You’ve done “all the right things.” Your website looks professional. Your Google reviews are solid. Your SEO agency tells you your rankings are fine. Yet clients are still finding the wrong phone number, being sent to a competitor, or telling you that an AI search tool said your business was closed.

If you’re a lawyer, accountant, real estate agent, mortgage broker or financial planner, this is frustrating and worrying. Local visibility has always mattered in professional services. But in 2026, it has become more complicated than ever.

AI search tools are now answering “near me” questions before people even reach Google Maps. Platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and others are acting as discovery engines. But according to the 2025 Local Search Accuracy Benchmark Report, they are not always accurate. In some cases, they are dangerously wrong.

This blog breaks down what the report found, which AI platforms perform best and worst, and what professional services firms should be doing right now to protect their visibility, reputation and pipeline.

The New Local Search Problem Professional Firms Are Facing

The biggest pain point we see with professional services firms right now is not a lack of marketing. It’s a lack of control. Clients are no longer just searching “lawyer near me” or “accountant near me” on Google. They’re asking AI tools direct questions like:

“Who is the best property lawyer near me?”
“Is this clinic open today?”
“Find a mortgage broker close to my suburb.”

When the answer is wrong, you may never even know you lost that enquiry.

The 2025 Local Search Accuracy Benchmark Report tested over 2,400 real world “near me” searches across industries and locations. The findings were clear:

• Traditional platforms like Google Maps and Bing Maps are still the most accurate
• AI tools are improving fast but are not yet reliable enough to trust blindly
• Errors increase dramatically outside major cities
• Regulated industries are hit hardest

For professional services firms, this matters because trust, accuracy and proximity are everything. If a client is given the wrong information, they don’t blame the AI, They blame the business.

CASE STUDY

A regional law firm losing enquiries without knowing why

A regional NSW law firm came to us confused. Website traffic was steady, but calls were down. After auditing their visibility across AI tools, we discovered that:

• One AI platform listed them as permanently closed
• Another sent users to a different firm with a similar name
• A third placed them over 20 kilometres away

Once we corrected their Google and Bing listings, cleaned up category data and aligned structured information across platforms, enquiries returned within weeks.

The issue was not SEO. It was inaccurate data being reused by AI.

Key Accuracy Issues Found in AI Local Search

The report identified four major accuracy problems that affect local businesses. These issues are especially risky for professional services.

Fabricated listings
Some AI tools recommend businesses that do not exist or have never existed. These are not edge cases. They appear most often in: Rural areas, suburban locations, and specialised service categories.

For professional services, this means AI might invent a “law firm” or “clinic” that sounds real, pushing legitimate firms out of view.

Stale listings
Closed businesses frequently appear as open. This was especially common in healthcare, dental practices, and restaurants

This happens because AI tools rely on outdated third party data. If your listing is wrong in one place, it can be repeated everywhere.

Misclassification
This is one of the most common and damaging issues for professional firms.

Examples include:
• Orthodontists shown as general dentists
• Walk in clinics shown as urgent care
• Storage facilities mislabelled by category

For lawyers, accountants and financial professionals, incorrect categorisation means showing up for the wrong search or not showing up at all.

Distance errors
Some AI tools suggest businesses far outside a reasonable proximity, particularly in rural or low density areas. This makes local competition feel random and unfair. The further from a dense city, the worse the accuracy becomes.

Which AI Platforms Perform Best and Worst in Local Search

The report compared leading AI platforms against traditional search engines. The results are important for business owners to understand.

ChatGPT
ChatGPT was the best performing AI platform overall.

Strengths:
• Strong proximity accuracy
• More reliable in urban areas
• Better category matching than other LLMs

Limitations:
• Returned around 40 percent fewer results than traditional search
• Reduced discovery breadth means fewer chances to appear

Gemini
Gemini showed moderate accuracy.

Strengths:
• Reasonable results in cities

Weaknesses:
• Accuracy drops significantly outside urban areas
• More prone to category confusion

Claude and DeepSeek
These platforms performed the worst.

Issues included:
• Highest hallucination rates
• Frequent misclassification
• Particularly weak in healthcare and dental searches

These platforms are the riskiest for professional services right now.

