We asked ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude and Perplexity the same 72 questions a Utah consumer would type when hiring a local business — 288 answers in total. Those answers cited 2,060 sources pointing to 478 different Utah businesses. The single most-cited business appeared in just 5.2% of answers. Nobody owns AI search in Utah yet. This is what the data shows, and what it means if you run a local business here.
Every agency in the state is telling business owners that AI search matters. Almost none of them have measured it. So in July 2026 we did — not a survey, not opinion, but 288 live AI answers with every cited source recorded and classified. The findings surprised us, and one of them contradicted what we expected to find.
478 distinct Utah businesses were cited across 288 AI answers. It takes 113 different businesses to account for just half of all citations. The most-cited business in the entire study appeared in 15 of 288 answers — 5.2%. There is no incumbent. The category leader position in AI search is, in almost every Utah industry, still vacant.
How We Ran the Study
We picked 12 local service industries: chiropractors, plumbers, auto repair shops, HVAC companies, house cleaning services, dentists, roofers, landscapers, med spas, electricians, garage door repair, and pest control.
For each industry we asked six questions, phrased the way a real person types them rather than the way a marketer writes them — "Who is the best plumber in Salt Lake City, Utah?", "I need a chiropractor in Draper, Utah. Who should I call?", "Which roofing companies do locals recommend in Lehi, Utah?" The six questions spanned six Wasatch Front cities: Salt Lake City, Draper, Sandy, Provo, West Jordan and Lehi.
Each of those 72 questions went to four AI engines with web search enabled, producing 288 answers. We recorded every source each answer cited — 2,060 citations across 743 distinct domains — then classified every one of those domains as a local business, a national chain, a directory, a media or reference site, or other.
On the classification: the entire study turns on one judgement — is a cited source an actual local business, or a directory that merely lists businesses? Sites like chiropractorsnear.me and saltlakecityutchiropractor.com look like businesses and are not. We classified all 743 domains individually rather than relying on a blocklist, and we counted national franchises separately from independent local businesses. Reasonable people could re-draw one or two of those lines; the headline findings hold either way.
Finding 1: Nobody Owns Any Category
This is the finding that matters most, and it is genuinely good news for any Utah business willing to act now.
Across 288 answers, AI engines cited 940 individual local businesses. Those 940 citations were spread across 478 different companies. Half of all citations required 113 separate businesses to accumulate. The most-cited business in the whole state — an electrical contractor — showed up in 15 answers out of 288.
Compare that to traditional Google search, where the top three organic results take the large majority of clicks and the same handful of names appear again and again. AI answers in Utah are not consolidated like that. They are scattered.
For a business owner, the practical reading is this: your competitors have not locked this up. In traditional local SEO you are often fighting an entrenched incumbent with a decade of reviews and backlinks. In AI answers, as of mid-2026, there is usually no incumbent to fight.
Finding 2: The Four AI Engines Barely Agree
We expected some variation between engines. We did not expect this much.
Of our 72 questions, there were 30 where all four engines cited at least one local business. In only 5 of those 30 cases — 16.7% — did all four engines share even a single business in common. Five out of six times, four AI engines answering the identical question produced four effectively different shortlists.
This has a direct consequence that most businesses have not internalised: checking whether ChatGPT mentions you tells you close to nothing about whether Gemini or Perplexity does. If you have tested your AI visibility by asking ChatGPT once, you have measured roughly a quarter of the picture.
Finding 3: ChatGPT Names Almost Nobody
The engines differ enormously in how many local businesses they are willing to name at all.
| AI Engine | Local businesses named per answer | Distinct businesses cited | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | 5.7 | 291 | Widest net by a distance |
| Google Gemini | 4.1 | 246 | Broad, heavy on directories |
| Anthropic Claude | 2.5 | 145 | Selective |
| ChatGPT | 0.8 | 49 | Names almost nobody |
Perplexity averaged 5.7 local businesses per answer. ChatGPT averaged 0.8 — and across all 72 of its answers it named only 49 distinct businesses in total, against Perplexity's 291.
ChatGPT is by some distance the most widely used of these tools among ordinary consumers. It is also the one that hands out the fewest recommendations. That combination makes a place on ChatGPT's very short list disproportionately valuable — and disproportionately difficult to earn.
Finding 4: Directories Still Take a Third of Everything
Here is where our expectation was wrong. Going in, we assumed AI would mostly point people at Yelp and Angi rather than at real businesses. That is not what happened: 83.3% of answers cited at least one genuine local business.
