Insights / Research

We asked three AI assistants for a heat pump installer in Flanders. They named 68 different companies.

By Maikel · 8 September 2026 · 6 min read

Short answer: “being visible in AI” is not one thing. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini read different sources and name almost entirely different installers. Of the 68 companies named in our test, exactly two appeared in all three.

In September 2026 we put the same question to three AI assistants, in Dutch, phrased the way a homeowner would actually type it: “Which heat pump installer in [city] would you recommend?”

Four Flemish cities — Ghent, Bruges, Sint-Niklaas and Kortrijk. Twenty-five runs. We logged every company named and every source cited, then checked the answers against reality. Not the other way round.

Here is what came out. If you want the definition first, we explain what AI visibility is separately; this piece is about what actually happens.

Do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini name the same installers?

No. Across twenty-five runs the assistants named 68 different installers between them. Only eight were named by more than one assistant. Two appeared in all three: Pattyn Energietechnieken in Bruges and ThermaHeat in Kortrijk.

That is the finding. Someone in Bruges asking ChatGPT gets a different shortlist from their neighbour asking Gemini. Not a different order of the same list — a different list.

So when someone promises to make your business “visible in AI”, the first question is: in which one?

Where do AI assistants get their information about installers?

For every company named, we logged where the assistant got its information. The pattern is clear enough to act on:

Sources per assistant — heat pump installers across four Flemish cities (Ghent, Bruges, Sint-Niklaas, Kortrijk), 25 runs, 8 September 2026.

Three different diets.

ChatGPT ran almost entirely on comparison platforms: Solvari, Trustlocal, airco-installateur-in-de-buurt.be, Vakman in de Buurt, Gouden Gids. Across nine runs it pointed to an installer's own website exactly once. Your carefully written services page is not what ChatGPT is looking at.

Perplexity was the only one that regularly read installer websites — just under half of its mentions pointed at the company's own domain. In one Ghent run it named no installer at all, and offered the comparison platforms themselves as the answer.

Gemini cited neither. Where it gave addresses, a “Google Maps” source appeared alongside — and those addresses matched the company's Google Business Profile exactly: street, number, postcode. Gemini also had the largest overlap with our reference list of real, verified local installers: 41 percent, against 30 for ChatGPT and 9 for Perplexity.

That last figure is the most useful one. If you want Gemini to find you, your Google Business Profile is the surface being read. If you want ChatGPT to find you, it is mostly other people's directories.

How stable is an AI answer if you ask twice?

We ran every city at least twice. Sometimes the answers were nearly identical. Sometimes they had nothing in common.

• Perplexity, Bruges: two runs, same shortlist.
• Perplexity, Kortrijk: two runs, not one company appearing in both.
• Perplexity, Ghent: the first run named no installer, the second named four.
• Gemini, Kortrijk: the first run contained no installer from our reference list, the second contained two of three.

This is worth saying out loud, because it cuts against how AI visibility is usually sold: one screenshot of an AI answer proves very little. One run is an anecdote. Only the pattern across repeated runs means anything — which is exactly why nobody can honestly promise you a place in an AI answer.

What happens when the information is wrong?

Three examples from the runs.

A Daikin specialist from the Ghent region — around 70 kilometres from Bruges — was recommended as a Bruges installer, and then again for Sint-Niklaas. Its own platform profile lists a service area around Ghent. Neither city appears in it.

Asked about Kortrijk, Perplexity returned a refrigeration company from the coast, more than 60 kilometres away, found through a manufacturer's dealer locator.

And for one of the companies all three assistants named, two assistants gave two different street addresses. One of them does not match the company's Google Business Profile.

From the inside you see none of this. No notification arrives. What gets repeated about you is assembled from listings you may not have looked at in years.

Two things that appear to matter

We are not going to pretend twenty-five runs settle what drives these recommendations. But two things recurred often enough to be worth checking on your own listing.

The name you trade under. One Ghent installer is registered with Google as an air conditioning company, but presents itself under a heat pump brand name and matching domain. The assistants used the heat pump name. If your public brand and the name on your Google Business Profile have drifted apart, an assistant can recognise one and miss the other.

Presence on the platforms the assistant actually reads. One installer we saw surfacing repeatedly was named in cities where the company is not based. It carries a prominent quality mark on one of the comparison platforms ChatGPT and Perplexity cite most often. We cannot demonstrate that the mark causes the recommendations, and we are not implying anything improper. But if the assistant reads the platform rather than the companies, what the platform says about you travels with you.

For the record: getting you listed on those platforms is not a service we sell. It still belongs in the answer.

How we did this, and what it does not prove

Twenty-five runs across four cities on 8 September 2026, in Dutch, one question per fresh conversation, repeated. Our reference list of twenty-five installers came from Google Business Profile data; manufacturers and distributors were excluded.

The limitations, up front: the runs were made from a Polish IP address, which can affect local results. ChatGPT and Perplexity ran logged out; Gemini can only run logged in. ChatGPT has nine runs against eight for the other two, so read the percentages above as direction, not precision. And this is one day. These systems change.

We only name companies an assistant recommended. Most of the reference list did not appear in any given run — but an assistant only names three to five, so absence in one run says little on its own. And we do not publish a list of companies an AI has never heard of.

What you can do with this

Install heat pumps in Flanders? Three checks, in this order:

1. Open your Google Business Profile and read it the way a stranger reads it. Name, category, address, service area. Gemini appears to read it directly.
2. Search your own company name in ChatGPT and see what comes back — and where it got it.
3. Look up the two or three comparison platforms in your sector and check what they currently say about you.

You do not need an agency for that. An afternoon will do.

Working in Belgium and wondering how this plays out in your sector? Our page on AI visibility in Belgium covers how the language split shapes the answer.

Frequently asked questions

Do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini name the same companies?

No. In our study of heat pump installers across four Flemish cities, the three assistants named 68 different companies between them, of which only two appeared in all three. They read different sources and therefore arrive at almost entirely different lists.

Why doesn't ChatGPT cite my own website?

Because in our runs ChatGPT ran almost entirely on comparison platforms: 57% of its mentions pointed to a quote platform and 2% to the company's own website. Your services page is not the surface ChatGPT is reading; the directories you appear in are.

How do I get visible in Gemini?

Through your Google Business Profile. In our runs Gemini cited no comparison platforms and no company websites, but attached a “Google Maps” source to addresses, and those addresses matched the Business Profile exactly. Gemini also had the largest overlap with real local installers: 41 percent.

Can anyone guarantee a place in an AI answer?

No. Asking the same question twice regularly produced a completely different list — for Perplexity in Kortrijk, without a single overlapping company. Anyone promising a position in an AI answer is promising something that cannot be steered. What can be: presence, accurate information, and a trend you track across repeated measurements.