stuckUP AI Visibility Index · October 2026
ChatGPT names local businesses in fewer than half of its answers.
We asked ChatGPT 959 questions that customers ask about 97 local businesses in 10 cities. Here’s how often it named them, which kinds of business it leaves out, and what owners can do about it.
Key findings
- 46%of ChatGPT’s answers named the business we asked about.
- 48%of businesses scored under 40 out of 100, even well-known ones.
- 2×Restaurants, cafés and hotels were named twice as often as law firms, dentists and estate agents (60% vs 30%).
- 5 of 9dental clinics were never named, not once in 10 questions.
Quote any of these with the source: “stuckUP AI Visibility Index, October 2026”.
Almost half are Stuck or Low
The UP Score (0–100) combines how often a business is named, how often its own website is cited, how high it appears in lists, and whether trusted sources about it are cited. The average was 41.
Only 6 of the 97 businesses reached “Up” (80 or more): AI recommends them first, almost every time.
- Stuck 0–1923 · 24%
- Low 20–3924 · 25%
- Moving 40–5925 · 26%
- Rising 60–7919 · 20%
- Up 80–1006 · 6%
Show as a tableHide the table
| Band | UP Score | Businesses | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stuck | 0–19 | 23 | 24% |
| Low | 20–39 | 24 | 25% |
| Moving | 40–59 | 25 | 26% |
| Rising | 60–79 | 19 | 20% |
| Up | 80–100 | 6 | 6% |
The kind of business matters most
For the same kind of question (“best … in [city]”), ChatGPT named restaurants, cafés and hotels in 60% of answers, and professional and health services in 30%.
Dental clinics did worst: named in 23% of answers, and five of the nine were never named at all. Seven of the eight businesses that were never named were professional, health or tourism services.
Industries with fewer than 5 businesses in the sample (accountants, car repair, salons, tour operators, vets, physio) aren’t shown separately; they’re in the download.
- Restaurants (18)63%
- Cafés (16)63%
- Hotels (18)54%
- Gyms (5)40%
- Law firms (12)38%
- Dental clinics (9)23%
- Real estate agencies (5)22%
Show as a tableHide the table
| Industry | Businesses | Answers | Named in | Avg UP Score | Never named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 18 | 180 | 63% | 56 | 0 |
| Cafés | 16 | 160 | 63% | 54 | 0 |
| Hotels | 18 | 175 | 54% | 48 | 1 |
| Gyms | 5 | 50 | 40% | 39 | 0 |
| Law firms | 12 | 120 | 38% | 33 | 0 |
| Dental clinics | 9 | 86 | 23% | 23 | 5 |
| Real estate agencies | 5 | 50 | 22% | 19 | 1 |
What this means for business owners
Being good at what you do isn’t enough: AI names what it finds described clearly and often.
- Check where you stand. Ask the questions your customers ask, or run a free check.
- Make sure AI can read your site. Our AI crawler checker takes seconds.
- Say clearly what you do and where, and be on the sites AI trusts. Our GEO guide has a 7-step checklist.
How we did it
Between 7 and 14 October 2026 we ran one stuckUP check for each of 97 local businesses: 10 questions customers ask about that kind of business in that city, in English, each asked to OpenAI’s GPT with web search (the models behind ChatGPT) through its API. Then we recorded whether each answer named the business, where, and which sources it cited.
The businesses are real, independent local businesses with a working website, picked by hand in New York, Austin, London, Manchester, Toronto, Sydney, Dublin, Dubai, Yerevan and Tbilisi. Their reports are private; we only publish totals.
Full methodologyLimits
- One AI assistant, one run per business. AI answers vary between runs.
- Questions in English only, in every city.
- Many businesses are well known in their city, so a typical business probably does worse.
- 7–15 businesses per city: we don’t compare cities (city totals are in the download, marked as directional).
Cite this
The data is free to reuse with credit (CC BY 4.0). Press and questions: hello@stuckup.app
Where does your business stand?
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