Anyone in Vienna looking for good bread, an organic bakery, or the best bread roll will no longer just get classic Google results. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems provide direct recommendations – and also decide which brands are mentioned and which websites are used as sources. A recent study by the Viennese digital media agency SlopeLift now shows for the first time in detail how visible major Viennese bakeries are in this new search landscape.

Joseph Brot leads in mentions, Öfferl in citations.

The study examined 14 major Viennese bakery brands using 80 prompts across eight topic categories. Responses were observed in July 2026 via six systems: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini. Therefore, the study does not measure traditional Google rankings, but rather how frequently brands appear in generated responses and which domains are identified as sources.
In terms of brand coverage, Joseph Brot leads with 45.3 percent, just ahead of the organic bakery Öfferl with 44.4 percent. Ströck follows significantly behind with 30.6 percent. Anker achieves 15.9 percent, and Felber 15.8 percent. Joseph Brot also leads in the "likelihood to buy" metric reported by SlopeLift with 77 percent, followed by Öfferl with 74 percent and Ströck with 73 percent.
The picture changes when it comes to website citations. oefferl.bio has 2,098 domain citations, putting it ahead of joseph.co.at with 1,877. Bakery Grimm is particularly noteworthy: while only ranking sixth in brand mentions, its website achieves third place with 1,023 citations – even ahead of Ströck, Felber , and Anker. This difference is precisely what's interesting for businesses: brand awareness alone apparently doesn't determine whether their own website is used as a source by AI systems.

If the AI names the brand but refers to other sources

The gap between recommendations and actual links is illustrated by the prompt "Where can I buy the best bread in Vienna?". According to the study, Joseph Brot receives 150 brand mentions, and Öfferl 147. However, their own websites are only cited once or twice, respectively. The systems rely on Google, Reddit, and MeinBezirk significantly more often. Especially with local and subjective recommendations, this creates a mix of sources that only partially aligns with the traditional concept of search engine optimization.
Across the entire study, google.com is the most frequent source with 3,813 citations, followed by wien.info with 3,177, reddit.com with 2,857, and 1000thingsmagazine.com with 2,688. Only then does the first bakery website, oefferl.bio, appear. A single Reddit thread asking about the best Viennese bakery was cited as a source more than 300 times across multiple prompts.

Austrian specialist content is lacking in knowledge-based questions.

Of particular relevance to the domestic industry is another detail: According to SlopeLift, AI systems frequently rely on German or generic specialist sources when answering general questions about bread and baked goods. Austrian bakeries hardly feature in this category. This presents a concrete opportunity for businesses, guilds, and trade publications: well-structured content on raw materials, sourdough, bread quality, storage, allergens, regional specialties, or sustainability can be valuable not only for traditional search engines but also as citable sources for AI systems.

AI search is no longer a fringe topic.

The growing importance of such response systems is now also statistically evident. According to Statistics Austria, by 2025, 41 percent of 16- to 74-year-olds in Austria had already used generative AI tools at least once. International usage data also shows that direct AI responses can change click behavior. The Pew Research Center observed that US Google users clicked significantly less often on external results when visiting search pages with AI Overview; links directly from the AI summary were opened in only about one percent of the observed visits. While these figures cannot be directly applied to Austria or the bakery industry, they do indicate the trend: visibility in the response and actual website visits are two different things.

What bakeries can now deduce from this

For bakeries, this doesn't mean abandoning traditional SEO. On the contrary: technically sound websites, clear product information, local location data, and easily understandable specialist content remain the foundation. However, a second layer is now essential. Those who want to appear in AI-generated results need content that is unambiguous, up-to-date, and citable – and should simultaneously maintain a presence in their brand's digital environment, such as regional media, tourism portals, specialist platforms, and relevant community discussions.
The SlopeLift survey should be interpreted as an industry indicator, not a fixed ranking. It was conducted by a digital media agency, is based on a defined set of prompts, and measures selected AI systems over a limited period. SlopeLift itself points out that brand coverage can shift by several percentage points within just a few days. For practical purposes, this is the most important message: AI visibility is becoming dynamic – and for bakeries, a new aspect of digital brand management.