Local businesses can aim for a clearer next step toward more steady AI mentions: track prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews, then work to close the gap with reviews, directory listings, and a tight Google Business Profile. An analysis of 200,085 non-branded local searches across 1,300 business locations reportedly shows that AI assistants swap out their recommended businesses far more often than Google Maps does, and that a strong Maps ranking is no guarantee of being named by an AI at all.
What the study measured and how
Researchers ran 200,085 localized searches on three AI platforms: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews. Each search used a non-branded prompt a local business could realistically be recommended for, such as “need an emergency dentist open late in brooklyn tonight” or “best pizza place in manhattan for a tourist.” The same prompt was repeated multiple times across a 60-day window and across multiple points on a map grid to track how much the named businesses changed. Across all runs, the analysis logged an estimated 1.9 million AI citations.
Two metrics carried most of the analysis. Variance measured how much the named businesses changed between runs of the same prompt. Persistence measured how often a business that appeared once came back in later runs.
AI result sets change a lot, even for the same prompt
When the same prompt was run several times, the overlap between result sets was small. Average overlap landed at 23% for ChatGPT, 21% for AI Mode, and 33% for AI Overviews. In other words, only about one in five to one in three businesses showed up in the typical repeat run.
Persistence was higher. A business that appeared once was seen again in roughly half of the next attempts: 50% for ChatGPT, 50% for AI Mode, and 58% for AI Overviews. But the distribution was lopsided. Across all three platforms, 71-80% of businesses appeared in half the attempts or fewer, so a single appearance is not a reliable sign of steady visibility.
A worked example captured four runs of “best pizza place in manhattan for a tourist that only has time to try one pizza” on ChatGPT. Joe’s Pizza Broadway and Prince Street Pizza showed up most often. Johns of Bleecker Street appeared twice. Lombardis, L’Industrie Pizzeria West Village, and NYC Pizza Suprema each appeared once. Across those four runs, similarity averaged 43% and persistence averaged 50%, pulled down by the three one-off picks.
This pattern lines up with a separate finding from Rand Fishkin of SparkToro, reported in January 2026, that there is less than a 1 in 100 chance that ChatGPT or Google’s AI will return the same list of brands twice across 100 runs of a general prompt. The new analysis found that local searches are more consistent than that, but still volatile.
Google Maps visibility far outpaces AI visibility
Google Maps mentioned a tracked business in 66% of searches. AI platforms trailed by a wide margin: 38% for AI Overviews, 33% for ChatGPT, and 32% for AI Mode. Maps was also more stable, with 99% average agreement across attempts against 91-96% for the AI platforms.
That gap shows that a strong Maps ranking does not translate directly into AI visibility. Google’s Local Pack relies on local ranking factors, while AI assistants break each prompt into multiple fan-out queries, run each one separately, and then blend the results. Different inputs, different outputs.
The platforms do not agree with each other
The three AI surfaces pulled from overlapping but distinct source pools. Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode shared 29.3% of named businesses on average, even though both lean heavily on Google Business Profile. ChatGPT overlapped with AI Overviews by just 20% and with AI Mode by 19%, reflecting ChatGPT’s heavier reliance on Yelp and Bing rather than Google’s local signals.
Across all three platforms, Google Business Profile accounted for 28.5% of all citations. Yelp appeared across all three. Facebook was a meaningful source for Google’s AI surfaces but barely registered for ChatGPT.
How many businesses does each AI name?
ChatGPT names the most businesses per response, with an average of 4.1, a range of 1 to 7, and a median of 4. Google AI Mode averaged 3.5 businesses per response, with a range of 0 to 6 and a median of 4. Google AI Overviews was the tightest, averaging 2.5 businesses per response with a range of 0 to 4 and a median of 3. Empty responses were not rare: 10% for ChatGPT and 11% for each of the two Google surfaces.
Proximity still matters, and “near me” still works
Moving the searcher across a city changed the results, with ChatGPT the most volatile of the three. Overlap across different points in the same town was 36.2% for ChatGPT, 46.9% for AI Mode, and 47.4% for AI Overviews. Only 3.5% of ChatGPT results were present at every map point tested, compared with 8.8% for AI Mode and 25.0% for AI Overviews.
Across all three platforms, 52.8-59.3% of recommended businesses fell within 5 km of the searcher, and 71.7-78.2% fell within 10 km. The interesting difference was how far each platform cast its net when looking for the remaining results. The radius that captured 90% of results stretched to 287 km for ChatGPT, against 64 km for AI Mode and 38 km for AI Overviews. In practice, both Google surfaces behave much more like a local pack, while ChatGPT leans on far-flung results when the close-in pool runs dry.
What local businesses should do next
Track local AI presence the same way Maps rankings are tracked, across multiple prompts, multiple map points, and over time, so a single good or bad result is not mistaken for a trend. AI result sets are noisy, and only sustained measurement separates businesses that recur from businesses that got lucky once.
Keep NAP consistent across every off-site listing and mention, and make the business address easy to find on the site, because proximity still shapes which businesses any of the three platforms name. Strengthen Google Business Profile, including the chosen category, and build out reviews, since GBP accounted for 28.5% of all AI citations in the study and is the single biggest shared source.
For ChatGPT specifically, invest in Yelp and industry-specific directories rather than relying on Google signals alone, given the 19-20% overlap with Google’s AI surfaces. For Google’s AI surfaces, keep working on the same local SEO fundamentals that drive the Local Pack, since both still lean on the same core sources.
Measuring rank position across a whole service area, rather than at one city-wide average, is what a geo grid report shows, and that is the kind of view that catches the parts of town where a business is invisible to AI today. Tracking both Maps and AI surfaces in the same workflow also makes it possible to see which competitors are getting cited instead, and to spot the citation sources pulling the most weight for each platform.
FAQ
Does ranking on Google Maps help a business show up in AI search results?
Not directly. In the study, Google Maps mentioned a tracked business in 66% of searches, compared with 32-38% for the three AI surfaces tested. A strong Maps ranking is a positive signal but is not a guarantee of being named by ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, or Google AI Overviews.
How often does ChatGPT give the same local business recommendations for the same prompt?
Average overlap between repeat runs was 23% for ChatGPT, 21% for Google AI Mode, and 33% for Google AI Overviews. A business that appeared once came back in about half of the next runs, but 71-80% of businesses appeared in half the attempts or fewer.
What sources do AI platforms use most for local recommendations?
Google Business Profile made up 28.5% of all citations across the three platforms. Yelp was used by all three. Facebook was a meaningful source for Google’s AI surfaces but barely registered for ChatGPT, which leans more on Yelp and Bing.
Related coverage
- What 1.8 million Google Business Profiles reveal about local SEO success
- AI Visibility Audit: How to Get Your Business Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews
Want help with this in Myrtle Beach or Long Island? Talk to us.
NewSunSEO
Grow in Google and AI Search
AI-SEO, local search, paid ads and websites from one team, with offices on Long Island and in Myrtle Beach.
- AI-SEO
- Local AI-SEO
- AI Consulting
- PPC
- Web Design
- Web Development
- Long Island Office(631) 320-1700
- Myrtle Beach Office(843) 492-7131
Request a Free Proposal
Tell us about your business and where you want to grow.
We will reply by email to talk through your goals and what a proposal would include.
We use your details only to reply to you and send what you asked for. See our Privacy Policy.
