AI Visibility Brief for Dentistry
The most crowded specialty among the three, with 11,565 listed practices, and the least visible to AI. Only 13% of practices earned any AI citation, and visibility is spread thinnest.
The AI Visibility Report for
Local Medical Practices
August 2026 edition
This study measures the AI visibility landscape of local medical practices across dentistry, podiatry and chiropractic in five US metro markets.
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The study is run on a large scale. 24 patient questions asked per specialty. 3,234 AI answers and 10,133 citations analyzed, checked against 18,492 local practice listings, across four AI answer engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overview. Visibility findings are reported within the areas AI actually recommends from, which contain 2,644 of those listings.
Why AI visibility matters now
Consumers are increasingly using AI to research local businesses.
The share of consumers using AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to find local business recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in a single year, making AI the third most-used discovery channel behind only Google and Facebook (BrightLocal, 2026).
Majority of Google searches end without a click to any website.
80% of consumers now rely on AI-written results for at least 40% of their searches, and 60% of searches end without a click to any website (Bain & Company, 2025).
AI visibility by specialty
The full analysis for each specialty is published as a separate AI Visibility Brief.
AI Visibility Brief for Podiatry
18% of practices earned one or more AI citations. Individual podiatrists are cited more often than their practices, with 56% of citations naming a doctor rather than a practice.
AI Visibility Brief for Chiropractic
26% of practices are cited by AI, the highest of the three specialties, with the strongest repeat-citation pattern: 42% of cited practices reached twenty or more mentions.
Key findings
Most practices are invisible to AI. The visible ones are cited frequently.
AI recommendations are hyperlocal, and in the local areas AI recommends from, only 16% of practices were cited by AI once or more. The practices AI cites are cited repeatedly. The three most-cited practices in a specialty appeared in 29% to 63% of AI answers, depending on the specialty and market.
Winning in Google search does not mean winning in AI search.
AI engines do not follow Google's rankings. 43.6% of Google's top-ranked practices were not cited when the same question was asked, and most of what AI cites holds no top Google position.
Google AI Overview does not appear for the majority of local provider searches.
On general provider discovery searches, Google shows its map results and almost never an AI Overview. On provider searches tied to a specific topic, an AI Overview appears 22% to 42% of the time depending on the topic. On general health questions it appears 99% of the time and recommends no one.
AI recommends a shortlist of providers, typically three to four.
AI answers a provider discovery question with a shortlist: about 3 providers on ChatGPT and about 4 on Perplexity. Google AI Overview averages about 3 names wherever it names anyone. Gemini is the outlier, averaging about 7 providers per answer.
AI relies on different sources for different types of questions.
On provider discovery questions, AI builds its answers from practice websites, healthcare directories, and patient reviews. General health questions are answered from health information sites like Mayo Clinic and Healthline, which almost never cite practices.
AI favors strong ratings and review volume, often quoting patient reviews.
A strong rating is the entry ticket to consideration, but past that bar a higher score doesn't buy more citations. Review volume separates the cited from the ignored more sharply than rating does. Ratings and patient feedback appeared in two-thirds of AI endorsements.
AI almost never speaks negatively about a practice.
Only 12 of 10,133 citations were negative, and every one traces to a low rating or patient complaints on a review platform. When AI does share negative sentiment about a practice, it usually adopts a measured and balanced tone.
AI endorsement varies greatly by engine.
When a patient asks AI about a practice directly, AI gives different answers: ChatGPT said it could not verify in 31% of these questions, while Gemini endorsed 71% and never said 'could not verify'.
Four AI engines, four personalities.
Every AI engine has a distinct style and weighs different parts of a practice's online presence differently. ChatGPT is the Cautious Referrer. Gemini is the Enthusiastic Profiler. Perplexity is the Data Aggregator, and Google AI Overview is the Steady Concierge.
Key takeaways for medical practices and agencies that serve them
Most local medical practices are invisible to AI. Investing in AEO means high ROI.
84% of practices in the areas AI recommends from never appear in an AI answer, while the three most-cited practices in a specialty appear in up to 63% of answers. The practices AI cites today are cited again and again, so investing in AEO early provides the best ROI and the advantage compounds over time.
SEO is no longer enough. Google rankings do not transfer to AI recommendations.
43.6% of Google's top-ranked practices were never cited in AI answers to the same questions, and at least 58% of the practices AI does recommend hold no top-3 Google position. Practices doing AEO alongside SEO win new patients online.
AEO means optimizing your whole online presence, since AI reads everything written about you.
Each engine reads a different mix of a practice's website, directory profiles and reviews, and weighs them differently. Getting recommended means getting all of those surfaces right.
How this study was run
Three specialties
Dentistry, podiatry and chiropractic. All three are highly competitive local markets where patients mostly self-refer, choosing a provider directly and often without a physician referral.
Five US metro markets
Suburban Chicago, Philadelphia, Tampa and St. Petersburg, Phoenix, and Houston. The five span US regions and represent the mid-sized suburban markets where independent practices compete for the same local patients.
Seventy-two questions
A 24-question panel per specialty, selected by real search volume from candidate pools of patient questions and screened for provider discovery intent, across seven categories.
Four AI engines
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overview. Each question was asked three times per engine, per specialty, per market, on the live version of each engine, the way patients use them.
Entity data cleansing
Practice citations were detected by exact name matching against 18,492 local practice listings plus every entity the engines named, with alias handling for name variants and individual providers.
Audited and recomputable
The findings were verified by human audit. Every published figure comes from a locked snapshot of the study data and can be recomputed from it at any time.
AI recommendation areas
When a patient asks for provider recommendations in a specific city, AI recommendations may spill over to neighboring cities. AI visibility is measured within AI's recommendation area starting from the specified city, and our methodology ensures the area covers at least 90% of AI recommendations. Multi-location chains are measured at brand level and excluded from local coverage counts, and providers appearing under more than one name form are merged in these figures.
| Market | Podiatry | Dentistry | Chiropractic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suburban Chicago | Naperville, Orland Park | Naperville | Naperville |
| Suburban Houston | Pearland, Houston, Friendswood, The Woodlands | Pearland, Houston | Pearland |
| Philadelphia-S. Jersey | Cherry Hill, Marlton, Secane, Camden | Cherry Hill | Cherry Hill |
| Phoenix West Valley | Peoria, Phoenix | Peoria | Peoria |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg | Clearwater, Dunedin | Clearwater, Dunedin | Clearwater, Wesley Chapel |