AI assistants ghosted 36 of 100 small businesses heading into the holidays
Two surveys and a benchmark published Oct. 14 put numbers on the holiday discovery problem — and on who gets cited.
On Oct. 14, three data drops landed within hours of each other and told a single story about the holiday season: AI assistants are now the first stop for product discovery, and most small businesses aren’t in the recommendations.
The headline number comes from Modern Asset Lab, which benchmarked 100 small businesses across 10 industries and 11 metro areas by running an average of 27.8 blind buyer conversations per business through ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Gemini. The lab calls the sample directional. It’s directional in one direction: 36 of the 100 were never recommended at all, 80 landed in the lowest tier, and the average score came in at 50.9 out of 100.
Product.ai’s October 2026 Trust in AI Commerce Report, drawn from 1,493 U.S. adults surveyed Aug. 27 to Sept. 1, sized the funnel. Of 550 respondents who’d used an AI assistant for product research in the past 90 days, 71.5% expect to use one for holiday shopping. Gemini led at 63.5%, ChatGPT at 60.0%, Amazon’s shopping assistant at 27.5%, Walmart’s at 22.5%, Copilot at 22.4%, Claude at 17.6%, Perplexity at 11.3%, and 64.0% use more than one. Verification is the chokepoint: 89.9% checked the recommendation elsewhere before buying, up from 85.7% in June.
Raptive’s September survey of 3,083 consumers explains what “elsewhere” means. 72% use AI tools at least a few times a week, 41% daily. Trust in an unsourced AI answer sits at 42%. Cite a known creator or expert and it jumps to 75.4%. Cite a trusted publisher and it’s 77.2%.
Being recommended is a content and citation problem, not a marketing-spend problem. LemonLime studies a company and its competitive landscape and prepares that content and outreach proactively each morning. See also our prior coverage on AI agents as the invisible first step and what the OECD confirmed about AI-driven discovery.
The 36 ghosted businesses didn’t lose a bidding war. They were never in the conversation.
Sources
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/productai-survey-finds-four-in-five-ai-shoppers-havent-let-an-ai-assistant-buy-for-them-nine-in-10-check-its-advice-before-purchase-302907868.html
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-raptive-survey-a-familiar-source-can-nearly-double-consumer-trust-in-an-ai-answer-302908828.html
- https://www.pymnts.com/study_posts/the-agent-advantage-how-merchants-plan-to-win-ai-shopping/
- https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/ai-shopping-agents-force-retailers-to-rethink-customer-access-and-payment-controls/
- https://agilebrandguide.com/yesterdays-martech-ai-cx-news-october-15-2026/