On 27 September 2026 I asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode for the best accountants, solicitors, recruitment agencies, IT support companies, architects and estate agents in Essex: 4 ways a buyer phrases it, 10 times each, per engine. Then I matched every firm named against every firm Google Maps lists in the county. Of 3,556 firms, 441 were recommended at least once. 3115, or 88%, were never named, by any engine, in any of the 720 answers.
Essex AI search, sector by sector
What the named firms have in common
I went through the top and bottom of every table by hand. Three things separate the firms that come up from the ones that never do, and none of them is the size of the firm.
- Review volume, not rating. Named firms average 31, 78, 100, 14, 16, 230 Google reviews across the six sectors; the unnamed ones average 5, 28, 12, 6, 2, 45. 54% of named listings have twenty reviews or more. Of the rest, 16% do.
- A listing in the directory the engine trusts. ChatGPT reads the Legal 500 for solicitors, Agency Central for recruiters, GetAgent for estate agents, Houzz and Yell for architects, and the ICAEW register and Yell for accountants. None of these is the firm’s own site.
- A website and a claimed profile. 94% of named Essex listings have a website and 87% have claimed their Google Business Profile. Among the listings never named, it is 64% and 56%. An engine cannot recommend a firm it cannot check.
Those three things are the job. Reviews, the right directory, and a first sentence with a place in it are what SEO and GEO work goes on, and none of them needs a bigger firm.
The directories that decide
Every engine cites what it read. Summed across all 6 sectors, these are the sources behind the answers. Google’s own Maps links are left out of the table. AI Mode and Gemini lean on them constantly, which is the point.
| Engine | Most-cited sources, all sectors |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | legal500.com · 232agencycentral.co.uk · 147yell.com · 101getagent.co.uk · 82aistech.co.uk · 81houzz.co.uk · 70 |
| Gemini | pursuitgroup.co.uk · 140theonegroup.co.uk · 136akita.co.uk · 96we-talent.co.uk · 85beresfords.co.uk · 84rayment-recruitment.co.uk · 68 |
| Google AI Mode | legal500.com · 94topjobrecruitment.com · 61noblerecruiting.co.uk · 55agencycentral.co.uk · 52cloudtango.net · 48prime-appointments.co.uk · 45 |
The six sectors
Each block is 120 answers: 4 phrasings, 10 repeats, three engines. “Firms named” counts a firm once however many times it came up. The bars are the share of answers in which the firm was named.
Accountants
| Engine | Firms named | Top five’s share | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 62 of 848 (7%) | 23% | find.icaew.comaccountantsup.co.ukyell.comukaccountingfirms.co.uk |
| Gemini | 35 of 848 (4%) | 43% | rickardluckin.co.ukaccountantsup.co.ukbecketttaylor.co.ukchooseaccountant4u.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 35 of 848 (4%) | 50% | accountantsup.co.ukedmund-carr.co.ukaccountant-essex.co.uklarking-gowen.co.uk |
Who gets named
Share of answers in which the firm was named. Named accountants average 31 Google reviews; the rest average 5.
Solicitors
| Engine | Firms named | Top five’s share | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 50 of 376 (13%) | 30% | legal500.comsolicitors.comkewlaw.co.ukreviewsolicitors.co.uk |
| Gemini | 22 of 376 (6%) | 49% | birketts.co.uklegal500.comjefferieslaw.co.ukpaulrobinson.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 28 of 376 (7%) | 60% | legal500.combirketts.co.ukreviewsolicitors.co.ukbackhouse-solicitors.co.uk |
Who gets named
Share of answers in which the firm was named. Named solicitors average 78 Google reviews; the rest average 28.
Recruitment agencies
| Engine | Firms named | Top five’s share | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 72 of 744 (10%) | 23% | agencycentral.co.ukyell.comchelmsford.co.ukprime-appointments.co.uk |
| Gemini | 38 of 744 (5%) | 46% | pursuitgroup.co.uktheonegroup.co.ukwe-talent.co.ukrayment-recruitment.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 34 of 744 (5%) | 49% | topjobrecruitment.comnoblerecruiting.co.ukagencycentral.co.ukprime-appointments.co.uk |
Who gets named
Share of answers in which the firm was named. Named recruitment agencies average 100 Google reviews; the rest average 12.
