Study: Most Florida businesses are invisible in AI searches

People are increasingly relying on AI to recommend who to hire for a host of varied work and tasks, from roofing contractors to accountants to attorneys. 

Yet a new study from a Tampa marketing firm says most Florida businesses never show up in an AI-generated list of results. 

Evoke Strategy, a public relations and digital marketing agency, released a study this week that tracked how 28,488 Florida businesses showed up in search results on four major AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. The businesses were located in nine major Florida cities and 18 different industries, the study says. 

After testing three types of questions a potential customer might ask to find the businesses online, only 1,676 — roughly 5.9% — ever showed up in the search results. And even businesses that made the cut often showed up inconsistently. 

Of the businesses that appeared in search results, 43.2% surfaced in only one of the 12 different searches conducted for their industry and city, while another 22.4% appeared only twice. Just 12.9% of businesses showed up in five or more searches, the study says. 

“Seeing your company recommended in ChatGPT is certainly a positive, and already puts you ahead of many competitors. But one result doesn’t necessarily mean your business has strong AI visibility,”  Evoke Strategy co-founder Devon Vocke says in a release. “The bigger question is whether your company is repeatedly discoverable across the different questions customers are asking and the different AI platforms they’re using.”

Evoke examined businesses across numerous industries, ranging from construction trades and commercial real estate to dentists, veterinarians, accountants, insurance agents and personal injury law firms. Researchers submitted three search queries to the four different AI platforms for each industry and city: A broad search for the “best” local businesses; a direct request for a recommendation; and a question describing a more specific need for a particular type of business. Each question produced 12 searches per industry and city. 

Results varied widely in the region, with Naples,Fort Myers and St. Petersburg on the higher side of the results, and Tampa on the lower side.   . 

Across Florida, veterinary practices had the highest visibility rate of the 18 industries studied: 148 of 772 businesses, or 19.2%, appeared at least once, the study says. Pest-control companies followed at 17.5%, while commercial real estate firms reached 13.8%.

The larger the industry, the worse businesses fared in visibility, the study says. Just 3.6% of the 4,509 dentists studied appeared, as did 2.6% of 3,975 insurance businesses and 2.3% of 3,713 general contractors. Business consultants had a 2.4% visibility rate.

The study should be viewed as a point-in-time snapshot of business visibility and not a permanent assessment, Vocke says in the release.  AI responses and search results change as platforms update their systems, collect new information or respond to differently worded questions. Also. business communities vary in size from city to city, and AI systems generally only return a short list of recommendations to users regardless of whether dozens or hundreds of companies fit the bill. 

Image courtesy of Evoke Strategy