New Study Reveals AI Assistants’ Inconsistencies in Recommending UK Businesses – ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini Cited 104 Different Sources Across Just 30 Answers
Thursday, August 20, 2026
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM – A recent study conducted by Manchester-based AI visibility agency The Happy Cat has shed light on the discrepancies among AI assistants when it comes to recommending UK businesses. The study, which logged the first answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini to ten fixed buyer questions, found that the three assistants cited a total of 104 different web sources across just 30 answers. Only eleven sources were cited more than once, and only three businesses were recommended by all three assistants.
The study, conducted on August 19-20, 2026, aimed to simulate real-life scenarios where buyers ask AI assistants for recommendations. It included questions such as “best AI visibility agency UK” and “AI SEO agency Manchester.” The Happy Cat recorded the first answer verbatim from each assistant and published the responses, along with screenshots.
The study’s main finding was that each AI assistant chooses recommendations in a unique manner. ChatGPT mainly recommended businesses from their own websites, with every source cited carrying a tracking tag labeled “utm_source=chatgpt.com.” This suggests that ChatGPT relies heavily on its own referral traffic and may not recommend businesses whose websites block AI crawlers or do not provide clear information about their services.
On the other hand, Perplexity rarely cited a business’s own website and instead used third-party comparison articles, industry roundups, and even a press release. Gemini quoted passages from detailed published articles, giving preference to businesses that have written informative and quotable content.
“The practical implication of this is that AI visibility is currently a lottery with three different sets of rules,” said Alex Golombeck, founder of The Happy Cat. “A business can be ChatGPT’s top recommendation and completely absent from Perplexity. The fragmented citation landscape, with 104 sources cited only once, means that there is no clear winner. This gives smaller and more specific businesses a chance to be recommended over larger competitors simply by having readable and quotable content.”
In a bold move, The Happy Cat also published its own results, which showed that the agency did not appear in any of the 30 answers. This baseline was recorded after the agency’s website had become readable to AI crawlers. The Happy Cat has committed to re-running the same 30 queries on September 16 and October 14, 2026, and publishing the results regardless of the outcome.
Golombeck added, “Many agencies in this industry claim to have the ability to get businesses recommended by AI, but very few publish their starting point, including their own. We decided to publish our results because a dated, logged baseline is the only honest way to prove that something works. Any business can replicate our method for free, as we have made all our methodology public.”
The full study, which includes the methodology and a data-based comparison of UK AI visibility agencies ranked solely by logged recommendation counts, is available on The Happy Cat’s website at https://thehappycat.com/insights/we-scored-zero-ai-visibility-baseline and https://thehappycat.com/insights/uk-ai-visibility-agencies-august-2026.
About The Happy Cat:
The Happy Cat is an AI visibility (GEO) agency that helps UK businesses get found and recommended by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. Founded by Alex Golombeck and based in Manchester, the agency follows a transparent approach and publicly documents its methodology. The Happy Cat also designs and builds customized AI tools and interactive digital experiences for UK businesses.
Media Contact:
Alex Golombeck, Founder
The Happy Cat
team@thehappycat.com
https://thehappycat.com
