A quiet shift in brand discovery is occurring in India, as shoppers ask AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google's AI Overviews, and Copilot for product recommendations. Across 21,282 citations traced from these assistants, competitor websites made up 51.6% of all citations, while a brand's own website accounted for only 5.8%. Akash Singh, co-founder of Pallix, noted that when an assistant explains a brand to a customer, roughly half the time it is quoting a rival's page. The five engines barely agree with each other; ChatGPT cites around 93% from brand-owned websites, with 59% from competitors and 34% from the brand itself, while Perplexity cites from competitors at 48%, then editorial, comparison pages, YouTube, and marketplaces.