How ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity pick local businesses

More homeowners are asking ChatGPT or Gemini "who's a good roofer near Reading, PA" instead of scrolling Google. If you run a local business, you want to know how those tools pick names. Here is what is documented, what is reported by others, and what nobody outside these companies actually knows.

Short version: these assistants mostly do not "know" your business. When they answer a local question with live results, they run a web search through some search engine, read what comes back, and summarize it. So the question becomes which search engine each one uses, and what that engine finds about you.

Where each assistant gets live results

Assistant	What is documented or reported	How solid
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode	Google's own search index. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and that there are no extra requirements or special optimizations.	Documented by Google
Gemini	Google's developer docs describe "Grounding with Google Search," which connects Gemini to real-time web content.	Documented for the developer API. I found no equivalent page for the consumer app.
ChatGPT search	OpenAI's crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is used to surface websites in ChatGPT search. TechCrunch reported in March 2025 that OpenAI partners with Bing but also uses undisclosed sources.	Crawler documented by OpenAI. Bing role reported, full list of sources not public.
Perplexity	Runs its own crawler, PerplexityBot, which Perplexity says is designed to surface and link websites in its search results.	Documented by Perplexity
Claude	TechCrunch reported in March 2025 that Anthropic added Brave Search to its list of data processors, and that Claude's citations matched Brave's results in testing.	Reported, based on circumstantial evidence. Anthropic did not comment in that article.

One practical takeaway: if your website blocks these crawlers in its robots.txt file, you can drop out. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Perplexity says the same about PerplexityBot. Ask whoever built your site to check.

What these tools actually cite for local searches

The best public look I found is a BrightLocal study published December 12, 2024. They ran 800 local business searches in ChatGPT across 20 industries and 20 US cities in November 2024, and recorded the first ten sources each time.

58% of sources were business websites.
27% were "business mentions," meaning articles and pages that talk about a business. Wikipedia made up 39% of those.
15% were directories. Yelp, Facebook and Google Maps did not show up as directory sources at all.
Reddit and Quora did not appear.
For "best electrician" searches, directories made up 62% of sources.

Two cautions. This was ChatGPT only, and it was measured weeks after ChatGPT search launched. These systems change often. Treat it as a snapshot, not a rule.

It does point to something useful. Your own website matters a lot, and so do third-party pages that mention you by name, like local "best of" lists and industry directories.

Why reviews and mentions matter

Google says prominence in local results depends partly on how many sites link to you and on your reviews and ratings. AI Overviews draw on the same index. So the things that help you in regular local search are, as far as anyone can document, the same raw material the AI answer is built from.

Customers are using these tools for this. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey (1,002 US adults, published February 11, 2026) found that use of ChatGPT and other AI tools for business recommendations rose from 6% the year before to 45%, making it the third most used source.

Bing Places and Apple Business

Two listings most local businesses skip:

Bing Places for Business. Free. In October 2025 it moved to bing.com/forbusiness and improved its import from Google Business Profile. Since Bing is reported to feed ChatGPT search, a clean Bing listing is cheap insurance. One caution: I have not seen it documented that ChatGPT reads Bing Places listings specifically, only Bing web results.
Apple Business. Apple's help pages say Apple Business Connect is now part of Apple Business. You can claim your location on Apple Maps and control your logo, hours, photos and key details.

Keep your name, address and phone identical everywhere

Use the exact same business name, address and phone number on your website, Google, Bing, Apple, Facebook, Yelp and any trade directory. I will be honest: no AI company documents this as a ranking factor. It is long-standing local search practice, and it costs nothing. When a tool pulls three sources about you and they disagree on your phone number, that cannot help.

Hype versus what is real

Real

These tools run web searches and summarize what they find.
Blocking their crawlers can keep you out.
A clear website that says what you do and which towns you serve gives them something to quote.
Third-party mentions and reviews are part of what they read.

Hype

Anyone promising you will be "the answer" in ChatGPT. Nobody outside these companies controls what they say.
Special "AI SEO" markup that supposedly gets you picked. Google says there are no special optimizations needed for its AI features.
Rank reports for AI answers. Without official data, these are samples from someone's test queries.

Unknown

How each tool weighs reviews, distance or star rating when picking a business.
The full list of data sources behind ChatGPT search.
Whether Claude still uses Brave or other providers today. Anthropic's own pages I could reach did not say.

What to do this month

Check that your robots.txt does not block OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot or Googlebot.
Make sure your website has one page per main service and lists the towns you serve, in plain words.
Claim Bing Places and Apple Business. Copy your Google details exactly.
Ask for a review after every job.
Get listed on one or two local or trade directories that actually rank for your service.

If you would rather not do it yourself, this is part of what PM Solutions Hub sets up for local businesses.