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Brown Seo, Founding Engineer (AI & Infrastructure) · Last updated: October 19, 2026

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DECA Weekly AI Recommendation Index

Week of October 11, 2026 · ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US · 10 categories. On three of DecaGEO’s ten ChatGPT category boards in the week of October 11, 2026, the #2 brand was recommended in more answers than the #1: Marketing Automation, Help Desk and Influencer Marketing. Braze led HubSpot Marketing Hub by 2.0 DECA points and Zendesk Suite led Freshdesk by 2.2, the closest races after CRM, because the DECA Score weighs where a brand appears in each answer as well as how often it is named. Ranks and DECA Scores for the week of October 11, 2026 are not compared with earlier weeks. Table 1: DECA Weekly Index headline metrics for the ten categories, week of October 11, 2026. Definitions are under How we measure. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US.
Summary for citation: In DecaGEO’s week of October 11, 2026 data (ChatGPT GPT-5.6, US, ten B2B SaaS categories), the #2 brand was recommended in more answers than the #1 on three boards. In Marketing Automation, HubSpot Marketing Hub was named in 29 of 59 answers and the #1, Braze, in 26, with a #1-to-#2 gap of 2.0 DECA points. In Help Desk, Freshdesk was named in 54 of 79 answers and the #1, Zendesk Suite, in 49, a gap of 2.2 points. In Influencer Marketing, Aspire was named in 47 of 79 and the #1, CreatorIQ, in 43, a gap of 19.3 points. The closest race was CRM, where HubSpot Sales Hub led Salesforce Sales Cloud by 1.0 DECA points and was also named in more answers, 54 of 79 against 47. The widest gap was in SEO, where Semrush led Ahrefs by 57.6 points.
Key takeaway: On three of the ten boards in the week of October 11, 2026, the #1 was recommended in fewer answers than the #2. If you lead your board, read the #2’s mention rate alongside the DECA gap, and check where each of you appears in the answers.
Dot chart of the mention rates of each board's #1 and #2 in the week of October 11, 2026. On CRM, the closest board at a 1.0-point DECA gap, the #1 is at 68.4 percent and the #2 at 59.5. On the next two the #2 is to the right of the #1: Marketing Automation, 49.2 against 44.1 percent with a 2.0-point gap, and Help Desk, 68.4 against 62.0 percent with a 2.2-point gap. Influencer Marketing also has the #2 ahead, 59.5 against 54.4 percent. On SEO, the widest gap at 57.6 points, the #1 is at 69.6 percent and the #2 at 34.2.

Mention rate, the share of the category's answers that recommended the brand, for the #1 and #2 on each of the ten boards, week of October 11, 2026. Boards are ordered by the #1-to-#2 DECA gap, closest at top. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US.

In Marketing Automation, HubSpot Marketing Hub was named in 29 of the 59 answers and Braze in 26. Braze ranked #1, 2.0 DECA points ahead, so its lead came from where it appeared in the answers that named it. Help Desk shows the same split. Freshdesk was named in 54 of 79 answers and Zendesk Suite in 49, and Zendesk Suite ranked #1 by 2.2 points. Influencer Marketing has the same order with a wider margin. Aspire was named in 47 of 79 answers and CreatorIQ in 43, and CreatorIQ ranked #1 by 19.3 points. On the other seven boards the #1 was named in more answers than either brand below it in the top three. That includes the closest race, CRM, where HubSpot Sales Hub was named in 54 of 79 answers and Salesforce Sales Cloud in 47, and HubSpot Sales Hub ranked #1 by 1.0 points.

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Top three on each board

Table 2: The top three brands by DECA Score on each of the ten boards, week of October 11, 2026. Mention rate is the share of the category’s answers that recommended the brand, out of 79 answers in CRM, Email Marketing, Project Management, Help Desk, Influencer Marketing and SEO, 59 in Marketing Automation, AI Writing Assistants and AI Image Generators, and 63 in GEO. Source: DecaGEO, ChatGPT (GPT-5.6), US. The #3 had a higher mention rate than the #2 on one board. Asana was named in 34 Project Management answers and Jira, the #2, in 32. In GEO, Scrunch AI, the #3, and Profound, the #2, were each named in 30 of 63 answers.

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What this means for you

  • Not yet recommended. 415 brand-category slots were ranked across the ten boards in the week of October 11, 2026. The public board for each category shows the current ranking without an account. Break Into the AI Ranking walks through finding out why AI is not recommending you yet, and with a free account Add Your Brand sends a weekly alert when your brand enters the recommendation set.
  • Close behind the #1. HubSpot Marketing Hub, Freshdesk and Aspire were named in more answers than the brand ranked above them. If you are the #2 with the higher mention rate, log in with a free account and open the Brand Ranking Trail in Prompt & AI Response. It shows every recommended brand in the order of each answer, so you can see the answers where the #1 came before you. Pro adds the full answer text.
  • Leading. A small DECA gap with a lower mention rate means the lead rests on where you appear in the answers that name you. Compare your brand against the #2 on mention rate as well as DECA, and in Chart History read your mention rate across the last four weeks with a free account. Pro keeps the full history.

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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.

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FAQ

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Which brands were #1 on DecaGEO’s ChatGPT boards in the week of October 11, 2026?

HubSpot Sales Hub in CRM, Braze in Marketing Automation, Brevo Marketing Platform in Email Marketing, ClickUp in Project Management, Zendesk Suite in Help Desk, CreatorIQ in Influencer Marketing, Grammarly in AI Writing Assistants, Adobe Firefly in AI Image Generators, and Semrush in both SEO and GEO.

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Which category had the closest race in the week of October 11, 2026?

CRM, where HubSpot Sales Hub led Salesforce Sales Cloud by 1.0 DECA points and was named in more answers, 54 of 79 against 47. Marketing Automation, where Braze led HubSpot Marketing Hub by 2.0 points, and Help Desk, where Zendesk Suite led Freshdesk by 2.2, came next. On both of those boards the #2 was named in more answers than the #1. The DECA Score counts each recommendation and weighs it by where the brand appears in the answer. Mention rate counts only whether the brand was recommended. A brand that appears earlier in fewer answers can outscore one that appears later in more.

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How we measure

How the weekly prompt set is built and collected is described on the DecaGEO methodology page.
  • Collection. The week of October 11, 2026 was collected on GPT-5.6 with the same prompt set as the week of October 4, 2026.
  • Week boundary. Ranks and DECA Scores for the week of October 11, 2026, including the #1-to-#2 gaps, are not compared with earlier weeks.
  • Mention rate is the share of a category’s responses in a week that recommended the brand.
  • Reading the DECA Score. The DECA Score weighs how often a brand is recommended by where it appears in each answer. 100 is the category’s #1 that week, and every other brand’s score is relative to the #1. Whether a brand itself gained shows in its mention rate and in its slot in each answer, in the Brand Ranking Trail. The DECA Score of a brand other than the #1 is compared only with other brands in the same week and category.
  • #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.

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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.