This is a summary of our original data study. Read the full study with methodology and per-vertical deep-dives → We measured a defined sample of NYC-area businesses against two AI search engines and documented the results, denominators, and limitations.
## What we did
We sampled 100 NYC-area locations representing 99 unique business IDs — dentists, immigration and personal-injury lawyers, med-spas, CPAs, and home-service pros — across four NYC boroughs plus Jersey City. Then we asked Perplexity and Gemini localized discovery questions: "best dentist near Park Slope Brooklyn," "best immigration lawyer in Downtown Brooklyn," "best med spa in Williamsburg." Crucially, we never used the business's own name in the query. That lets the study measure discovery rather than name recall.
## What we found
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Businesses named by an AI engine | 40% (79 of 198 measurements) |
| Businesses with their website cited as a source | 1% (2 of 198) |
| Businesses invisible to both engines | 54% (53 of 99 distinct businesses) |
| Average position when mentioned | 1.1 (when they're in, they're at the top) |
The headline is simple: the two tested AI engines named fewer than half of the sampled NYC-area businesses, and exposed the businesses' own websites as citations in only 1% of measurements.
Which businesses won — and lost
| Vertical | Mentioned |
|---|---|
| Med-spa & dermatology | 57% |
| Dental | 51% |
| Legal (immigration & personal injury) | 26% |
| CPA, real estate & home services | 26% |
Med-spas and dentists get named most. Lawyers and CPAs get named least. The legal finding is especially stark — Perplexity explicitly declined to recommend specific immigration lawyers, citing an inability to determine the single "best."
The quiet finding: citation is basically zero
Even when a business was recommended by name, its own website appeared in the answer or exposed citation list in just 1% of measurements.
This metric cannot reveal every source an engine used. It does show that, in this sample, the business's own website was rarely presented as an exposed source alongside a recommendation.
What this means for your business
If you run a local business in NYC (or anywhere), three things:
1. This sample found a substantial discovery gap. The two tested engines named a business in 46% of the distinct-business sample. See how your own business appears with a visibility check. 2. Being recommended and appearing in an exposed citation list are distinct observed outcomes. This study measures those outcomes; it does not establish which tactic caused them. 3. The observed rates varied by sampled category. Med-spa had the highest mention rate in this sample, while legal and other professional/home services had the lowest.
Honesty: what this study doesn't prove
This is an exploratory first measurement, not a definitive study. We measured two engines (Perplexity and Gemini) — not ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews. ChatGPT began gating anonymous queries behind a login wall during data collection, and Google's search endpoint was rate-limited. Our sample is about 25 locations per vertical across four NYC boroughs plus Jersey City. A larger v2 is planned.
Read the full methodology, limitations, and v2 roadmap in the complete study →
Cite this study
Findings may be cited and quoted with attribution to EnovaCreations. The full study page has the copy-paste headline stat and complete methodology.
If you write about AEO, GEO, or local search and want to dig into the raw data behind the findings, get in touch — we'll happily walk you through it.
Want to know where your business stands? We measure and improve AI-search visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Run a free AI visibility audit →
