Thunderdome B2B SaaS AI Visibility Index

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September 2026 snapshot · 72 AI answers Contested

Project Management: AI Visibility Ranking

Work management platforms for planning, tracking, and shipping projects. Right now, Jira is the brand AI assistants recommend most, with a Visibility Score of 60 and the #1 spot in 22% of answers. Head-to-head: Jira vs Asana →

These rankings are measured from what the three models know from training, not a live web search. When the models DO search the web, see which sources they cite. Methodology.

Project management is a four-way fight with no settled answer.

Jira leads Asana by just 1 point, which is effectively a tie given how differently each model ranks them: ChatGPT favors Asana at 75 while Claude splits almost evenly between them. ClickUp is the most polarizing brand in the set, scoring 70.8 on ChatGPT but only 31.3 on Claude, meaning its AI visibility depends heavily on which model a buyer happens to be using. Linear's first-pick rate of 19% punches above its overall score of 45.6, suggesting it gets chosen first more often than its general mention frequency would predict.

AI-generated analysis of the September 2026 measurements.

# Brand Visibility Score Trend (3 mo) Mention rate Avg. position #1 pick rate Models
1 Jira
60
±4.4
Jul 2026: 54.3 · Aug 2026: 59.3 · Sep 2026: 60 flat 75% 3.0 22% ChatGPT #3 Claude #1 Gemini #6
2 Asana
59
±4.5
Jul 2026: 57.5 · Aug 2026: 57.8 · Sep 2026: 59.3 flat 78% 3.4 11% ChatGPT #1 Claude #4 Gemini #4
3 ClickUp
53
±2.6
Jul 2026: 46.5 · Aug 2026: 52.8 · Sep 2026: 53.3 flat 65% 2.8 17% ChatGPT #2 Claude #5 Gemini #1
4 Notion
49
±3.9
Jul 2026: 55.4 · Aug 2026: 53.1 · Sep 2026: 48.6 flat 64% 3.4 13% ChatGPT #6 Claude #3 Gemini #5
5 Linear
46
±3.2
Jul 2026: 54.6 · Aug 2026: 54.4 · Sep 2026: 45.6 ▼ 9 56% 2.8 19% ChatGPT #7 Claude #2 Gemini #3
6 monday.com
41
±6
Jul 2026: 44.4 · Aug 2026: 44.6 · Sep 2026: 41.1 flat 60% 4.1 6% ChatGPT #5 Claude #7 Gemini #2
7 Trello
33
±3.5
Jul 2026: 32.8 · Aug 2026: 27.8 · Sep 2026: 33.2 ▲ 5 47% 4.0 1% ChatGPT #4 Claude #6 Gemini #7
8 Microsoft Project
14
±2.9
Jul 2026: 12.4 · Aug 2026: 12.8 · Sep 2026: 14.2 flat 21% 4.2 8% ChatGPT #8 Claude #8 Gemini #12
9 Smartsheet
11
±2.9
Jul 2026: 10.8 · Aug 2026: 9.7 · Sep 2026: 11.4 flat 21% 5.5 0% ChatGPT #9 Claude #9 Gemini #9
10 ServiceNow
8
±2.3
Jul 2026: 6 · Aug 2026: 4 · Sep 2026: 7.6 ▲ 4 10% 3.1 0% ChatGPT #11 Claude #10 Gemini #14
11 Coda
7
±2.2
Jul 2026: 9.2 · Aug 2026: 7.4 · Sep 2026: 7.2 flat 10% 3.6 0% ChatGPT #12 Claude #13 Gemini #8
12 Basecamp
6
±3.4
Jul 2026: 4.9 · Aug 2026: 3.3 · Sep 2026: 6.3 flat 15% 6.9 0% ChatGPT #15 Claude #11 Gemini #10
13 GitHub Projects
5
±3.3
Jul 2026: 6.3 · Aug 2026: 7.4 · Sep 2026: 4.6 flat 7% 4.4 0% ChatGPT #14 Claude #14 Gemini #11
14 Azure DevOps
4
±4
Jul 2026: 3.1 · Aug 2026: 3.8 · Sep 2026: 4.4 flat 8% 5.7 0% ChatGPT #13 Claude #15 Gemini #13
15 Confluence
4
±2.5
Jul 2026: 5.3 · Aug 2026: 6.7 · Sep 2026: 4.4 flat 8% 5.7 0% ChatGPT #10 Claude #12 Gemini

The ± under each score is the reliability band: how much the number would move if we re-ran the identical measurement. It is tight because each prompt is sampled multiple times. It is not the same as how much the ranking depends on which prompts we ask — a separate, wider figure shown on hover.