But directories still took a very large share. Of the 2,060 total citations, 35.8% went to directories against 45.6% to local businesses. And 15.6% of all answers cited only directories — naming no actual business a customer could hire.
| Directory | Citations across 288 answers |
|---|---|
| Angi | 78 |
| Yelp | 72 |
| Expertise.com | 65 |
| BBB | 53 |
| Thumbtack | 38 |
| HomeAdvisor | 36 |
| Houzz | 21 |
| Healthgrades | 19 |
| ThreeBestRated | 18 |
| YellowPages | 17 |
Angi, Yelp, Expertise.com and the BBB alone accounted for 268 citations. If your industry is one where AI leans heavily on directories, your listing on those platforms is doing work your own website is not.
Which Utah Industries Are Worst Affected
The directory problem is not evenly distributed. Landscaping and electrical are more than twice as directory-dominated as auto repair.
| Industry | Citations going to directories | Citations going to local businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Landscaping | 47.3% | 41.4% |
| Electrician | 43.8% | 34.3% |
| Chiropractor | 43.3% | 42.7% |
| Med spa | 38.0% | 45.6% |
| Plumber | 37.0% | 48.6% |
| House cleaning | 36.3% | 35.7% |
| HVAC | 34.1% | 49.4% |
| Roofing | 33.5% | 46.9% |
| Garage door repair | 32.0% | 59.1% |
| Dentist | 32.0% | 50.9% |
| Pest control | 30.1% | 47.8% |
| Auto repair | 21.4% | 43.5% |
If you are a landscaper or an electrician in Utah, nearly half of what AI cites when someone asks for a recommendation is a directory rather than a company like yours. If you run an auto repair shop, the picture is considerably healthier.
What This Means If You Run a Utah Business
1. The window is open, and it will not stay open. 478 businesses sharing the citations means no competitor has consolidated the position yet. That is a temporary condition. The businesses that get structured, citable content in place during this period are the ones the engines will keep returning to once answers do consolidate.
2. Check all four engines, not one. With only 16.7% agreement between engines, a single spot-check is close to meaningless. Visibility has to be measured per engine.
3. Your directory listings are load-bearing. With 35.8% of citations going to directories, your Angi, Yelp, BBB and Expertise.com profiles are frequently the thing standing between a customer and a competitor. They need to be accurate and complete, not abandoned.
4. ChatGPT is the hard one. If you only have the resources to target one engine, understand that ChatGPT's list is roughly seven times shorter than Perplexity's. It is the highest-value and highest-difficulty target.
A limitation worth stating: this is a snapshot of 288 answers taken on a single day in July 2026, not a census. AI answers vary by phrasing, by user location, and over time — and these engines change constantly. We publish the exact questions and the full classification so the study can be checked and repeated. We intend to re-run it annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often does AI recommend an actual local business instead of a directory?
In our study of 288 AI answers about hiring a local business in Utah, 83.3% cited at least one real local business. However, 15.6% of answers cited only directories such as Angi, Yelp or Thumbtack, naming no actual business at all. Measured by individual citations rather than answers, 45.6% of the 2,060 citations pointed to a local business and 35.8% pointed to a directory.
Which AI engine names the most local businesses?
Perplexity cited the most, averaging 5.7 distinct local businesses per answer across 291 different businesses. Gemini averaged 4.1, Claude 2.5, and ChatGPT just 0.8 per answer across only 49 distinct businesses. ChatGPT names roughly seven times fewer local businesses than Perplexity, which makes its shortlist significantly harder to get onto.
Do different AI engines recommend the same local businesses?
Rarely. Of the 72 questions we asked, there were 30 where all four engines cited at least one local business. In only 5 of those 30 cases (16.7%) did all four engines share even a single business in common. In practice, being visible in one AI engine tells you almost nothing about your visibility in another.
Which Utah industries are worst affected by directories in AI answers?
Landscaping was highest at 47.3% of citations going to directories, followed by electricians at 43.8% and chiropractors at 43.3%. Auto repair was the least affected at 21.4%. Across all twelve industries studied, directories took 35.8% of all citations.
Does any single Utah business dominate AI answers?
No. Across 288 answers we recorded 940 citations spread across 478 distinct local businesses. It takes 113 different businesses to account for just half of those citations. The single most-cited business in the entire study appeared in 15 of 288 answers, or 5.2%. No Utah business currently owns its category in AI search.
How was this study conducted?
On 27 July 2026 we asked four AI engines (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude and Perplexity) the same 72 questions, producing 288 total answers. The questions covered 12 local service industries across six Wasatch Front cities, phrased the way a consumer would actually type them. Web search was enabled for every engine. We recorded every source each answer cited, then classified all 743 distinct cited domains as a local business, national chain, directory, media outlet, or other.
Where does your business stand?
Our free scan checks how your business appears in AI search and shows you what the engines say about you — no cost, no call required.
Run the free scan