We tested Austin's AI visibility. Real businesses lost to names that don't exist.
Our first case study looked at Nashville — a mid-size metro. The obvious question was whether the same blind spot holds in a much bigger, more AI-saturated market. So we picked Austin, TX: 6 real, currently-operating local businesses — 2 electricians, 2 plumbers, 2 HVAC companies — each verified against live Google/Yelp/BBB listings before we ran a single prompt. Then we asked ChatGPT and Claude the exact question a customer would type: "best [category] in Austin."
Finding 1: Zero for six, again
Not one of the 6 real, verified businesses we checked was named by either model. Austin is a much larger market than Nashville, with presumably far more AI training data mentioning local businesses — and the result was identical: nobody we checked showed up.
Finding 2: The models didn't hedge — they named different businesses instead
This is the part that surprised us more than Nashville did. Where Nashville's models mostly deflected to "check Google or Yelp," Austin's models confidently listed named alternatives — just never the real ones we'd verified.
Prompt: "best electrician in Austin"
ChatGPT named "Davis Electric," "Mr. Electric," "Texas Electrical Services," and "O'Shea Electric." Claude suggested "Mister Sparky" and "Lightbulb Electric."
We'd verified Chapman Electric and Dial One Electrical Services as real, currently-operating Austin electricians before running the test. Neither model named either one.
Prompt: "best HVAC company in Austin"
Claude's list included "Schneider Mechanical" and "Coil Company" — names we could not verify as real, currently-operating Austin businesses in a follow-up search.
We're not asserting these are fabricated outright — we didn't exhaustively search every possible variant. But we also couldn't confirm them the way we confirmed our own 6, which is itself the point: a customer asking this question has no way to tell the difference between a real recommendation and one that might not be. The model states both with the same confidence.
What this means if you're the real business
| Category | Real businesses we checked | Named by ChatGPT or Claude |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician | Chapman Electric, Dial One Electrical Services | Neither |
| Plumber | Sidney Cox Plumbing Co, Reliant Plumbing | Neither |
| HVAC | Austin's Green Air & Heating, Temperature Pro Austin | Neither |
If you run one of these businesses, this isn't a ranking problem — you're not in third place, you simply don't exist in this channel yet. And the businesses that did get named instead now have a head start the moment AI search starts pulling in real-time local data, the same shift that's already happening to traditional search.
We built Voxfound to track this automatically — the real questions customers would ask, checked against the real models, with an alert the moment something changes. Not a projection. The actual answer, saved in full every time.
See what AI says about your business