Which AI platforms matter most for your business: user profiles in Russia and GEO priorities

Author: Alexey Yakovlev, GEO/AEO specialist, GAEO.ru. Published and updated: June 2026.

In brief: for most Russian B2C businesses, the basic GEO set is Yandex Alice AI, ChatGPT and DeepSeek. For B2B, high-value services and complex choice scenarios, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are usually added. For technical niches, Qwen, DeepSeek, Copilot and Claude matter more. Character.AI becomes relevant separately for youth, gaming and entertainment products.

This article is for business owners, marketing directors, e-commerce managers and brand managers who have already heard about GEO but are unsure whether they need to monitor every AI platform at once or can start with 3–5 priority channels.

Why you should not try to optimize for every AI platform at once

GEO optimization is new and promising, but it is also relatively expensive. There are several reasons for the cost.

GEO sits at the intersection of SEO, PR, content marketing and reputation management. To do GEO well, all 4 disciplines need to be handled well. In practice, that means 4 established specialties plus someone coordinating the whole system.

The cost also depends heavily on the number of AI platforms where the business needs stronger visibility. ChatGPT tends to use sources such as Wikipedia and Reddit, DeepSeek frequently relies on TenChat, while reaching Grok without a clear publication strategy for X is also difficult. Every additional platform requires additional resources.

Finally, in most cases the number of AI platforms affects the cost of GEO visibility analytics. Without monitoring tools, GEO becomes largely blind unless you are working with only 1–2 prompts.

A common mistake is choosing AI platforms by asking which one is currently the most popular. For a business, abstract model popularity matters less than whether your target audience actually uses that platform for choice questions: whom to hire, where to buy, which brand to trust, or which option is better.

It is natural for a business to want to control costs even after recognizing the strategic value of the new channel.

That brings us to the practical question: which AI platforms does your business need right now, and which can wait?

Methodology: where the conclusions come from

The answer is largely sociological, so I used audience research.

The main demographic study of AI use in Russia is still the Mediascope study from November 2025. A smaller second study was published by Anketolog in December 2025. A third, from MTS AdTech and MWS AI in March 2026, confirmed the broader trend of rising AI use across population groups and the growing share of DeepSeek in Russia.

I compared these 3 studies with one another and with other observations. Based on that, this is how I would describe the audiences of popular AI services in Russia.

1. Mediascope / RBC: research on AI audiences.
2. Anketolog: popular AI services among young people.
3. MTS AdTech and MWS AI / CNews: March 2026 research.

Popular AI platforms in Russia and their user profiles

The AI services below are listed in descending order of popularity in Russia as of June 2026.

Yandex Alice AI

The most widely used AI service in Russia, because for many users it is not a separate AI product but an AI layer built into familiar Yandex services: search, browser, app, smart speakers and voice scenarios. Its audience is the broadest and the least technical: ordinary users with everyday, local and purchasing questions such as what to choose, where to go and where to buy.

DeepSeek

A young and technically oriented audience, plus a mass-market layer created by free access and ease of use. It received a major boost from hype and low entry barriers. Average purchasing power is relatively low because DeepSeek is particularly common among school students and teenagers.

ChatGPT

A more digital, motivated, affluent and advanced audience. In Russia this often includes specialists, entrepreneurs, students, marketers, IT professionals and people accustomed to working around access restrictions. ChatGPT also attracts users who want “the best available option,” helped by OpenAI's long-running leadership in the category.

GigaChat

A more domestic, “patriotic” and “safe” choice. It is stronger among users who trust Sber and Russian services, work in corporate environments, or do not want to deal with access to foreign models.

Gemini

Advanced users who deliberately use Google AI products through alternative access routes or through international and work-related Google ecosystems.

Character.AI

A young, gaming and entertainment-oriented audience; high web traffic and engagement, but weaker commercial intent around choosing businesses or solving practical purchasing tasks.

Qwen

Pragmatic AI users who compare tools and select them for specific tasks. It also has a meaningful government and corporate audience because of large-scale Qwen deployments in Russian public-sector organizations.

Perplexity

A smaller, affluent and well-educated audience: researchers, marketers, entrepreneurs, analysts, IT professionals and people who value cited sources.

Claude

A niche audience in Russia: advanced users, editors, analysts, IT and B2B specialists who work with long-form text.

Copilot

Several scenarios overlap here: Bing and Edge users, Windows and Microsoft 365 users, developers and office professionals handling work, technical, analytical and search tasks.

Grok

An even more niche audience: X/Twitter users, technology-oriented users, entrepreneurs, crypto, IT and media professionals.

Google AI Overviews is not listed separately because I was comparing audiences of standalone AI services. Its audience substantially overlaps with Google users in Russia who receive an AI-generated summary above conventional search results.

Not every AI platform is equally useful for business

As the audience profiles show, substantial popularity does not automatically make an AI platform equally valuable for every business. Character.AI, for example, makes sense as a dedicated monitoring and optimization target mainly for gaming or entertainment products with long-term strategic goals.

Core principle: GEO depends not only on the popularity of an AI platform but also on the user's commercial intent. A service may have a large audience yet contribute little when people are selecting a contractor, clinic, brand, SaaS product or supplier. Conversely, a niche service can be highly valuable if it contains your most solvent audience.

How to choose AI platforms for GEO optimization

Below I selected 25 niches where GEO can be useful and commercially justified, then divided AI platforms into priority services and second-tier services worth additional monitoring or promotion.

Priority AI platforms for GEO by business segment

Conclusions

For most Russian B2C segments, the basic set is Yandex Alice AI + ChatGPT + DeepSeek. For complex choice scenarios and B2B, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are usually added. For technical niches, Qwen, DeepSeek, Copilot and Claude matter more. Character.AI becomes relevant separately for youth and entertainment niches.

The final set should still be selected not only by popularity but also by business type, audience, cost of error, average transaction value, geography and decision-making scenario. Otherwise, budget can be spent on monitoring and publications in environments where your target audience does not actually choose contractors, brands or services.

A practical example of how this kind of matrix works in a real project is the Prep-Center GEO case study: BMR grew from 0% to 30%, and 6 customers who discovered the company through AI paid for its services within the first 1.5 months.

If you are choosing a GEO provider, evaluate more than their knowledge of AI platforms. Look at whether they can understand your business, product and target audience. That is how I work at GAEO.ru: I conduct the audit myself, build the intent map myself and take responsibility for the strategy.