How AI assistants recommend barbers
A customer who asks an AI assistant for a barber gets a short list of shops, and the list can differ from one assistant to the next. Here is what they answered in every city the AIGROW Index asked, and what a shop can work on.
- Cities asked
- 128
- Names in the rankings
- 1,377
- Businesses named per city
- 42
- Names repeated on a rerun
- 45%
- Answers that name the leader
- 47%
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 a barber in 128 cities, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini named about 42 shops per city, and 63% of those names came up only once. Each assistant builds its list from what is published about a shop. What a shop controls is that public record: its services, its prices and its reviews.
What a customer asked, and who came first
One place of the 128, 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 barber in New York?
- I'm looking for a barber in New York for a skin fade and a beard trim. Who would you recommend?
- Which barber in New York would you recommend for a hot towel shave?
- Which barber in New York takes walk-ins?
- Fellow Barbernamed in 81% of the answers
- Blind Barbernamed in 64% of the answers
- Frank's Chop Shopnamed in 61% of the answers
The names that recur
107 different businesses came first across 128 rankings, and 115 names were listed in three places or more. These are the most frequent.
- The Barber Shop23 places
- Gentlemen's Barber Shop20 places
- Captain Hook Barbershop15 places
- V's Barbershop15 places
- Blind Barber14 places
- Rudy's Barbershop13 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.
List each cut and service
The questions ask for a skin fade, a beard trim and a hot towel shave by name. List each service you offer, with what it includes, so each question has a service to match.
Say if you take walk-ins
One question asked which barber takes walk-ins. Say on your site and on every listing whether you take walk-ins or only bookings, and at what times.
Reviews that name the service
A review that mentions a fade or a shave describes your shop in a customer’s words. Ask for reviews after the visit, and answer each one.
Every ranking for this trade
The AIGROW Index publishes the ranking of each place with every answer, and how it was measured.
See what the assistants say about your business.
The free checker asks the questions a customer would ask and shows who gets named. The audit goes further: your own questions, four assistants, and the fixes in the order they matter.
The audit: $190 once · within 5 working days or refunded