27, 2026?

Yes. At 401 ranked brands in the week of September 27, 2026, the set has stayed between 399 and 426 in all ten GPT-5.6 weeks, from July 26 to September 27, 2026. The twelve GPT-5.4 weeks, from May 3 to July 19, 2026, ran from 400 to 490.

​
Which category was most volatile in the week of September 27, 2026?

By rank movement, SEO, with 14 of its 54 carry-over brands moving ten or more positions. By turnover it is GEO, where only 20 of the 33 brands ranked in the week of September 27, 2026 were also ranked a week earlier.

​
How we measure

How the weekly prompt set is built and collected is described on the DecaGEO methodology page. The points below are specific to this edition.
  • Collection. The week of September 27, 2026 was collected on ChatGPT model label gpt-5.6-terra, the tenth collection on that label, with the same prompt grid and 714 responses as the week of September 20. In AI Image Generators the per-brand counts and ranked brands per response for the week of September 27 are based on 58 responses.
  • Observation window. 22 weekly collections, from the week of May 3 to the week of September 27, 2026, of which 12 ran on GPT-5.4 and 10 on GPT-5.6. Charts and record statements use all 22 weeks, and week-over-week figures the weeks of September 20 and September 27.
  • Position score sum. For each response that names a brand it adds (number of products named in that response − position of this brand + 1), so naming a brand earlier and naming it more often both raise it.
  • #1-to-#2 gap is the leader’s DECA Score minus the runner-up’s on the same board in the same week, computed at full precision and rounded once at the end.
  • Leader share of prominence is the sum of the largest position score sum in each of the ten categories, divided by the sum of position score sums across every ranked row in that week.
  • Risers and fallers are the largest rise and fall in position score sum on each board between the weeks of September 20 and September 27, among brands ranked and named in more than one response in both weeks.
  • DECA Volatility Index is the number of brand-category pairs ranked in both weeks that moved ten or more rank positions, divided by the number of pairs ranked in both weeks. From this edition the index uses that one denominator, and the week-pair figures quoted here, including 10.6 percent for the week of September 20, 2026, are computed the same way.

​
Sources

Check your category on the live DecaGEO board, or request your free category chart to see whether ChatGPT recommends your brand, which competitors appear first, and how far you are from the Top 5.