A business can work its way to the top of Google and still go unnamed when someone asks ChatGPT the same buying question.
Discoverable’s UK AI Shortlist Study found that Google’s number-one supplier was not named in 72.5% of eligible ChatGPT answers. That was 1,183 of 1,632 scored answers, including repeated checks across 575 questions. The comparison applied where Google’s actual first organic result was a supplier’s own website. The wider research covered 1,000 buying questions across 25 commercial categories. Discoverable collected 17,537 completed answers from six consumer AI services, alongside 3,000 Google results captures.
“Getting to number one on Google takes work,” said Jon David, Media Relations at Discoverable. “A business owner could quite reasonably think that means they’re easy to find. Then someone puts the same question into ChatGPT and the business doesn’t get a mention. That’s the gap we wanted to understand.”
The study tested ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. Discoverable collected answers from the consumer websites using browser automation, submitting identical question wording across services in three rounds on 6 and 7 September 2026. The final findings have been human-verified.
The results also showed why being mentioned and being cited need separate measures. For the question “company formation for a first time founder”, Your Company Formations ranked first on Google in all three rounds. None of the 18 AI answer texts named the business. Perplexity nevertheless cited its website in every round. A business can therefore contribute information to an AI answer without appearing by name in the explanation a prospective customer reads. Across the ChatGPT comparisons, counting either a name or a captured source citation as presence reduced the omission figure from 72.5% to 68.0%.
Other examples showed close agreement between Google and AI. Payhip ranked first on Google in all three rounds for “free platform for selling digital products” and was named in all 18 AI answers. The examples were selected after collection to illustrate different outcomes.
For businesses, the findings raise a practical question about how they measure visibility. A Google ranking shows where a website appears in organic results. Checking the same buying questions in AI services shows whether the business is named, and examining the citations reveals whether its website is being used as a source.
The study includes answers that gave general advice or asked a follow-up question without naming suppliers. When the ChatGPT analysis was restricted to answers naming at least one supplier from the matching Google top ten, the number-one business was still unnamed in 54.0% of answers. The research is a selected UK sample and was not weighted by search volume. Missing answers and ambiguous comparisons were excluded. AI Overviews were scored only when one appeared. The study did not measure lost sales or assess which businesses deserved a recommendation.
Discoverable has published the full findings and methodology, with supporting evidence available to download without registration.