Just below the cutoff: Microsoft Planner (3.1), GitHub (2.9), Todoist (2.9), Atlassian (2.8), Planview (2.2). 39 brands were scored in this category; the leaderboard shows the top 15.

Visibility Score: position-weighted presence across all measured answers, 0 to 100. A score of 100 means the brand was the first recommendation in every answer. Every point in a trend line is a live monthly measurement; there is no modeled or backfilled history. Full methodology.

Openness 40/100: the share of this category's recommendation weight not held by the leader.

Compare brands in Project Management head-to-head →  ·  Explore the prompt tree →

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Do the models agree?

Per-model Visibility Scores for the top 10. A long gray bar means the three assistants disagree about the brand. Hover a row for exact values.

ChatGPT Claude Gemini
0 25 50 75 100 Visibility Score · 0 = never mentioned, 100 = always the first recommendation Jira Asana ClickUp Notion Linear monday.com Trello Microsoft Project Smartsheet ServiceNow

Where they land in the answer

When a brand is mentioned, where does it appear? Box shows the middle 50% of positions, the thick line is the median, whiskers are the extremes. Hover a row for the detail.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Position in the answer · 1 = the first product recommended Jira Asana ClickUp Notion Linear monday.com Trello Microsoft Project Smartsheet ServiceNow

What each model recommends first

ChatGPT

gpt-5.4

1 Asana
75
2 ClickUp
71
3 Jira
70
4 Trello
45
5 monday.com
40

Claude

claude-sonnet-4-6

1 Jira
70
2 Linear
64
3 Notion
63
4 Asana
58
5 ClickUp
31

Gemini

gemini-3-flash-preview

1 ClickUp
58
2 monday.com
53
3 Linear
45
4 Asana
45
5 Notion
44

The questions we asked

Each model answered every prompt 3 times in September 2026. Prompts are brand-neutral so no vendor gets seeded into the question.

  1. Best overall
    What's the best project management tool for a software company? See who wins it →
  2. Use-case fit
    Our team of 30 needs to plan sprints and track cross-functional projects. What should we use? See who wins it →
  3. Top tools in 2026
    What are the top project management platforms in 2026? See who wins it →
  4. Startup & small team
    Which project management tool is best for a startup that moves fast? See who wins it →
  5. Enterprise pick
    Which project management platform should a large enterprise standardize on, considering security, compliance, and scale? See who wins it →
  6. Feature-led ask
    I need something to manage tasks, docs, and roadmaps in one place. What do you recommend? See who wins it →
  7. If you could pick one
    If you could only pick one project management tool, which one and why? See who wins it →
  8. Budget & alternatives
    What's the best project management software for value for money? See who wins it →

Who wins for what

AI buying questions are long tail: real buyers ask for their size, industry, budget, and situation, not just "what's the best project management". Each column is one of those qualified questions, scored the same way as the main ranking but measured on the lived surface: real assistant answers with live web access. The slot score is position-weighted: being recommended first counts far more than a trailing mention.

The first column is the overall (unsegmented) pick; the rest are segmented questions — a full row is breadth, a single dot is a niche a brand owns. Overall = the headline model ranking; segment dots = the live, web-grounded surface.

Best forWinnerSlot scoreStatus
Company size
EnterpriseWrike71Contested
Mid-marketmonday.com84Open
Small businessAsana93Contested
StartupsClickUp97Owned
Industry
AgenciesClickUp83Open
EcommerceAsana92Contested
Healthcaremonday.com85Open
NonprofitsAsana68Open
Real estatemonday.com56Open
Price posture
Best valueClickUp65Contested
BudgetTrello85Contested
FreeClickUp95Contested
Job to be done
Client projectsClickUp65Open
Simple task trackingTrello92Contested
Software sprintsJira99Owned
Switching from
Asana alternativeClickUp97Open
Jira alternativeClickUp89Contested