6:00 PMCleveland and Ohio
Field study · Cleveland · Nov 9, 2026
I asked ChatGPT the same question twice.
One in four of the businesses it recommended the first time were gone the second time.
Ten Cleveland trades. The same question. Two fresh chats each.
Jason Murphy, Lehvel. Nov 9, 2026.
What came back.
- 12 of 50
ChatGPT named 50 businesses in my first answers. Twelve were missing from the second. That is one in four.
Evidence Lehvel field study, Jason Murphy, Nov 9, 2026. ChatGPT Temporary Chat, two fresh chats for each of 10 Cleveland trades. 50 names in run 1, 38 named again in run 2.
- 1 of 10
Only auto repair got the same five names both times. The other nine changed at least one name, and three of them changed two.
Evidence Lehvel field study, Jason Murphy, Nov 9, 2026. ChatGPT Temporary Chat, two fresh chats for each of 10 Cleveland trades. Overlap between the two lists (shared names over all names) ran from 0.43 to 1.00, mean 0.63.
- 13 of 30
Google's map shows three businesses at the top. Across ten trades that is 30 slots. ChatGPT named 13 of them. For furnace repair it named none of the three.
Evidence Lehvel field study, Jason Murphy, Nov 9, 2026. ChatGPT Temporary Chat, two fresh chats for each of 10 Cleveland trades. Google: "best {trade} cleveland ohio" in one signed-in session located in Cleveland. Map pack is the first 3 non-sponsored entries. Both ChatGPT runs combined.
- 0 of 10
Google showed no AI Overview on any of the ten searches I ran. In this study, the AI recommendation came from ChatGPT alone.
Evidence Lehvel field study, Jason Murphy, Nov 9, 2026. 10 Google searches in one signed-in session located in Cleveland.
Trade by trade.
No business names here. The count is businesses.
| Trade | Named, run 1 | Named again, run 2 | Map top 3 named by ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumber | 5 | 3 | 1 of 3 |
| Furnace repair | 5 | 4 | 0 of 3 |
| Electrician | 5 | 4 | 2 of 3 |
| Roofer | 5 | 4 | 1 of 3 |
| Landscaper | 5 | 4 | 1 of 3 |
| Garage door repair | 5 | 3 | 2 of 3 |
| Concrete contractor | 5 | 3 | 2 of 3 |
| Pest control | 5 | 4 | 1 of 3 |
| Auto repair shop | 5 | 5 | 1 of 3 |
| Moving company | 5 | 4 | 2 of 3 |
| All ten | 50 | 38 | 13 of 30 |
Ask it yourself.
Open a Temporary Chat. Paste this with your trade in the blank. Then open a second fresh chat and paste it again. Compare the two lists.
I live in Cleveland, Ohio. Who should I call for a {trade}? Give me your top picks.
Method.
- Who
- Lehvel, through Claude working in my own browser.
- When
- The evening of Nov 9, 2026, Eastern time. Seventeen minutes, start to finish.
- Trades
- Plumber, furnace repair, electrician, roofer, landscaper, garage door repair, concrete contractor, pest control, auto repair shop, moving company.
- ChatGPT
- Temporary Chat. Two fresh chats per trade, 20 in all. The prompt is the one above, word for word. The screen did not show a model name.
- The query "best {trade} cleveland ohio", one search per trade, in a signed-in session located in Cleveland. The map pack is the first three entries that were not ads.
- Matching
- A name matches another only when it matches after case and punctuation are ignored.
The limits: a small sample, one evening, one signed-in session, and strict name matching, which can undercount matches. Treat the numbers as what happened in this study, not as a market statistic.
The log names the businesses. This page does not.
What it means for you.
- ChatGPT's list for your trade is not fixed. You can be on it at noon and off it at dinner.
- Ranking on Google's map does not put you in ChatGPT's answer. More than half of the map's top slots never showed up.
- Ask it about your trade tonight. Ask twice.
Want to talk about yours?
A conversation with our founder about how your business runs day to day and where we would start. About 40 minutes, by phone or video.