When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini for “the best plumber in Leeds” or “a reliable accountant for sole traders”, the answer usually names only a handful of businesses. New data suggests most small UK firms are not among them. That is bad news if you do nothing, but it is also the reason there is a real opening for the small businesses that act first.
What the latest UK data shows
AiBoost, a UK AI-visibility service, ran its free audit on UK businesses between April and September 2026. For each business it generated 34 questions a real customer might ask, put them to AI assistants including ChatGPT and Gemini with live web search switched on, and scored whether the business appeared and was recommended. Of the 242 businesses with a full score, 47% scored below 20 out of 100 and 67% scored below 30. On average a business was missing from 23 of the 34 questions.
Two cautions. This is a vendor’s own dataset, and the businesses chose to test themselves, so it is not a random sample of UK firms. Treat it as a pointer, not a benchmark. Even so, AiBoost’s most useful observation is hopeful: most of these businesses had working websites and ranked reasonably well in traditional search, and a small group already appeared consistently. In other words, the gap is not about size or budget.
Why small businesses can compete
UK agency Rank4AI argues that AI tools care about understanding rather than size, and that unclear businesses get skipped. That is the agency’s view and it offers no hard evidence for it, so read it as a reasoned opinion. But it fits how these tools work: they pull together what they can find about you and recommend businesses they can describe with confidence. A small firm with a clear, consistent story can beat a larger one with a muddled online presence.
Rank4AI also publishes figures from its own research claiming that 75% of UK SME websites present different business names. The page does not give a sample size or dates, so we would not lean on the exact number, but inconsistent naming is easy to check on your own business in ten minutes.
Five low-cost moves to make this month
- Run your own test. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, for example “best [your service] in [your town]”. Note whether you appear, who does, and what they say about you. Repeat monthly, as answers change.
- Say who you are in one clear sentence. Put what you do, where you work and who you serve at the top of your home page and on your Google Business Profile. Avoid jargon.
- Use one business name everywhere. Match your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Facebook and directory listings exactly.
- Answer real questions on the page. Add a short FAQ covering price ranges, areas covered, timescales and how you work. Make service pages specific rather than vague.
- Be upfront about pricing. Even a “from” price or a typical range helps both customers and the tools that summarise you.
What to expect
None of this guarantees a mention, and anyone who promises one is overselling. AI answers vary from one query to the next, so measure over several weeks. The upside is that the same work improves your Google presence and makes life easier for customers who find you.
Where to start
Spend 30 minutes this week on the test in step one and write down what you find. You will quickly see whether your problem is being absent, being described wrongly, or losing out to bigger names, and that tells you which fix to do first.
Smitco Analytics helps UK small businesses measure and improve their visibility in Google and AI search. Contact us for a quick check of how AI tools describe your business.
Sources:
- AiBoost, “The State of AI Search Visibility for UK Small Businesses, 2026” (last modified 12 September 2026): https://aiboost.co.uk/state-of-ai-search-visibility-uk-2026/
- Rank4AI, “Can Small UK Businesses Compete in AI Search?” (published 4 February 2026, updated 30 March 2026): https://www.rank4ai.co.uk/blog/can-small-uk-businesses-compete-in-ai-search/