How AI assistants recommend architects
Someone planning a renovation who asks an AI assistant for an architect often hears famous names next to local practices. Here is what the assistants answered in every city the AIGROW Index asked, and what a practice can work on.
- Cities asked
- 88
- Names in the rankings
- 1,557
- Businesses named per city
- 36
- Names repeated on a rerun
- 49%
- Answers that name the leader
- 56%
The first two rows are counts; the rows under them are medians over the ranked pages. Every question was asked without a location or a chat history.
Asked for an architect in 88 cities, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini named about 36 firms per city, and 48% of those names came up only once. Each assistant builds its list from what is published about a firm. What a practice controls is that public record: its projects, its services and its listings.
What a customer asked, and who came first
One place of the 88, as an example: New York. Every place was asked the same questions in its own language, and its page in the Index has the full ranking.
- Who is the best architect in New York?
- I want to renovate my house in New York. Which architect would you recommend?
- Which architecture firm in New York is good at designing new homes?
- Which architect in New York would you recommend for an apartment renovation?
- Robert A.M. Stern Architectsnamed in 39% of the answers
- Messana O'Rorkenamed in 33% of the answers
- Diller Scofidio + Renfronamed in 28% of the answers
The names that recur
88 different businesses came first across 88 rankings, and 17 names were listed in three places or more. These are the most frequent.
- Arkitema4 places
- Herzog & de Meuron4 places
- Studio 19844 places
- Atelier Vens Vanbelle3 places
- Bernardes Arquitetura3 places
- Bohlin Cywinski Jackson3 places
Counted by spelling: two businesses with the same name in different places count as one.
What an owner can work on
No one can promise a place in an assistant’s answer. What an owner controls is what is published about the business, and these are the parts the questions above point to.
Say what you design
The questions ask for a house renovation, a new home and an apartment renovation. A page for each kind of project you take on, with examples, answers each question as it is asked.
Projects with words
A project page that names the place, the brief and what was built is something an assistant can describe. A gallery of photos without text is not.
Coverage beyond your own site
Practices are written about in design magazines, award lists and local press. A mention there describes you in someone else’s words, which is the kind of source an assistant repeats.
Every ranking for this trade
The AIGROW Index publishes the ranking of each place with every answer, and how it was measured.
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