On the evening of 30 October 2026 we recorded 24 answers from four AI tools: ChatGPT, Google's AI Overview, Gemini and Perplexity. Each was asked three everyday questions about finding a party wall surveyor in Oxford, and each question was asked twice.
Google showed no AI Overview for one of the six AI Overview attempts, so 23 answers had text. Every one of those 23 named at least one firm, and between them they named more than 20 different firms. These are real answers; the firm names are replaced with letters.
Who was named, and by which AI
The six firms named most often, counted as the number of answers that named each one:
| Firm | ChatGPT (of 6) | Gemini (of 6) | AI Overview (of 5) | Perplexity (of 6) | Total (of 23) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firm A | 5 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 13 |
| Firm B | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 13 |
| Firm C | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| Firm D | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| Firm E | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Firm F | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Only firms B and C were named by all four AIs. Firm A was named in 11 of the 12 ChatGPT and Perplexity answers, and in none of the six Gemini answers. Firm F was the reverse: named in five of the six Gemini answers, and only once by any other AI. Firm E turned up in Gemini and AI Overview answers but never in ChatGPT or Perplexity. Three more firms, not shown, were also named in six answers each.
The same question, asked twice
Perplexity was the steadiest. Its two answers to each question differed by at most one firm. Google's AI Overview was the least steady: on the two questions where it answered both times, the two answers had no firm in common.
What this means for a firm
In Oxford, being named by one AI said little about being named by another. Someone checking only ChatGPT would have seen firm A in almost every answer. Someone checking only Gemini would not have seen it at all.
Limits
This is one evening's recording in one town: four AI tools and 23 answers. Answers change over time, and one check can differ from the next. The letters stand for real firms named in the recordings. We have replaced the names because this note is about what the answers said, not about the firms.
Recorded by What The AI Said, 30 October 2026.