AI SEO Statistics: Professional Services (2026-07 edition)

Reading the 120 answers model by model shows how differently the three assistants treat the same professional services questions. On the most consequential behavior — whether to send the buyer to a professional at all — the rate ranged from 52.5% (ChatGPT) down to 30% (Gemini), a 23-point gap on an identical question set.

Across the 40 professional services answers it produced, ChatGPT recommended hiring a professional in 52.5% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 20% of the time. It named a specific provider in 5% of answers (about 0.2 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 17.5% of the time. ChatGPT asked a clarifying question before answering in 25% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 10%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 10%, averaging 710 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 7.5%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 17.5%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 5%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 32.5% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 0%.

Across the 40 professional services answers it produced, Claude recommended hiring a professional in 35% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 12.5% of the time. It named a specific provider in 7.5% of answers (about 0.7 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 15% of the time. Claude asked a clarifying question before answering in 50% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 27.5%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 10%, averaging 331 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 10%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 17.5%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 7.5%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 45% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 2.5%.

Across the 40 professional services answers it produced, Gemini recommended hiring a professional in 30% of them and suggested a DIY approach first 2.5% of the time. It named a specific provider in 10% of answers (about 0.5 distinct providers per answer) and included price or cost information 30% of the time. Gemini asked a clarifying question before answering in 0% of cases, warned about red flags or scams in 15%, and told the buyer to verify credentials in 0%, averaging 259 words per answer. On the remaining cues it told the buyer to check reviews in 0%, pointed to case studies or a portfolio in 5%, and framed the choice around local proximity in 0%; a selection-criteria checklist appeared in 32.5% of its answers and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 0%.

Taken together, ChatGPT is the assistant most likely to route a professional services buyer to a professional (52.5%) and Gemini the least (30%). ChatGPT produced the longest answers, at 710 words on average. Specific providers were named most often by Gemini (10%) — even there, roughly one answer in 10 carried a name.

On other behaviors the three models move almost in lockstep — the points of near-consensus for professional services, where all three landed within a few points of each other:

• Recommends multiple quotes: 0%–2.5% across all three (a 3-point spread).
• Names a specific provider: 5%–10% across all three (a 5-point spread).
• Mentions local proximity: 0%–7.5% across all three (a 8-point spread).
• Tells the buyer to check reviews: 0%–10% across all three (a 10-point spread).

Measured question by question, the three assistants coded a response the same way most consistently on "recommends multiple quotes" (identical coding in 97.5% of questions) and least consistently on "gives selection criteria" (42.5%).

Beyond whether to hire, the rubric codes how carefully each assistant protects the professional services buyer once a decision is made. Telling the buyer to check reviews or ratings appeared in 5.8% of answers on average. Verifying credentials or certifications appeared in 6.7%. Warning about red flags or scams appeared in 17.5%.

On structuring the decision, a selection-criteria checklist showed up in 36.7% of answers on average and a recommendation to gather multiple quotes in 0.8%. The single least-reproduced protective signal for professional services is "recommends multiple quotes" at 0.8% on average — the clearest opening for content that supplies it, since the models are not yet reliably surfacing that guidance on their own.

The 40 questions behind every percentage on this page were drawn from real professional services (consulting, agencies, B2B services) buyer journeys, expanded from 5 seed prompts. Each was put to all 3 models once, with identical wording, so the rates above describe how the assistants handled this exact professional services question set — not a general prior or a hand-picked subset. The full list is shown earlier on this page; the coded percentages are what those specific questions produced.