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Florida AI Visibility Research · 2026 City-by-City Index
Florida AI Visibility 2026: The City-by-City Index
We benchmarked 28,488 businesses across nine Florida cities to see which companies appear when buyers ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google for local recommendations before they know which businesses to search for by name.
The statewide picture
How visible are Florida businesses in AI search?
1,676 of the 28,488 businesses in the nine-city benchmark appeared at least once, a statewide visibility rate of 5.9%. The more important finding is what sits underneath that number. Visibility changed sharply by industry, platform and the way a buyer phrased the question.
This is the distinction that matters in AI search. A company can be easy to find once someone already knows its name and still be largely absent from the earlier discovery stage, when a buyer is asking an AI system which businesses to consider. Our guide to AI search optimization, AI SEO, GEO and AEO explains that broader shift in search.
Industry differences
Which types of Florida businesses appeared most often in AI recommendations?
Industry made a major difference. Veterinary practices appeared at a 19.2% rate across the nine-city benchmark. General contractors appeared at 2.3%, insurance at 2.6%, and dentists at 3.6%.
Veterinary practices
148 of 772 businesses appeared at least once.
General contractors
85 of 3,713 businesses appeared at least once.
| Industry | Appeared | Businesses | Share that appeared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home, Property & Construction | |||
| Architecture | 95 | 801 | |
| Commercial Real Estate | 79 | 574 | |
| Electrical | 82 | 818 | |
| Engineering | 82 | 1,093 | |
| General Contractors | 85 | 3,713 | |
| HVAC | 102 | 1,859 | |
| Pest Control | 93 | 532 | |
| Plumbing | 96 | 806 | |
| Roofing | 108 | 1,480 | |
| Health & Care | |||
| Assisted Living | 64 | 522 | |
| Chiropractors | 130 | 1,696 | |
| Dentists | 161 | 4,509 | |
| Veterinary Practices | 148 | 772 | |
| Professional & Business Services | |||
| Business Consultants | 34 | 1,437 | |
| CPA Firms | 56 | 917 | |
| Insurance | 103 | 3,975 | |
| Personal Injury Law | 86 | 1,214 | |
| Staffing & Recruiting | 72 | 1,770 | |
The table shows the share of businesses in each industry that appeared at least once across the nine city benchmarks.
Repeated discoverability
How often did the same businesses keep appearing?
Showing up once was much more common than showing up repeatedly. Among the 1,676 benchmark businesses that appeared at least once, 43.2% appeared in only one of the 12 searches available for their city and industry.
43.2% appeared once
Another 22.4% appeared in exactly two searches, while only 12.9% appeared in five or more.
58.7% appeared on one platform
Most businesses that surfaced were exclusive to a single AI platform. Only 5.7% of surfaced businesses appeared across all four.
71.6% were tied to one search type
Most observed business-and-platform combinations appeared for only one of the three buyer question types.
37.4% were new in specific-need searches
More specific buyer questions introduced businesses that had not appeared in the broader or direct recommendation searches.
That makes repeated discoverability a more useful goal than one successful AI result. A business can appear for one question, on one platform, and disappear as soon as the buyer changes the wording or asks somewhere else.
Google AI Overviews
How often did Google show an AI Overview for the Florida searches?
Google showed no AI Overview in 37.4% of the 486 Google search opportunities in the study. Whether the feature appeared changed substantially with the wording of the search.
Broad best search
An AI Overview appeared in 75 of 162 searches. It did not appear in 53.7%.
Direct recommendation
An AI Overview appeared in 123 of 162 searches. It did not appear in 24.1%.
Specific-need search
An AI Overview appeared in 106 of 162 searches. It did not appear in 34.6%.
For Google, there are effectively two visibility questions: does an AI Overview appear at all, and if it does, which businesses make the answer?
Local reach
Do AI recommendations stay neatly inside city and database boundaries?
Not always. At least 10.1% of observed business-name mentions pointed to verified local businesses that were missing from the frozen starting benchmark, while another 5.1% pointed to Florida businesses outside the exact target city.
That matters for both measurement and strategy. AI recommendations are not constrained by the same database definitions marketers use internally. Clear location, service-area and category signals help systems understand where a business fits, but the recommendation set can still reach beyond a clean city list.
Nine local markets
What did AI visibility look like across the nine Florida city benchmarks?
Each city has a different number and mix of businesses, so these figures are local context rather than a city ranking. The larger statewide story comes from the patterns that repeat across markets.
Florida AI Visibility Research
The City-by-City Index is one part of a broader Florida research program
Evoke Strategy studies AI-assisted business discovery both across major industries statewide and within individual local markets. The Florida AI Visibility research hub is the permanent home for that work, including the statewide Manufacturing and Commercial Construction studies and the local-market series.
What businesses can take from this
The practical goal is not one AI mention. It is consistent discovery across the questions that create a consideration set.
The statewide findings point to a search environment that is fragmented by platform, industry and buyer intent. That makes a single screenshot a weak measure of whether a company is actually discoverable.
Test real buyer questions
Measure the searches someone might use before they know which company to look for by name.
Test more than one platform
Visibility on ChatGPT does not guarantee visibility on Claude, Gemini or Google, and the reverse is also true.
Make services and location clear
Give search engines and AI systems consistent information about what the business does, where it operates and which needs it solves.
Track recurrence
The stronger signal is whether the company continues to appear as the question, need and platform change.
If you are trying to understand where your own company fits, our AI search optimization and AI visibility services explain how we benchmark visibility and turn the gaps into a practical search strategy.
Methodology
How was the 2026 Florida AI Visibility Index measured?
We tested 18 industries in nine exact Florida cities: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Myers and Naples. For each city and industry, we ran three buyer-style searches across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews: a broad best search, a direct recommendation request and a more specific need-based search. That produced 12 searches per city-industry combination and 1,944 searches overall.
The frozen benchmark contained 28,488 exact-city businesses that met the study’s industry and operating-status rules. A business counted as having appeared only when the recommendation could be clearly matched back to that benchmark. Verified local businesses missing from the starting database and Florida businesses outside the target city were tracked separately.
How to read the research: the study measures appearance in the tested AI recommendations. It is a point-in-time measure of discoverability, not a judgment about business quality or a permanent city ranking.
Get the full 2026 Florida AI Visibility Index
The full report includes the statewide findings, nine city snapshots, industry data, recommendation behavior, Google AI Overview analysis and methodology.
Questions about the Florida AI Visibility Index
What is the Florida AI Visibility Index?
The 2026 City-by-City Index combines nine local Florida business benchmarks to measure which businesses appear when buyers ask major AI platforms for local recommendations. It is part of Evoke Strategy’s broader Florida AI Visibility research program.
Which cities are included?
Tampa, St. Petersburg, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Myers and Naples.
Which AI platforms were tested?
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Each platform was tested independently using the same three buyer-style search types across 18 industries and nine cities.
What does a 5.9% statewide visibility rate mean?
It means 1,676 of the 28,488 businesses in the frozen nine-city benchmark appeared at least once in the tested AI recommendations. It does not mean every business had the same chance to appear, which is why the industry and local-market breakdowns matter.
Where can I see the rest of Evoke Strategy’s Florida AI visibility research?
Visit the Florida AI Visibility research hub for statewide industry studies and individual local-market reports.
