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Technology · a live data story

Productivity Apps,
according to AI

Every week we ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini the questions real UK consumers ask about productivity apps — and record exactly which brands they put forward. Right now, Apple Notes owns the conversation.

0 AI answers this run · 0 brands named · measured, never estimated

The podium

Apple Notes is the default answer.

Named in 58% of productivity apps answers, typically in position 3.3. Apple Reminders follows at 52%, Google Keep at 48%.

Apple Reminders
52% of answers
Apple Notes
58% of answers
Google Keep
48% of answers
The full board

Every brand AI names, ranked.

Visibility is the share of answers naming the brand; citation share is its slice of all brand-owned pages cited; read→cited is how often its pages convert a read into a citation.

#BrandVisibilityAvg. positionCitation shareRead→cited
1Apple Notes 58% 3.3 19% 40%
2Apple Reminders 52% 4.1 0%
3Google Keep 48% 3.8 4% 17%
4Notion 40% 5.0 1% 100%
5Microsoft To Do 33% 3.8 0%
6Things 3 32% 4.9 1% 8%
7Obsidian 28% 4.3 3% 25%
8Todoist 25% 2.7 9% 44%
9Google Calendar 23% 4.7 0%
10Microsoft OneNote 23% 5.1 16% 26%
11TickTick 18% 4.1 3% 17%
12Routine 17% 3.9 0%
13Google Tasks 17% 5.0 0%
14Structured 15% 5.4 0%
15Streaks 13% 2.8 0%
What AI wants here

Apple Notes is named most. That is not the same as being wanted.

Being named is visibility. Underneath it, every answer describes a brand in three ways — how much it stands out, how much it belongs, and how much it is returned to. In productivity apps, Google Calendar leads attachment at 125 against Roam Research at 87, indexed on the category at 100.

Attachment
Google Calendar125
Roam Research87
38-point spread · tracks being named 0.39
Attraction
Notion128
Evernote94
34-point spread · tracks being named 0.03
Affinity
Todoist125
Roam Research99
26-point spread · tracks being named 0.35
Todoist: Attraction 122, Affinity 125, Attachment 123
Todoist
Complete desire
Notion: Attraction 128, Affinity 118, Attachment 111
Notion
Complete desire
Obsidian: Attraction 126, Affinity 116, Attachment 112
Obsidian
Complete desire
AttractionAffinityAttachment

Each whorl lights one ring per index threshold cleared. See the full productivity apps desire edition →

What AI searched for first

Before it answers, it goes looking for Apple Notes.

An assistant does not answer from memory alone. It runs its own web searches first, and whoever it searches for is the shortlist it then chooses from. Across 64 searches in productivity apps, Apple Notes is named in 18% of the ones that name a brand at all. ChatGPT Web does not report its searches, so these shares are measured against the ones that do.

Apple Notes 18%
Todoist 8%
Google Keep 5%
Microsoft To Do 5%
Obsidian 5%
Standard Notes 5%
Claude
Searches per question1.6
Names a brand6%
Names a year61%
Goes to a site0%
Gemini
Searches per question2.1
Names a brand16%
Names a year26%
Goes to a site0%
ChatGPT
Searches per question1.4
Names a brand73%
Names a year47%
Goes to a site33%
best note taking apps 2026 Notion Obsidian OneNote Evernote Apple Notes Google Keep features official
ChatGPT
site:todoist.com/product Todoist features natural language recurring tasks projects
ChatGPT
best habit tracking apps UK pricing premium Streaks Productive Habitify official
ChatGPT
official Todoist features recurring due dates filters task app
ChatGPT

These are the assistants' own searches, read from their answers — not what anyone typed into a search engine.

Who AI trusts here

The referees of productivity apps.

The independent sources AI models cite when answering productivity apps questions — the places a brand needs to be seen, reviewed and ranked.

reddit.com 18 cites
medium.com 10 cites
habitbox.app 6 cites
youtube.com 5 cites
zapier.com 5 cites
atlasworkspace.ai 4 cites
simplyboard.io 4 cites
toolfinder.com 4 cites
securednotes.io 3 cites
agiled.app 2 cites
Read is not cited

Todoist converts reads into citations. Things 3 doesn't.

When Claude or ChatGPT opens a brand's own pages while answering, does the page make the cited-sources list? Todoist converts 44% of reads; Things 3 just 8%. That gap is a content problem, not a visibility problem.

