Which LLMs are most important for Cape Town businesses to prioritise in their overall search strategy?
For most Cape Town businesses, ChatGPT should be the first LLM to monitor because it remains the dominant standalone AI assistant in global usage. But it should not be the only one. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode matter because they sit inside the search journey people already use every day, while Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot are increasingly relevant for research-heavy, B2B and professional buying journeys.
Which LLMs have the largest user bases, and what does this mean for businesses in Cape Town and South Africa?
Globally, AI usage is no longer a niche behaviour. DataReportal's 2026 mid-year update estimates that 4.02 billion adults now use AI tools, with roughly 2.42 billion people using standalone generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Statcounter's June 2026 AI chatbot market share data also shows ChatGPT leading the category by a wide margin.
- ChatGPT: OpenAI reported 900 million weekly active users in early 2026, and DataReportal's modelling estimates roughly 1.15 billion monthly active ChatGPT users. This makes ChatGPT the main platform to prioritise for most businesses tracking AI-assisted discovery.
- Google Gemini: Gemini is now the most important challenger to ChatGPT. Google reported more than 750 million monthly active Gemini users, while DataReportal also shows strong growth across both Gemini web and app usage. For Cape Town businesses, Gemini matters because it connects directly to Google's wider search and productivity ecosystem.
- Microsoft Copilot: Microsoft reported more than 150 million monthly active users across its first-party Copilot products, and 900 million monthly active users of AI features across Microsoft products. Copilot is especially relevant for B2B, enterprise, SaaS, finance and professional-services audiences.
- Perplexity: Perplexity has a smaller user base than ChatGPT or Gemini, but it is disproportionately important for research-led queries because its answers are citation-heavy. If your customers compare options, read sources and ask detailed buying questions, Perplexity should be part of your visibility tracking.
- Claude, Grok and DeepSeek: These platforms are not always the first priority for local lead generation, but they matter in technical, research-heavy and early-adopter audiences. They are worth monitoring once you already understand your visibility in ChatGPT, Google AI experiences, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot.
South Africa and Cape Town LLM usage
South Africa will not mirror global adoption perfectly, but the direction of travel is clear. DataReportal reports that South Africa had 51.7 million internet users at the end of 2025, equal to 79.6% internet penetration. Even if only a modest share of those users are using LLMs for recommendations, research and purchase decisions, that still represents a meaningful discovery channel for Cape Town businesses.
- South African internet users: DataReportal reports 51.7 million internet users in South Africa at the end of 2025, equal to 79.6% internet penetration. That gives AI search a large addressable audience, even before you consider offline word of mouth or assisted research.
- Monthly AI usage: GWI's South Africa consumer data reports that 90% of surveyed consumers use AI monthly. This is survey-based rather than a direct national user count, but it suggests that AI usage is already mainstream among connected South African consumers.
- ChatGPT usage in South Africa: GWI reports that 44% of surveyed South African consumers use ChatGPT specifically. Applied directionally to South Africa's internet population, that points to a substantial potential ChatGPT audience, but it should be treated as an indicator rather than a precise national total.
- Business LLM adoption in South Africa: World Wide Worx's South African Generative AI Roadmap 2025 found that 67% of large enterprises in South Africa had adopted GenAI tools, up from 45% in 2024. This matters for B2B companies because AI-assisted research is not only a consumer behaviour; it is increasingly part of workplace decision-making too.
- Cape Town implication: Cape Town businesses should assume that a meaningful share of customers, prospects, journalists, investors and employees are already using AI tools to research brands. The question is no longer whether people use these platforms, but whether your business appears when they ask commercially important questions.
The practical takeaway is simple: start with ChatGPT, then layer in Google AI Overviews / AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot depending on your audience.
A tourism business, law firm, clinic, SaaS company or B2B supplier may not see the same LLM mix, so the goal is not to chase every platform equally. The goal is to know where your customers are likely to ask questions and whether your brand appears in the answers.
How do I find out which LLMs, like ChatGPT, are bringing traffic to my website?