IT support companies
| Engine | Firms named | Top five’s share | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 40 of 385 (10%) | 33% | aistech.co.ukwhatmsp.co.ukbitwise-it.co.ukitsupport.directory |
| Gemini | 25 of 385 (7%) | 48% | akita.co.ukitbuilder.co.uktrinityms.co.ukskynet-ict.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 18 of 385 (5%) | 61% | cloudtango.netitbuilder.co.ukmethod-it.co.ukwebbytech.co.uk |
Who gets named
Share of answers in which the firm was named. Named IT support companies average 14 Google reviews; the rest average 6.
Architects
| Engine | Firms named | Top five’s share | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 59 of 363 (16%) | 34% | houzz.co.ukyell.comacanthusrha.co.ukmpcharteredarchitects.co.uk |
| Gemini | 25 of 363 (7%) | 53% | mpcharteredarchitects.co.ukthreebestrated.co.ukalphaarchitectsltd.co.ukspatialdesignarchitects.com |
| Google AI Mode | 26 of 363 (7%) | 59% | houzz.co.ukcheckatrade.comriba.orgconnorferrisarchitects.co.uk |
Who gets named
Share of answers in which the firm was named. Named architects average 16 Google reviews; the rest average 2.
Estate agents
| Engine | Firms named | Top five’s share | Reads most |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 58 of 840 (7%) | 29% | getagent.co.ukrightmove.co.ukonthemarket.comthetimes.com |
| Gemini | 35 of 840 (4%) | 52% | beresfords.co.ukgetagent.co.ukyell.combalgoresproperty.co.uk |
| Google AI Mode | 41 of 840 (5%) | 41% | beresfords.co.ukbritishpropertyawards.co.ukgetagent.co.ukpace-properties.com |
Who gets named
Share of answers in which the firm was named. Named estate agents average 230 Google reviews; the rest average 45.
Essex AI search: common questions
How many Essex businesses does AI search recommend?
441 of 3,556 firms with a Google listing were named at least once in 720 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, across accountants, solicitors, recruitment agencies, IT support companies, architects and estate agents. The other 3115, or 88%, never came up.
Which Essex sectors are most visible in AI search?
Architects: 19% of them were named at least once. The least visible were accountants, at 10%.
Do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode recommend the same Essex firms?
Only partly. Of the 441 Essex firms named by any engine, 74 were named by all three. Each engine reads different sources, so a firm can be well known to one and missing from the others.
How can a Essex business get recommended by AI search?
From this data: more Google reviews (the count matters more than the rating), a listing in the directory the engine trusts for your sector, and a website whose first sentence says what you do and where.
Method
- The denominator. Every Google Maps listing in each sector’s categories within the county, pulled through DataForSEO’s Business Listings data, filtered to Essex postcodes, wrong categories and permanently closed listings removed. Firms with more than one office are grouped by website, so Beresfords is one firm, not several.
- The prompts. “Best X in Essex”, “recommend an X in Essex”, “X near Chelmsford”, “who are the top X in Essex”. Each run 10 times per engine, logged out, UK location, because the answer changes between runs and one run proves nothing.
- The engines. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, collected through DataForSEO’s scrapers on the date above. ChatGPT with web search on.
- A mention is the firm’s name, or its website, in the answer. Being cited as a source is counted separately. Matching was automatic, then checked by hand at the top and bottom of every table.
- What it cannot tell you. It is one day’s snapshot and the engines move. Firms without a Google listing are not in the count. The list of firms that were not named is deliberately not published.
The per-firm data is available to journalists and trade bodies on request: [email protected]. If you cite the study, link to this page. I will re-run it quarterly and keep the URL.
The same study, same sectors and same questions, for Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and East Anglia as a whole. The same study for Essex’s plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, landscapers and kitchen fitters is Essex tradespeople in AI search.