We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to recommend accountants and solicitors in Leicester, then checked which firms they actually named. The overwhelming majority were never mentioned — including firms that rank well on Google and hold hundreds of five-star reviews.
Using a professional AI-search data platform, we put four real buyer questions — such as "Who are the best accountants in Leicester?" — to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, three times each, and recorded every firm they named. We then checked those answers against 188 real Leicester accountancy and law firms.
In May 2026, Google confirmed that AI Mode is now the default for search — the biggest change to its search box in over two decades. Millions of people now ask an AI assistant for a recommendation instead of scrolling a page of links. For a local business, being named in that answer is fast becoming as important as ranking on Google once was.
The firms left out are not obscure. Several rank strongly in traditional Google search. Some hold hundreds of positive reviews. Yet when customers ask AI, they are passed over for a fixed shortlist — a business can be doing well on every conventional measure and still be missing from the channel its customers now use first.
The most surprising finding is what decides whether a firm gets named. It is not the firm's own website traffic, and it is not its Google review score. When we examined the sources the AI assistants cited, a clear pattern emerged: they draw their recommendations from third-party "best of" listicles and directory sites — pages like VouchedFor, ReviewSolicitors, Bark, Clutch and "20 Best Accountants in Leicester" round-ups. Firms were named largely because a directory had already ranked them, not because the AI assessed the firm directly.
This explains the anomalies. A firm with strong Google rankings but no presence on those directories stays invisible. A firm with excellent reviews but no directory listings stays invisible. A little-known firm with almost no website traffic gets recommended — because it happens to appear on the lists the AI reads. In one answer, an assistant named a firm because it was, in its own words, included in a Leicester list filtered to firms with a high Google review score. The AI wasn't reading the reviews. It was reading a directory that had.
Because AI visibility is driven by identifiable sources rather than a black box, it can be influenced. The firms currently winning are not necessarily the best — they are the best documented in the places AI looks.
Customers who once searched Google now ask an AI assistant first. Being named in that answer is quickly becoming as valuable as a first-page ranking used to be.
Because AI leans on directories and listicles, the reasons a firm is missing can be identified and addressed rather than guessed at. Visibility here is winnable.
Very few local firms manage their AI visibility yet. Those who act while the shortlist is still small stand to hold those positions as adoption grows.
We focused on two sectors where people genuinely ask AI for a recommendation and where the choice is local and high-value. Every firm tested is a real, active Leicester business, drawn from our wider Leicestershire dataset. This study looks at Leicester city specifically, where our earlier Online Visibility Report covered the whole county.
"A firm can rank well on Google, hold two hundred five-star reviews, and still be completely absent when a customer asks AI who to hire. The businesses being recommended in the handful of places these tools happen to read."
This was a systematic, data-driven test rather than a survey or opinion poll. Every figure is drawn from real AI assistant responses, logged and dated.
We'll check whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity name your business when local customers ask for a recommendation — and tell you exactly why, and what it would take to change it.
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