What AI Recommends in Clark County: We Asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity

What we did

We picked the 11 industries we work with: plumbing, HVAC, roofing, restoration, remodeling, dental, chiropractic, medical practices, IV therapy, med spas and law firms. For each one we wrote three ordinary questions, such as "Who is the best plumber in Camas, WA?", and asked them for six cities: Vancouver, Camas, Battle Ground, Ridgefield, Washougal and La Center.

Every question went to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. That is 198 questions and 594 answers, 54 answers per industry. We then recorded which businesses each answer named and which websites it cited.

We kept business names out of this article. The point is how the tools choose, not a ranking of local companies.

Finding 1: in some industries, one company leads the answers

For each industry we counted how many of its 54 answers named the single most-named business. A high percentage means one business dominates what AI says. A low percentage means the answers are spread across many businesses.

In law firms and roofing, one business appeared in more than half of all the answers. If you run a company in one of those industries and you are not that business, AI is sending a large share of its recommendations to someone else.

Finding 2: in other industries, AI spreads its picks thin

The picture is different for health care and home improvement. In dental and chiropractic, the most-named business appeared in under a fifth of answers. Medical practices showed the widest spread: the answers named 97 different businesses. Chiropractic and remodeling were next, with 89 each.

That means the field is open. No company has locked in the recommendation, and the businesses that show up are the ones AI can find and trust.

Finding 3: the three tools rarely agree

For each question, we compared the first business each tool named. All three picked the same one in 11 of 198 questions, about 6%. Exactly two of the three agreed in another 54. ChatGPT and Perplexity matched 37 times (19%), Gemini and Perplexity 30 times (15%), and ChatGPT and Gemini only 20 times (10%). Being the top pick in one tool does not mean you are the top pick in the others. (Name matching is not perfect, so treat these as rough measures.)

Finding 4: some tools give a list, others give one name

Ask ChatGPT "Who is the best plumber in Camas, WA?" and it usually replies with a list of about six businesses. Gemini does the same, also about six. Perplexity is different: it usually names only one or two, and in 88 of its 198 answers it named just one business. (Counted across all answers, that is an average of 5.9 for ChatGPT, 5.5 for Gemini and 1.6 for Perplexity.)

For a business owner this matters. When a tool gives one name, there is much less room to be found than when it gives six.

Finding 5: most businesses get named once

Across the industries, our answers named 801 combinations of an industry and a business. Of those, 377 (47%) appeared in only one answer, and just 53 appeared in 10 or more. A small group is named again and again, and a long tail is named once.

Where the answers come from

Nearly every answer (592 of 594) cited at least one website. The most-cited source overall was Google, in 194 answers, about a third. Review and directory sites were next: Yelp in 90 answers and the Better Business Bureau in 88, followed by Birdeye, WebMD, Healthline, Reddit and Thumbtack. Many other cited sites were a business's own website. AI tools lean on the places that describe a business clearly and are easy to check.

What a business owner can do

We cannot promise anyone a mention in an AI tool, and nobody else can either. These steps improve your chances, and they are all within your control:

1. Make your business information consistent. Your name, address and phone number should match on Google, Bing, Apple and the directories your customers use.
2. Collect genuine reviews on more than one site. Google matters, but so do Yelp, Facebook and the Better Business Bureau, which AI cited often.
3. Answer your customers' questions on your website. Write clear service pages and FAQs from real experience.
4. Earn mentions on other trusted sites. Local news, the chamber of commerce and community organizations all count.
5. Check again every month. Ask the same questions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and write down whether you are named. That is the only way to see what changed.

What this study does not show

This is one month of data and three AI tools, so treat it as a snapshot, not a verdict. We used the tools' developer interfaces, and the answers can differ a little from what a person sees in the app. The city was named in each question; the tool did not know where the asker was standing. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode have no developer interface, so we left them out. We plan to repeat the run and add tools over time.

See where your business stands

You can see the full method and the results by industry on the Clark County AI Index page. If you would like to know whether AI recommends your business, request a free audit and we will look up your business in the latest run. AI search work is part of our AI search optimization service.

Spencer Hart is the founder of Genius Marketing, a marketing agency at 13215 SE Mill Plain Blvd in Vancouver, WA.