In 840 trade-and-metro leaderboards, the prevalence of national chains varies from 50% of recommendations in the moving sector to practically none in five other fields.
SACRAMENTO, CA, UNITED STATES, August 31, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — SACRAMENTO, Calif., August 28, 2026 — In 840 local-service leaderboards spanning 21 trades across 40 U.S. metro areas, AI assistants cited an average of 9.2 businesses per trade, yet funneled 56.2% of all recommendations to just three entities, per data released today by MentionedOn.
Key figures:
• 56.2% of mentions concentrated among the top three: In any given trade and metro, the three most-recommended businesses received more than half of all mentions, leaving minimal attention for those ranked fourth or lower.
Source: MentionedOn leaderboard dataset, 840 reports through 2026-08-22
• 24.7% of mentions to the top one: The single most-recommended business captured roughly one-quarter of all mentions in its trade and metro.
Source: MentionedOn leaderboard dataset, 840 reports through 2026-08-22
• 9.2 businesses named on average (median 10): Assistants listed a limited set per trade and metro rather than surveying the full local market.
Source: MentionedOn leaderboard dataset, 840 reports through 2026-08-22
• 54 brands, 17.9% of all mentions: National brands — defined as names appearing in at least 10 of the 40 metros — accounted for a small minority of total mentions.
Source: MentionedOn leaderboard dataset, 840 reports through 2026-08-22
• 2 brands present in all 40 metros: Only two brands in the entire study were named in every one of the 40 metros surveyed: Two Men and a Truck, and Terminix.
Source: MentionedOn leaderboard dataset, 840 reports through 2026-08-22
• movers 51%, pest control 42%, accountants 37%, versus 0% in five trades: Chain dominance is not a universal feature of AI local search. It is concentrated in a few trades, while others were almost entirely independent businesses.
Source: MentionedOn leaderboard dataset, 840 reports through 2026-08-22
What truly matters to a business owner is the concentration of mentions, not the presence of national chains. When an AI assistant responds to a query such as "who is the best plumber in Sacramento", it generates a shortlist rather than a full directory. That shortlist heavily favors the first few names. Ranking fourth in a trade yields only a small portion of the attention that the top spot receives.
The role of national brands proved far more variable than anticipated. In the moving category, 51% of all recommendations were for brands present in at least 10 of the 40 metros, while pest control saw 42% of mentions go to such brands. Only Two Men and a Truck and Terminix were named in every single one of the 40 metro areas studied.
For five of the 21 trades examined, that proportion was essentially zero. HVAC, legal services, veterinary care, real estate, and medical spas were almost exclusively served by independent local businesses. Owners in these fields face an open playing field. In contrast, those in moving or pest control see roughly half of all recommendation slots already taken before any local competition is factored in.
Across all the data, the AI assistants identified 5,552 unique businesses, underscoring that these systems do not merely parrot the biggest advertiser in each category. Instead, they generate concise, targeted, and highly concentrated responses, and the businesses that appear in those responses differ dramatically by trade.
"Business owners often wonder if AI is aware of their existence. The more relevant concern is whether AI places them among the first three names, because beyond that the gap between being mentioned and being overlooked becomes negligible," stated John Arndt, Founder of MentionedOn.
Methodology
MentionedOn compiles a public leaderboard for each combination of 21 local-service trades and 40 U.S. metropolitan areas by posing five category questions to two AI assistants and extracting the business names each recommends. The figures above are derived from the most recent leaderboard per trade and metro as of 2026-08-22, encompassing 840 leaderboards and 8,400 assistant responses, drawn from a dataset that began on 2026-06-18. "National brand" is defined as a name appearing in at least 10 of the 40 metros; no external brand list was used. The 21 trades and 40 metros were selected by MentionedOn and do not represent a random sample of U.S. local businesses, so the shares should be interpreted as descriptive of this corpus rather than as national estimates. Mention counts reflect how often a name was recommended, not revenue, quality, or customer satisfaction.
More information: https://mentioned-on.com/top
John Arndt
MentionedOn
hello@mentioned-on.com
