{
 "question": "When AI assistants are asked for a local business’s address, phone number, website and Monday opening hours, how often does the answer agree with the business’s Google Business Profile, and when it differs, can the stated fact be found on the business’s own website or on a page the answer cited?",
 "population": "159 independent local businesses (dentists, plumbers, personal injury lawyers, accountants, physiotherapists) in 24 cities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, drawn at random (seed 20260927) from Google Maps top-20 results; multi-city chains and directories excluded; one business excluded because its shortened name was ambiguous.",
 "sampling_frame": "Businesses already visible in the Google Maps top 20 for “best {service} in {city}”; results do not describe businesses with a weak or no Google presence. The study measures how a named business is described, not which businesses an assistant chooses to recommend.",
 "inclusion": "Businesses with a phone number, address, website and opening hours on their Google profile. Each engine asked once: “What is the address, phone number, website and opening hours of {name} in {city}?” (name as used before any keyword suffix).",
 "exclusion": "Monday hours not scored for 34 businesses whose profile says open 24 hours (usually a placeholder).",
 "measures": {
  "reference_agreement": "Fact matches the Google Business Profile (the reference record). This is what the percentages measure.",
  "source_consistency_phone": "Phone number matches the profile or a number published on the business’s own website (homepage and contact pages, fetched 26 September 2026).",
  "cited_page_support_phone": "The stated phone number appears on at least one page the same answer cited (pages fetched 28 September 2026).",
  "verified_truth": "Not measured. No fact was confirmed with the business itself."
 },
 "calculations": [
  "Phone matches = last 9 digits equal the profile number.",
  "Address matches = profile street number and postcode both present.",
  "Website matches = the business’s own domain present; differs = another domain given on a website line (1.1 correction).",
  "Monday hours match = first opening and last closing time equal the profile; hedged or conflicting statements count as not given; profiles saying open 24 hours not scored.",
  "Uncertainty: 95% percentile intervals from 4,000 resamples of the 159 businesses (each keeps its four answers); engines compared with Cochran’s Q and exact McNemar tests on the same businesses, Holm-corrected; logistic model of answers with a differing fact on engine, country and service with business-clustered robust errors and Wald tests."
 ],
 "configuration": {
  "chatgpt": {
   "answers": 159,
   "first_utc": "2026-09-26 07:52:44 +00:00",
   "last_utc": "2026-09-26 08:14:24 +00:00",
   "model_reported": {
    "not reported": 151,
    "gpt-5-6": 8
   },
   "endpoint": "ai_optimization/chat_gpt/llm_scraper/live/advanced",
   "location": "business's country"
  },
  "gemini": {
   "answers": 159,
   "first_utc": "2026-09-26 07:52:40 +00:00",
   "last_utc": "2026-09-26 08:14:15 +00:00",
   "model_reported": {
    "3.5 Flash-Lite": 159
   },
   "endpoint": "ai_optimization/gemini/llm_scraper/live/advanced",
   "location": "business's country"
  },
  "perplexity": {
   "answers": 159,
   "first_utc": "2026-09-26 07:52:30 +00:00",
   "last_utc": "2026-09-26 08:14:06 +00:00",
   "model_reported": {
    "sonar": 159
   },
   "endpoint": "ai_optimization/perplexity/llm_responses/live",
   "location": "none (API)"
  },
  "ai_mode": {
   "answers": 159,
   "first_utc": "2026-09-26 07:52:42 +00:00",
   "last_utc": "2026-09-26 08:14:16 +00:00",
   "model_reported": {
    "not reported": 159
   },
   "endpoint": "serp/google/ai_mode/live/advanced",
   "location": "business's country"
  }
 },
 "validation": "Stratified random sample of 136 field decisions coded blind by two independent model coders (Claude Sonnet and Claude Opus) and adjudicated from the raw answer; model-coded, no person coded the sample. It found that the 1.0 website rule could not score a different website as differing; the rule was corrected and all 636 answers rescored (7 website scores changed). The 1.0 hand checks were likewise reads of scored answers by the AI research assistant, not by a person.",
 "limitations": [
  "The Google Business Profile is the reference; differing from it is not the same as being false, and no fact was verified with the business.",
  "One run per engine per business on 26 September 2026; generative answers vary between runs and with wording, so engine rates are a snapshot.",
  "Matching a number on the website or a cited page shows the sources agree, not where the engine took the number from.",
  "Cited pages were fetched two days after the answers and may have changed.",
  "Perplexity queried through its API (sonar); ChatGPT and Gemini consumer apps and Google AI Mode through DataForSEO.",
  "Monday hours only; 34 businesses with an open-24-hours profile not scored for hours.",
  "Country and service comparisons involve different businesses; about 40 businesses per country and 32 per service."
 ],
 "update": "quarterly",
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "Dataset",
 "name": "Do AI answers match a business’s Google profile?",
 "version": "1.1",
 "dateCreated": "2026-09-26",
 "dateModified": "2026-09-28",
 "creator": {
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Underneath",
  "url": "https://underneath.agency"
 },
 "url": "https://underneath.agency/research/ai-business-facts-accuracy-study",
 "temporalCoverage": "2026-09-26",
 "isAccessibleForFree": true,
 "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
 "code": "cite/pipeline/s11_*.py (collection, citations, analysis, validation, package)",
 "variableMeasured": [
  "reference agreement by fact and engine",
  "phone source consistency",
  "cited sources",
  "run configuration",
  "validation agreement"
 ],
 "corrections": [
  "1.1: website rule now scores another domain given as the website as differs; 7 of 636 answers rescored."
 ]
}