Todoist · read 9×44%
Apple Notes · read 25×40%
Microsoft OneNote · read 23×26%
Obsidian · read 4×25%
Google Keep · read 6×17%
TickTick · read 12×17%
Things 3 · read 12×8%
Full data table
#BrandVisibilityAvg. positionCitation shareRead→cited
1Apple Notes58%3.319%40%
2Apple Reminders52%4.10%
3Google Keep48%3.84%17%
4Notion40%5.01%100%
5Microsoft To Do33%3.80%
6Things 332%4.91%8%
7Obsidian28%4.33%25%
8Todoist25%2.79%44%
9Google Calendar23%4.70%
10Microsoft OneNote23%5.116%26%
11TickTick18%4.13%17%
12Routine17%3.90%
13Google Tasks17%5.00%
14Structured15%5.40%
15Streaks13%2.80%
Which AI you ask

Three models. Three different answers.

Ask about productivity apps and the brand you are shown depends on the assistant: Claude → Apple Reminders, Gemini → Notion, ChatGPT → Apple Notes. Their top-five lists share just 43% of names.

Claude recommends
Apple Reminders
named in 50% of its answers
Gemini recommends
Notion
named in 50% of its answers
ChatGPT recommends
Apple Notes
named in 80% of its answers

Brands whose visibility swings most between models — the bar per model, widest gap on the right.

Apple Reminders 55pp
Things 3 40pp
Apple Notes 35pp
Microsoft To Do 30pp
Google Keep 20pp
Notion 20pp
Microsoft OneNote 20pp
TickTick 20pp
ClaudeGeminiChatGPT
The data behind this chart
BrandClaudeGeminiChatGPTSpread
Apple Reminders50%25%80%55pp
Things 310%50%35%40pp
Apple Notes45%50%80%35pp
Microsoft To Do15%40%45%30pp
Google Keep45%40%60%20pp
Notion30%50%40%20pp
Microsoft OneNote20%15%35%20pp
TickTick10%30%15%20pp
Google Tasks5%20%25%20pp
Structured25%10%10%15pp
What AI reads here

Comparisons carry productivity apps.

Every page AI opened while answering, classified by what kind of page it is. Comparisons supply the most citations; How-to guides convert best — 96% of the ones models opened were actually cited.

Comparisons
61 cited · 3 read only
95% of reads cited
Listicles
28 cited · 5 read only
85% of reads cited
pricing
24 cited · 10 read only
71% of reads cited
Product pages
23 cited · 14 read only
62% of reads cited
How-to guides
22 cited · 1 read only
96% of reads cited
Community threads
13 cited · 1 read only
93% of reads cited
Editorial
11 cited · 20 read only
35% of reads cited
Documentation
11 cited · 6 read only
65% of reads cited
The data behind this chart
Page typeCitedRead but not citedConversion
Comparisons61395%
Listicles28585%
pricing241071%
Product pages231462%
How-to guides22196%
Community threads13193%
Editorial112035%
Documentation11665%
What gets cited

Structured data is what separates cited from ignored.

Of the productivity apps pages models actually opened, how much more often each feature's pages ended up in the cited sources. Structured data is worth 19 percentage points; cites its sources pages fare 36pp worse. Measured within the read population, so selection can't flatter it.

Structured data +19pp
Answer up front +9pp
Comparison table +5pp
Named author +2pp
Updated this year -13pp
Hard statistics -13pp
Cites its sources -36pp
The data behind this chart
FeaturePages withCited %Pages withoutCited %Difference
Structured data20478%8159%+19pp
Answer up front14177%14468%+9pp
Comparison table11676%16970%+5pp
Named author13874%14771%+2pp
Updated this year12866%15778%-13pp
Hard statistics5562%23075%-13pp
Cites its sources2540%26076%-36pp
Citation readiness

Morgen builds pages AI can quote.

Readiness scores each brand's own pages on the structure models reward — a direct answer up front, tables, hard numbers, named authors, structured data, recency, specifications. Morgen is the widest gap: well-built pages that still aren't converting into citations.

BrandReadinessPages citedPages profiled
Morgen 63 17% 6
ClickUp 48 25% 8
Calendly 46 14% 7
Any.do 40 33% 6
Asana 33 67% 3
Superhuman 29 0% 3
Notesnook 29 50% 6
Cal.com 25 25% 8
Habitify 23 17% 6
Apple Notes 23 20% 35

Readiness is the share of eight measurable structural signals present on a brand's profiled pages. It is a build-quality measure, not a ranking of the brand.

What the answers answer

The questions productivity apps pages have to settle.

Read straight off the pages AI cited: the consumer questions cited content answers most often. Content that fails to settle these is content models have no reason to quote.

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Keep exploring

Nineteen more categories.

Method: 20 unbranded consumer prompts per category, spread across the buying journey, run weekly against ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Read→cited uses Claude and ChatGPT only (Gemini does not separate the two). Correlational observations of model behaviour at the time of the run. Data from the run completed Thu, 03 Sep 2026 07:05:54 GMT.

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