How often AI names a local business: 2026 city data

In 140 PickCheck scans across 23 trades, one web-connected AI assistant named 1,931 local businesses. 63% of those names appeared in only 1 of 3 answers. Just 12% appeared in all three. Every scan returned a usable list. Scans ran October 11 to 20, 2026.

Last updated October 23, 2026

PickCheck is a free AI recommendation checker for local service businesses, made by Hive Asset Group, LLC.

This page counts what we saw on our own public city pages. It is a snapshot of one assistant on specific days. It is not a ranking of which businesses are good.

Finding 1: Most names showed up in only one of three answers

For each scan we asked the assistant three questions a customer might type, then counted how many of the three answers named each business. Counts below are from all 140 city pages, scanned October 11 to 20, 2026.

Named in	Business names	Share of 1,931
All 3 answers	234	12%
2 of 3 answers	481	25%
1 of 3 answers	1,216	63%

The average scan produced 13.8 names (median 14, range 4 to 23). A business named in all three answers is rare. If you asked the same question tomorrow, many of the one-answer names would likely change.

Finding 2: The share named in all three answers varies a lot by trade

Share of names that appeared in all 3 answers, for trades with at least 4 city scans. Counted October 11 to 20, 2026.

Trade	City scans	Names	Named in all 3	Share
Pool service	4	46	13	28.3%
Med spas	10	125	29	23.2%
Plumbers	14	194	32	16.5%
Physical therapists	5	56	9	16.1%
Moving companies	4	51	8	15.7%
Auto repair	11	142	22	15.5%
Personal injury lawyers	12	158	20	12.7%
HVAC	9	148	17	11.5%
Dog groomers	4	50	5	10.0%
Chiropractors	4	51	5	9.8%
Landscapers	6	85	8	9.4%
Roofers	9	130	12	9.2%
Electricians	10	157	12	7.6%
Real estate agents	8	109	8	7.3%
CPAs	5	79	4	5.1%
Dentists	9	143	7	4.9%
Veterinarians	5	75	3	4.0%

Six trades with fewer than 4 scans are left out (garage door repair, house cleaning, locksmiths, painters, pest control, tree service). Even the trades above are small samples. All 23 trades are in the data file listed under Source.

Finding 3: National chains were a small part of the lists

We counted a name as a national chain when it matched a well-known national franchise or chain brand (the matched names are in the chain_names_matched column of the data file). Real estate agents are excluded, since they are individuals, not chains. Only names shown in the page tables were checked, not the "named once" extras.

Measure	Result
Names shown in tables (excluding real estate)	1,502
Matched a national chain brand	48 (3.2%)
City scans with at least one chain named	36 of 132 (27%)
Trades with zero chains in the tables	9 of 22

By trade, the most chains showed up in house cleaning (6 of 32 names), moving (5 of 44), plumbers (11 of 163), auto repair (5 of 118) and veterinarians (4 of 60). Dentists, roofers, med spas, CPAs, personal injury lawyers, chiropractors and landscapers had none by our count. This says nothing about quality. It says local names filled most of the lists we saw.

Method

Assistant: one web-connected AI assistant. We do not say which, and we do not test any assistant by brand.
Questions: 3 per scan, written like a customer would type them, such as "What are the best plumbers in Cary, NC?"
Scans: 140 city scans across 23 trades, run between October 11 and October 20, 2026. Each city page shows its own scan date.
Counting: "Named in" is the number of the 3 answers that included the business. "Names" is every business listed in the table plus the "N more businesses were named once" line on the page. The one count that does not include those extras is the chain count in Finding 3.
Real estate: 88 of the 1,590 table names are individual agents. They are in the totals but not in the chain count.
Limits: AI answers vary run to run. This is a snapshot, not a ranking of quality. We did not check whether any business is good, open or accurately described. Some trades have only 1 to 3 cities.
Empty scans: zero of 140 pages showed an empty or unusable result. We counted a page as unusable if it had no business table.

Source for every number

All numbers come from the public pages at pickcheck.co/ai-picks. There are 23 trade hubs, such as plumbers, and 140 city pages, such as plumbers in Cary, NC. Our counting sheet, one row per city page with its URL, is the city data file (CSV), with a per-trade rollup in the per-trade data file (CSV).

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FAQ

How often does AI name the same local business twice?

In our 140 scans, 12% of names (234 of 1,931) appeared in all 3 answers. 63% appeared in only 1.

Do national chains take over the AI's local lists?

Not in these scans. Chains were 48 of 1,502 names shown (3.2%), and they appeared in 36 of 132 non-real-estate city scans.

Did any scan come back with no business named?

No. All 140 city pages had a table of names. The shortest list had 4 names and the longest had 23.

Does a name on this page mean the business is the best?

No. It means the assistant named it on that day. AI answers change from run to run, and PickCheck does not rank, review or vouch for any business.

Can I see whether my own business gets named?

Yes. The scan is free, takes under a minute, and needs no account. No tool can promise a business will be recommended.