Custom Looker Studio Report
The easiest way to monitor LLM traffic over time is to build a custom Looker Studio dashboard using GA4 data. This gives you a visual view of visits from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Claude, rather than forcing you to manually check GA4 every time.
A useful dashboard should show total AI referral sessions, landing pages, source breakdown, conversions, engagement rate and changes over time.
This is especially helpful because LLM traffic is usually small at first, so the pattern matters more than any single visit.
The downside is that it can be fiddly to set up properly.
You need to identify the right source / medium patterns, filter out irrelevant referrals, and make sure the dashboard is not mixing AI traffic with normal organic search or referral traffic.
I'm putting together a free basic template for people who sign up to my mailing list. Don't worry, I won't spam you.
I'm still building this out. If you want something more tailored, you can also contact me for consulting and a dashboard built around your site, goals and reporting needs.
Google Analytics
You can also find AI referral traffic directly in Google Analytics 4. The simplest route is to go into your traffic acquisition or user acquisition reports and filter by source / medium.
Look for sources such as:
chatgpt.comperplexity.aicopilot.microsoft.comgemini.google.comclaude.aipoe.com
This can show you when an LLM has sent users to your site, which pages they landed on, and whether those visits are engaged or converted.
The limitation is that GA4 only shows visits after someone clicks through. It does not show how often your brand appeared in an answer without receiving a click.
It also will not show cases where users saw your brand in ChatGPT, remembered it, and later came back through Google, direct, email or another channel.
For ongoing monitoring, you can create a saved GA4 report or exploration that filters for known AI referral sources.
This is a good starting point, but it should be paired with prompt visibility tracking if you want to understand the full picture.
Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Search Analytics
Google and Bing are starting to expose more AI search data, but the reporting is still developing.
Google's Generative AI performance report is being rolled out to a subset of site owners and includes visibility from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
If you have access, it can help you see which pages are receiving impressions in Google's generative search features.
However, not every site has the report yet, and it may not provide enough detail to build a precise AI visibility strategy on its own.
Bing Webmaster Tools is also becoming more useful.
Its AI Performance report includes citation activity across Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner AI integrations. This helps site owners see how their content is cited in AI-generated answers.
For Cape Town businesses, these reports are worth checking, but they should not be treated as the complete answer.
They are platform-specific, they may not include all AI interactions, and they usually do not tell you how competitors are appearing for the same prompts.
Find out if you are visible for prompts important to your business
The next step is to test whether your business appears for the prompts your customers are likely to ask.
For example:
- "Best immigration lawyer in Cape Town"
- "Top SEO consultant for South African ecommerce businesses"
- "Where should I stay in Cape Town for a luxury holiday?"
- "Best aesthetic clinic in Cape Town"
- "Reliable solar installer in the Western Cape"
This is where prompt visibility tracking tools become useful.
Instead of manually asking ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini the same questions every week, these tools monitor prompts over time and show whether your brand appears, which competitors are mentioned, what sources are cited, and whether the sentiment is positive, neutral or negative.
For South African businesses, a tool like BrandAxis.ai is particularly relevant because it offers AI visibility tracking with city-level reporting.
That matters because AI answers can change depending on location. A business that appears for a general South Africa prompt may not appear for a Cape Town-specific version of the same query.
Have you examined the sources being used to frame and influence answers from ChatGPT?
Getting traffic from ChatGPT is not only about your own website.
It is also about the wider set of sources that AI systems use to understand your brand, your category and your competitors.
When ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Copilot answer a commercial question, they may draw on your website, third-party reviews, directories, listicles, Reddit threads, news articles, social media discussions, Google Business Profile information, knowledge panels and authoritative niche websites.
If those sources are incomplete, outdated or negative, the answer may not frame your business in the way you would want.
That is why an AI visibility audit should look beyond rankings.
You need to know which sources are being cited, which competitors are being recommended, what claims are being repeated, and whether the overall narrative is accurate.
- User Generated Content (UGC discussions) & Social Media: AI tools often draw signals from public discussions, forums, Reddit threads, YouTube comments, LinkedIn posts and other social content. These sources can influence how trustworthy, popular or controversial a business appears.
