What AI recommends across Australia: what we found in 120 leaderboards

We spend our days watching what AI tells Australians when they ask who to hire. So we ran the numbers at scale. Across 20 categories and 6 cities, 120 leaderboards in all, we asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the questions real customers ask, and counted how often each business was named out of 16 answers. The picture that came back is the most useful thing we can show a business owner right now, because it says exactly where the opportunity is.

How we did it

For each category and city, we put four natural, hire-intent questions to the four major assistants. That is 16 answers per leaderboard. Every time a business was named, it scored a mention, so a business named in all 16 answers has effectively locked up that market in AI's eyes, and a business named in 4 is one of several the models are still unsure about. Same method as our free AI check, run across the whole board. You can browse the full results in the Australian AI Visibility Index.

The headline: most markets are wide open

The single most important finding is that in the majority of categories and cities, no business owns the AI answer. The leader is often named in only a handful of the 16 answers, which means the models have not settled on a clear winner. The slot is sitting there for whoever makes themselves the obvious choice first.

But not everywhere. In some markets, one business has already run away with it.

Look at the last three rows. Same trade, same country, completely different realities. In Perth, one firm is named in 14 of 16 answers and has basically locked it up. In Sydney and Melbourne, the leading electrician is named in just 4 of 16, which means nobody owns it. The race there has barely started.

What this means for your business

Two patterns, two lessons.

Where one business dominates, it did not happen by accident. Those businesses tend to have the same things going for them: clear descriptions of what they do and where, a healthy stream of genuine reviews, and consistent details across the web. That is the recipe, and it is repeatable. We break it down in How AI assistants choose which businesses to recommend.

Where the market is wide open, which is most of them, the opportunity is enormous and temporary. Being the business that makes itself the obvious answer now is like getting an early Google ranking: hard to earn, then very hard for anyone to take from you. The businesses that move first will still be the answer in a year, while their competitors are only starting to notice AI matters.

The uncomfortable part

Almost none of the businesses we looked at have any idea where they sit. They cannot see whether AI names them, or who it names instead, so they cannot tell whether they are the Perth electrician or the Sydney one. That blind spot is the first thing worth closing, because it turns a vague worry into a clear, cheap to-do list.

Find out where you stand. Run a free AI check to see how often AI recommends your business today, and who it recommends instead, then work on the basics and check again. If you run a trade, AI search for tradies has the specifics. And if the whole idea is new, start with What is Answer Engine Optimisation?. The data is clear: in most of Australia, the AI answer is still up for grabs. The question is whether you will be the name it gives.