Do AI assistants recommend the same Nigerian businesses?

For well-known categories they largely do. In a ten-question pilot run on 4 November 2026, 14 of the 15 hotel, bank and fintech names Gemini gave also appeared in Google AI Mode's answers. For local services such as agencies, restaurants, developers, couriers and event planners, only 7 of 31 did.

Does an AI assistant give the same list if you ask the same question twice?

Not reliably. Asking Google AI Mode the same question twice, on average 38% of the names appeared in both answers, and the first name was the same in both runs for only 3 of 10 questions.

How should a Nigerian business check what AI assistants say about it?

Write the questions a buyer would ask, put each to several assistants more than once, and record whether you are named and what appears beside the names. Repeat monthly, because answers change.

Ask It Twice: What AI Assistants Recommend in Nigeria

A buyer in Abuja types a question into an AI assistant: who are the best branding agencies, hotels, developers? The answer looks like a ranking. We wanted to know how stable it really is, so on 4 November 2026 we ran a small pilot.

What we did

We asked ten buyer questions about Nigerian businesses, worded the same way each time: "Who are the best [category] in [city]? Give me a short list." The categories were branding agencies in Abuja, digital marketing agencies in Lagos, web design companies in Nigeria, business hotels in Abuja, client-dinner restaurants in Abuja, banks for a small business account, fintech apps for small business payments, real estate developers in Abuja, courier and delivery companies in Lagos, and event planners in Abuja.

We ran Google AI Mode twice per question and Gemini once. Perplexity answered three questions before its logged-out allowance ended, and we did not work around that. ChatGPT and Copilot need a login, so they are not in the pilot. Each run was a fresh chat. We recorded the names in the order they appeared.

What we found

Well-known categories agree. For hotels, banks and fintech apps, 14 of the 15 names Gemini gave also appeared in Google AI Mode's answers.
Local services do not. For agencies, web designers, restaurants, developers, couriers and event planners, only 7 of Gemini's 31 names appeared in Google AI Mode's answers. For branding agencies in Abuja and for developers in Abuja, no name was shared.
Ask twice and the list moves. On Google AI Mode, an average of 38% of the names appeared in both runs of the same question, from 0% to 60%. The first name was the same in both runs for 3 of 10 questions. Of 101 name-and-question pairs, 62 appeared in only one run.
A long tail. 97 different business names appeared across roughly 100 list slots.

A buyer does not see a ranking. They see one draw from a list that changes.

What appeared beside the names

This is an observation of what was shown, not a finding about how the assistants decide. Google AI Mode's business cards displayed a Google rating and review count next to each firm. Gemini's agency lists showed source chips from directories beside several names. Where the assistants agreed, the businesses were ones a buyer would already know. Where they did not, the names were firms with ratings, listings and directory entries rather than household recognition.

What we would do with it

We cannot say from ten questions what makes a firm appear. We can say what is cheap and sensible to do, and it matches the Clarify and Connect work in the Brand Growth OS™.

Test more than once. One screenshot of one assistant is a single draw. Ask each assistant the buyer's questions several times and record how often you are named.
Check what sits beside the name. If the cards show a rating and review count, a profile with no reviews is a gap you can see.
Say one clear thing in every place. Your site, your Google Business Profile and your directory listings should describe who you serve and where, in the same words.
Repeat monthly. Answers move. The AI Visibility Check walks through the questions and the AI Mentions Tracker keeps the record.

Limits

Ten questions, two assistants run fully, one day. A pilot shows patterns, not rankings.
Google AI Mode and Gemini ran in a signed-in Google account in Nigeria, so location and personalisation may shape the answers. We did not test logged out.
We archived the business names, not the full answers, and the first runs of two banking questions were captured from the start of the answer only, so those lists may be incomplete.
Names were read from the page by us, not by two independent coders.
Mike Bruce Design was not named in any of the four answers to the branding-agency question in Abuja. It was not a subject of the study.

Method and data

The queries were run and tallied with AI assistance under my direction, and the name lists and the calculation script are kept. Journalists and researchers can ask for the data at [email protected]. A repeat a month later, with more questions and a second Gemini run, would show how much the answers move.

For how this fits the wider picture, read AI assistants don't agree about your brand, and to see where your own brand stands, take the Brand Growth Audit™. About Mike Bruce · Press.