How AI assistants choose which business to recommend

Asked a local question, an AI assistant searches, writes its answer from the pages it found, and cites them. In our benchmark the citations fell into two main groups:

• Places a business can be listed, reviewed or mentioned: directories, review sites, forums, roundup articles, news and reference sites. These were 18% to 43% of citations, depending on the industry.
• Businesses’ own websites: 44% to 58%.

So an answer draws on two kinds of evidence: what others say about a business, and what the business says about itself.

Ask who to hire, or which company has the best reviews, and the answer names businesses: 2,240 of 2,272 such answers did. Ask how to choose a business or what something should cost, and you mostly get advice: 213 of 1,605 of those answers named a business.

So whether you are named is measured on the questions a customer asks when they are ready to choose.

Ask the same AI assistant the same question again and the list moves. Of all the businesses named in two answers to the same question, 34% to 52% appeared in both. One answer on its own can mislead; the pattern across many answers is the thing to read.

Who leads differs from city to city, even within one industry. In pest control, two national chains were the most-named companies in Dallas, came third and fourth in Nashville, and were outside the top four in Boise.

AI assistants write the same business in different ways: with and without “LLC”, with and without the city, sometimes by a former name. In answers about in-home senior care, one franchise brand was written as many as twelve ways in a single city.

You cannot choose what an AI assistant says. You can shape what it reads:

• Be listed and reviewed on the sites it cites for your industry and city.
• Publish pages that answer the questions your customers ask.
• Keep your business name the same everywhere.

Then measure across repeated answers to see what changes.