From our measurements, from three places. First, AI fills in a business by copying its neighbours: if similar businesses in the city offer something, it attributes that to yours too. Second, AI repeats the past: it names a service the business dropped long ago. Third, AI takes information from a LinkedIn page for the business that LinkedIn created itself, without the owner knowing, and filled with another company’s details. In an answer, all three mistakes look the same: the business gains something it doesn’t have. But each has its own cause, and each has to be traced in its own place.
In half of the answers, AI credited the business with services it never offered
For one of our projects — a local service business in Poznań — we asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI the same 14 questions three times, in July, August and September 2026: the questions a customer asks when looking for this kind of business in their city. Across the three measurements, the systems named this business in 99 answers. We checked every answer against what the business actually does, and the owner confirmed every error.
In 50 of the 99 answers, AI credited the business with something it had never offered. In 47 of them it was roller shutters — the business has never worked with them. In 14 answers, AI said the business works around the clock, although it has never claimed to. The two errors often appeared in the same answer, which is why 47 and 14 add up to more than 50. In a further 8 answers the error was different: AI mentioned glass replacement — a service the business really did offer once, but dropped long ago. The mistakes came from ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI in Google Search.
Another local business in Poznań shows a similar picture. In one measurement the systems named it in 37 answers, and 18 of them contained details that are not in its own description: opening hours, free call-outs, the order of work. In some answers it was merged with a competitor altogether.
Roller shutters and 24-hour service: AI fills in the business from its neighbours
The business has never offered roller shutters and has never written about them anywhere. Nor has it ever promised round-the-clock service. We have not established the source of these errors. But both roller shutters and 24-hour service are common among businesses in the same trade. So the most likely explanation is this: AI sees that similar businesses offer them and adds the same to this one. We can’t prove it directly yet, so we say ‘probably’.
Glass replacement: AI repeats what used to be true
Glass replacement is a different story. The business really did offer this service and later stopped. That means old entries have most likely survived somewhere online — in directories, listings or old pages. To AI, an old entry carries as much weight as a new one, unless the new one directly contradicts it. We are still looking for exactly where this trace sits.
Someone else’s page: LinkedIn created a company page by itself
For the second business, we found a company page on LinkedIn that the business had never set up. LinkedIn created it itself and said so at the top of the page: ‘This listing was automatically created by LinkedIn. This listing is not currently maintained by, endorsed by or affiliated with…’. In other words, the page was created automatically, and the company does not run it, has not approved it and has no connection with it. Next to this notice, LinkedIn offers a ‘Claim this page’ button.
The page shows our business’s website address, but the city and industry belong to a different company with the same name. This is not a glitch but a feature. In 2019 LinkedIn was granted a patent for it: if someone lists an employer in their profile and that company has no LinkedIn page, the system gathers information about the company and creates a page for it. The owner sets nothing up and may not even know the page exists.
To AI, a page like this looks like another official description of the business — and it contradicts the business’s own website. We have not measured whether this particular page affected AI answers about the second business. But with another of our clients we saw a direct match: LinkedIn had a page for a different company with a similar name and our client’s website address, and AI described our client in almost the same words as that page’s description. We told this story in detail in our article on what’s worse — AI not knowing a business or knowing it wrong.
Not all hallucinations are the same
We call mistakes like these AI hallucinations. But for an owner, what matters is which kind it is: did AI make something up, or repeat someone else’s mistake? If AI repeats an error from a specific page, that page can be found and the error corrected where it is recorded. If AI fills in the business from its neighbours, there is nothing to correct in someone else’s source. Then the business’s accurate description needs to be stronger and more visible online than the guess. So when you spot an error, the first question is not ‘how do I complain?’ but ‘where did this come from?’.
AI got at least one fact wrong for two-thirds of UK high-street shops
A British study published in July 2026 put more than 72,000 questions to ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity about shops on UK high streets. The systems gave at least one false fact about 64% of businesses, and on average one answer in sixteen was wrong. The authors explain it the same way we see it: a small business has little information online — a website and a Google Business Profile — so the system has little to build an accurate picture from.
However, the study only checked names, addresses, contact details and websites. Services were not part of it. In our data, the most common error is precisely in services. For a service business, that is a direct loss: customers call for something you don’t do, or don’t call for something you do.
When this isn’t the main question
If AI names your business without any extra services, this problem isn’t yours right now. But you only find that out by checking: no system tells an owner what it says about them.
How to check your business
Ask ChatGPT and Gemini: ‘What services does [business name] in [your city] offer?’. If the answer includes something you don’t do, ask a second question: ‘Where did you get this information?’. If the system names a page, you know where to look for the error. If it doesn’t, the source is unknown and you’ll need to look more widely. Separately, look up your business on LinkedIn: if there is a page labelled ‘This listing was automatically created by LinkedIn’, LinkedIn created it without you.
If you asked AI today what your business does, would you recognise yourself in the answer — or your neighbour?
Sources: British study of AI errors about high-street shops (more than 72,000 questions, July 2026); LinkedIn patent US10354339B2 on automatically creating company pages (2019).
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