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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. Google Keep follows at 53%, Apple Reminders at 45%.

Google Keep
53% of answers
Apple Notes
58% of answers
Apple Reminders
45% 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 10% 21%
2Google Keep 53% 4.9 13% 21%
3Apple Reminders 45% 4.3 0%
4Notion 37% 5.3 3% 20%
5Microsoft To Do 33% 3.7 0%
6Microsoft OneNote 27% 5.1 13% 21%
7Routine 27% 5.4 0%
8Things 3 25% 4.0 0%
9Obsidian 23% 3.8 4% 23%
10Todoist 23% 3.8 3% 25%
11Google Calendar 23% 4.8 0%
12Streaks 20% 3.8 1% 100%
13Structured 18% 5.5 0%
14Google Tasks 18% 7.0 0%
15TickTick 17% 5.2 3% 25%
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 affinity at 115 against ClickUp at 83, indexed on the category at 100.

Affinity
Google Calendar115
ClickUp83
32-point spread · tracks being named 0.74
Attraction
Notion114
Evernote86
28-point spread · tracks being named -0.13
Attachment
Google Calendar113
Asana88
25-point spread · tracks being named 0.64
Google Calendar: Attraction 101, Affinity 115, Attachment 113
Google Calendar
Quietly trusted
Todoist: Attraction 106, Affinity 108, Attachment 108
Todoist
Complete desire
Notion: Attraction 114, Affinity 102, Attachment 95
Notion
Magnetic but unbought
AttractionAffinityAttachment

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

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 9 cites
habitbox.app 5 cites
medium.com 5 cites
zapier.com 5 cites
atlasworkspace.ai 3 cites
simplyboard.io 3 cites
toolfinder.com 3 cites
youtube.com 3 cites
add.org 2 cites
cohorty.app 2 cites
Read is not cited

Todoist converts reads into citations. Notion doesn't.

When Claude or ChatGPT opens a brand's own pages while answering, does the page make the cited-sources list? Todoist converts 25% of reads; Notion just 20%. That gap is a content problem, not a visibility problem.

Todoist · read 8×25%
TickTick · read 4×25%
Obsidian · read 13×23%
Apple Notes · read 28×21%
Microsoft OneNote · read 28×21%
Google Keep · read 29×21%
Notion · read 5×20%
Full data table
#BrandVisibilityAvg. positionCitation shareRead→cited
1Apple Notes58%3.310%21%
2Google Keep53%4.913%21%
3Apple Reminders45%4.30%
4Notion37%5.33%20%
5Microsoft To Do33%3.70%
6Microsoft OneNote27%5.113%21%
7Routine27%5.40%
8Things 325%4.00%
9Obsidian23%3.84%23%
10Todoist23%3.83%25%
11Google Calendar23%4.80%
12Streaks20%3.81%100%
13Structured18%5.50%
14Google Tasks18%7.00%
15TickTick17%5.23%25%
Which AI you ask

All three models agree: Apple Notes.

A rare consensus — every model puts Apple Notes first, and their top-five lists overlap 43%. Winning here means winning everywhere at once.

Claude recommends
Apple Notes
named in 50% of its answers
Gemini recommends
Apple Notes
named in 55% of its answers
ChatGPT recommends
Apple Notes
named in 70% of its answers

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

Google Tasks 35pp
Apple Reminders 30pp
Microsoft To Do 30pp
Google Calendar 25pp
TickTick 25pp
Apple Notes 20pp
Google Keep 20pp
Microsoft OneNote 20pp
ClaudeGeminiChatGPT
The data behind this chart
BrandClaudeGeminiChatGPTSpread
Google Tasks5%10%40%35pp
Apple Reminders35%35%65%30pp
Microsoft To Do15%45%40%30pp
Google Calendar15%15%40%25pp
TickTick5%30%15%25pp
Apple Notes50%55%70%20pp
Google Keep45%50%65%20pp
Microsoft OneNote30%15%35%20pp
Things 315%35%25%20pp
Structured20%10%25%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
Documentation
11 cited · 6 read only
65% of reads cited
Editorial
11 cited · 20 read only
35% of reads cited
The data behind this chart
Page typeCitedRead but not citedConversion
Comparisons61395%
Listicles28585%
pricing241071%
Product pages231462%
How-to guides22196%
Community threads13193%
Documentation11665%
Editorial112035%
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

Calendly 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. Calendly is the widest gap: well-built pages that still aren't converting into citations.

BrandReadinessPages citedPages profiled
Calendly 45 20% 5
ClickUp 38 67% 3
Apple Notes 30 58% 12
Notesnook 28 75% 4
Google Keep 28 89% 9
Cal.com 25 25% 8
Evernote 25 33% 3
Habitify 25 25% 4
Obsidian 19 75% 4
Standard Notes 18 80% 5

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 Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:41:23 GMT.

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