The AI Visibility Report 2026
How AI Chooses Local Businesses
We analysed
10,000 US businesses across ChatGPT and Perplexity
to uncover exactly which signals drive AI discovery, recommendation, and reputation and what that means for digital marketing agencies.
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by Andrew Waite, CEO
KEY FINDINGS
What does the data reveal?
After analysing 10,000 local businesses, we have data-backed answers for why some businesses get recommended by AI, and why others don't. Here are three key themes from the research paper:
Size of presence is the #1 signal
Businesses surfaced by both ChatGPT and Perplexity had more website pages, more reviews and more 3rd party citations.
Technical SEO barely matters
Core Web Vitals, page speed, H1 structure, and Open Graph tags showed no meaningful relationship
with AI recommendations. AI doesn't browse like a human.
AI hallucinates wrong businesses
In 1 in 60 of searches, ChatGPT confidently
returned a completely different business
(potentially a rival). For an SMB, that's a customer lost to a competitor.
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The Insites AI Visibility Model
AI visibility for local businesses should be simple and meaningful, not buried in abstract metrics like "share of voice". The Insites approach focuses on a clear, locally relevant measurement by breaking visibility down into three steps:
awareness, reputation, and recommendation:
1. Awareness
Does AI know your business?
"Is Ace Café open right now?"
- Can AI identify the business and produce accurate information?
- Is the name, address and phone correct?
- Or has it confused you with a rival?
93% of businesses are known by AI but only 55% have accurate details & AI hallucinates information
2. Reputation
What does AI think of you?
"Is Ace Café any good?"
- Does AI speak positively about you?
- How is sentiment rated across services?
- Does review data support a good image?
80% of the time AI responds positively when asked directly about an SMB's products or services
3. Recommendation
Does AI recommend you?
"Best cafés for scones near me?"
- Is the business mentioned for unbranded prompts?
- How often, and in what position are you ranking?
- For which services and specialisms?
41% of businesses aren't recommended event when AI knows who they are
KEY FINDINGS
How do local businesses get recommended by AI, and
what services should you be selling?
We ranked 77 digital marketing checks by their correlation with AI recommendations. Here's how the categories stack up.
Strong correlation
Moderate correlation
Weak correlation
Strong correlation
Businesses surfaced by both ChatGPT and Perplexity averaged
133 Google reviews
versus just 11 for those invisible to AI (a 12× gap). Those appearing in the Local Pack were
recommended 3.5× more
often than those that weren't. These are the signals to prioritise above everything else.
Moderate correlation
AI-visible businesses appeared in an average of
12.6 directories versus 5.4 for those not found and had meaningfully lower listing inconsistency (63% vs 87%). These signals act as a validation layer: AI cross-references them to confirm a business is real and trustworthy before recommending it.
Weak / no correlation
Core Web Vitals pass rates were virtually identical between recommended and invisible businesses (1.9% vs 1.1%). LLMs.txt adoption showed only a marginal lift despite significant industry hype. These are worth implementing — but as a finishing touch, never as a foundation.
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CITATION ANALYSIS
Discover where AI sources information from
We discovered that the
business's own website is cited in 72% of awareness queries and 51% of recommendation queries, making it the anchor of how AI understands a business. Directories act as the validation layer, appearing in 35–39% of all queries. However, review sites, trade directories, and travel platforms fill in context, but only reinforce what the website and listings have already established.
WHO IS THIS RESEARCH PAPER FOR?
Written for the people selling digital marketing to local businesses at scale
This isn't a report for the local businesses themselves, it's for the organisations that advise, sell to, and support them.
Digital marketing agencies -
This report helps you explain to clients why AI visibility matters and arms your sales team with data-backed answers to "Does ChatGPT recommend me?"
Telcos & directory companies - You serve thousands of SMBs and need to evolve your product offering beyond traditional search. This research gives you the evidence base to reframe existing listings, citations, and website products around AI-driven discovery.
Sales & strategy teams
- If you're having conversations with SMB clients about what comes after traditional SEO, this is the research you've been waiting for. Real data, clear findings, no fluff — built to drop straight into a pitch or a quarterly review.
Download the AI Visibility Report and
start selling with clarity
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