- Roundups/Listicles: "Best of" articles and comparison pages can strongly shape AI recommendations. If your competitors are included in relevant roundups and your business is missing, AI tools may learn that they are more commonly recommended.
- Authority Websites In Your Niche: Industry publications, respected blogs, associations, local media and expert resources can help reinforce your credibility. These sources are especially important in YMYL or high-trust categories such as legal, finance, healthcare and B2B services.
- Reviews And Directory Presence: Google Business Profile, niche directories, travel platforms, medical directories, SaaS review sites and local business listings can all feed into the wider trust picture. Inconsistent details, weak reviews or missing profiles can reduce confidence.
- Entity Recognition Signals: AI systems need to understand who you are, what you do, where you operate and how you connect to other known entities. Consistent brand naming, schema markup, author information, organisation details, social profiles and citations help reduce ambiguity.
The aim is to build a stronger evidence footprint around your business. Your website is the foundation, but AI search visibility is increasingly shaped by the wider web of sources around your brand.
Do you understand key metrics like citation rate, retrieval rate, sentiment, visibility and share of voice?
AI visibility tracking introduces a few metrics that are different from traditional SEO rankings. They are useful because LLM answers are not fixed search results. Your brand might appear in one answer, be excluded from another, or be mentioned without being cited as a source.
The most important metrics to understand are:
- Citation rate: How often your website or brand is cited as a source in AI-generated answers. A high citation rate means AI systems are using your content as supporting evidence, not just mentioning you in passing.
- Retrieval rate: How often your content is retrieved or used by the AI system when generating an answer. This is broader than visible citations because some systems may use a page to inform an answer without showing it as a clickable source.
- Sentiment: Whether the AI answer frames your brand positively, neutrally or negatively. This matters because visibility is not always good if the answer highlights weaknesses, outdated information or competitor advantages.
- Visibility: How often your brand appears for the prompts that matter to your business. This can include direct mentions, recommendations, citations and comparisons.
- SOV / Share of Voice: How much of the AI answer space your brand owns compared with competitors. If three competitors appear consistently and your business rarely appears, your share of voice is low even if your traditional Google rankings look healthy.
These metrics help you move from guesswork to diagnosis. If your citation rate is low, you may need stronger source-worthy content. If your visibility is low, you may need better entity signals and third-party mentions. If your sentiment is weak, you may need to correct outdated information or improve your review and reputation footprint.
Find an AI Search optimisation specialist in Cape Town to help assess and create a strategy for your business
Finding an AI search optimisation specialist in Cape Town can help you move from curiosity to a practical strategy.
The work should not start with vague advice about "getting ready for AI". It should start with evidence: which prompts matter, where your brand appears, which competitors are being recommended, which sources are shaping the answers, and whether AI tools describe your business accurately.
My process usually starts with an AI visibility audit.
This looks at your current visibility across relevant prompts, the sources being cited, competitor share of voice, sentiment, entity signals, and the gaps in your content or third-party presence.
From there, I build a strategy that prioritises the actions most likely to improve visibility, citations and qualified referral traffic.
The next step is execution.
Depending on the business, this might include improving service pages, creating source-worthy content, strengthening author and organisation signals, cleaning up directory and review profiles, improving schema markup, earning inclusion in relevant roundups, or building a reporting dashboard to track AI referral traffic over time.
For some businesses, I can consult and execute directly.
For larger companies or campaigns that need a broader team, I may bring you on as a client of the agency where I am Head of SEO.
Either way, the aim is the same: build a clear, measurable AI search strategy that helps Cape Town businesses understand where they stand today and what to improve next.
Let's get started. Contact me.
Sources
- DataReportal South Africa 2026
- DataReportal 2026 Mid-Year Global Update
- GWI South Africa consumers
- OpenAI Signals: How ChatGPT adoption has expanded
- Microsoft AI in Action
- Google Search Console Generative AI performance report
- Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance report
- World Wide Worx South African Generative AI Roadmap 2025
