PLANO, Texas. Start Solutions AI, an AI search and visibility agency, has published the first results of its Platform Divergence Study, a measurement of how five AI platforms answer buyer-intent questions relevant to 36 real businesses. The full report is available at startsolutions.ai.

The study recorded, for each business and each platform, whether the platform named the business in its answers. Seventeen of the 36 businesses, 47 percent, were named by none of the five platforms. Of the 19 named anywhere, six were named by exactly one platform and ten by two or fewer. Only two were named by all five.

Similar rates, poor overlap

The platforms' overall rates were close: ChatGPT named 33 percent of the businesses, Gemini 28 percent, Copilot 28 percent, Google AI Mode 22 percent, and Perplexity 17 percent. The overlap was not. The businesses one platform named were rarely the same businesses another platform named.

"Similar rates with poor overlap points at one conclusion. The platforms are drawing on different sources," said Fae Esparza, founder of Start Solutions AI. "One platform is a sample. It is not a measurement. An owner who checks one assistant and sees their name has learned something true about one platform and nothing about the other four."

Three national companies included as a control group, BiggerPockets, Kiavi, and Visio Lending, were named by all five platforms. The study reads this as evidence that invisibility is a corroboration problem rather than a technology problem: the platforms name the businesses they can verify across independent sources.

Sentiment does not explain the gap

Sentiment scores were nearly identical for named and unnamed businesses, 76.9 against 72.0 on a 100-point scale. The study concludes that a sentiment score for a business a platform does not name measures the tone of the answer, not the business.

Stated limits and what comes next

The report states its own limits. The initial scans were run across seven weeks rather than a single day, so some of what appears as platform disagreement may be change over time. The sample is not random and is weighted toward owner-operated professional service firms in one metropolitan area. Businesses in the study are identified by code and vertical only and are not named.

To address the timing limit, the study is continuing as a monthly longitudinal series. Wave 1 runs on September 10, 2026, with every business re-measured inside a single day, and results publish in mid-September. Subsequent waves run on the tenth of each month.

About Start Solutions AI

Start Solutions AI is an AI search and visibility agency based in Plano, Texas. It helps Experts get recommended when their future clients ask AI engines who to hire. The agency measures what the major AI platforms already say about a business, then works to clarify how the business is described, publish material built to be cited by machines, add structured data, and earn corroboration, re-measuring on a fixed cadence. The method is The Recommendation Baseline. Founder Fae Esparza comes from more than a decade in business operations across healthcare, nonprofit, and small business settings. Learn more at https://startsolutions.ai.

Media contact: Fae Esparza, Start Solutions AI, hello@startsolutions.ai, +1-903-776-4174.

Contact Information:

Start Solutions AI

Plano
Plano, TX 75024
United States

Fae Esparza
+1-903-776-4174
https://startsolutions.ai