ARO Index.When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity who to hire, the answer is a short list. Only 13 in 100Charleston census, Vol 1, July 2026, 688 businesses tested, v2 method. See how we measure local businesses were ever selected. The other 87 were not selected without live retrieval.
ARO Index is the public research measuring which local businesses AI actually recommends, city by city.
Public research. Standardized method. No paid rankings.
Asking ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity to compare and recommend local businesses is becoming part of the ordinary buying process, before a customer ever calls or visits a website.
These systems return a few confident names. Being qualified to serve a customer is not the same as being one of the businesses the system selects.
In our Charleston research, only 13 in 100 businesses were ever selected in cold buyer queries. The rest were not selected without live retrieval.
See how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity currently identify, understand, and recommend your business. Results in about 60 seconds.
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A business can have excellent reviews, an established reputation, a strong website, and years of experience. AI may still recommend someone else. The gap between business quality and AI selection is what ARO Index measures.
The customer gets three names. If a qualified attorney is not one of them, the customer may never visit the website, read the reviews, or make contact. The decision moved forward without them.
SCORE chapters, SBDCs, chambers, business associations, lenders, and economic development organizations are helping owners adapt to a changing economy. ARO Index gives those organizations evidence from their own market: which local businesses AI recommends, which it overlooks, and how that is changing.
This is not another software pitch. It is a clear view of a customer decision system small businesses currently cannot see.
Partnership programs are educational and research-based. Participating organizations do not influence public rankings.
ARO Index started with a pattern I kept seeing: businesses pouring money into SEO while AI platforms recommended their competitors instead. Traditional reporting could not answer the question that mattered most: which business did the system choose? So I built the measurement and tested it on my own site first. ARO Index is that research, made public.
Researchers, journalists, educators, and public organizations may cite published ARO Index findings with attribution. Each release includes sample size, methodology, and limitations.
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