Perplexity
Perplexity performed better in dense urban areas but struggled elsewhere.

• Strong city results
• Sharp error spikes in suburban and rural searches

Grok
Grok produced mixed results.

• Slightly better rural performance due to social signal data
• Still inconsistent and unreliable

The takeaway is simple. AI search is evolving, but none of these tools consistently outperform Google or Bing for local accuracy.

Urban vs Suburban vs Rural Performance Gaps

One of the most important findings in the report is how much geography affects accuracy.

Urban areas
• AI tools perform closest to Google and Bing
• ChatGPT performs best here
• Data density improves accuracy

Suburban areas
• Accuracy drops across all AI tools
• More category confusion
• More location errors

Rural areas
• Highest error rates
• Sparse data leads to fabricated listings
• Incorrect locations
• Long distance recommendations

For regional professional services firms, this creates a serious disadvantage unless listings are actively managed.

Why This Matters for Professional Services Businesses

AI is quickly becoming a default gateway for local search. Clients trust it. They rarely question the answer.
Inaccurate AI results lead to:

• Brand damage
• Lost leads
• Client frustration
• Compliance risks in regulated industries

If your data is inconsistent across platforms, you are exposed. This is why businesses that rely only on “traditional SEO” are now at risk. Ranking well is meaningless if your details are wrong when AI pulls them into answers.
Local visibility is no longer about keywords alone. It is about controlling your data everywhere it appears.

CASE STUDY

A healthcare-adjacent firm fixing compliance risk

We worked with a healthcare-adjacent professional firm that discovered AI tools were misclassifying their services. This created regulatory concerns. We implemented:

• Structured schema
• Clear category alignment
• Manual verification across listings
• Ongoing audit processes

The result was improved accuracy across AI platforms and reduced risk exposure.

What Businesses Should Do Now (Key Recommendations)

The report is clear on what works.

Treat Google and Bing as your source of truth
These platforms still power the most reliable local data. If they are wrong, AI will be wrong too.

Manually verify listings
Especially important for:

• Rural and suburban locations
• Legal, healthcare, dental and regulated industries

Use structured data
This includes:

• Schema
• Clear categories
• Consistent NAP information

Audit AI search results regularly
Especially after AI model updates.

Feed clean data
AI accuracy improves when reliable data is available.

Track listing accuracy as a KPI
Do not just track rankings. Track correctness.

CASE STUDY

A multi location professional firm future proofing visibility

A multi location professional services firm partnered with Zenovate Marketing to clean up listings across all locations. Within three months:

• Incorrect AI listings were removed
• Discovery accuracy improved
• Lead quality increased
• Regional locations stopped losing visibility

This is the advantage of acting early.

Bottom Line

• Google and Bing are still the safest place to control local visibility
• AI search is advancing quickly but cannot be trusted blindly
• Listing accuracy is now a competitive advantage
• Regional and regulated businesses face the highest risk
• Local visibility is no longer just SEO, it is data governance

If you want to understand how your business appears across Google, Bing and AI search platforms,
and what risks or opportunities exist for your firm, we can help.

At Zenovate Marketing, we work with professional services firms to clean up listings,
strengthen visibility and future proof their marketing as AI search evolves. Book your free 15 minute strategy call

BOOK YOUR FREE CALL

Written By the Zenovate Marketing Team

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

ChatGPT currently performs best among AI tools, especially in urban areas. However, it still returns fewer results than Google and should not be relied on alone.
Yes. Google Maps and Bing Maps remain the most accurate and trusted data sources. AI tools often reuse their data.
AI relies on multiple data sources. If listings are outdated or inconsistent, errors are repeated across platforms.
Yes. Sparse data in regional areas leads to higher error rates, fabricated listings and incorrect locations.
Clean and verify listings, use structured data and treat accuracy as an ongoing process, not a one time task.

DISCLAIMER: This article is general information only and cannot be regarded as legal, financial or accounting advice as it does not take into account your personal circumstances. For tailored advice, please contact us. PS – congratulations if you have read this far, you must love legal disclaimers or are a sucker for punishment.