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Research from AI visibility platform Searchable has found that two-thirds of Birmingham high street retailers had at least one inaccurate fact returned about them by leading AI chatbots.
The study prompted ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity with more than 4,200 questions about Birmingham high street shops, checking answers against each retailer’s verified information.
AI chatbots answered 99% of queries relating to brand identity, contact details and location, but one in 16 of those answers was false.
The most common error placed a retailer in the wrong postcode, happening in one in 10 answers despite prompts specifying the correct city.
Birmingham recorded the third-highest misrepresentation rate among UK cities studied, though only London stood clearly apart, with most other cities falling within the study’s margin of error.
Chatbots also directed customers to the wrong website in around one in 14 answers, often inventing a more obvious-sounding domain when a shop’s trading name did not match its actual web address. The wrong brand was attributed to a shop’s name in one in 54 answers.
Accuracy varied significantly between the three chatbots tested, with Perplexity returning inaccurate answers in 11% of cases, compared with 5% for Gemini and 3% for ChatGPT.
Searchable co-founder Chris Donnelly said smaller retailers were more likely to be affected than larger brands, as they typically have a thinner trail of online information, often just a website and Google Business listing, for AI systems to learn from.
The findings come as a 2026 Rithium survey found 90% of AI users rely on the tools for product research, with 53% choosing a retailer based on AI suggestions, and 58% saying they lose trust in a brand when AI provides incorrect information about it.
Donnelly said retailers could reduce the risk by keeping websites and business directories up to date, and by building a presence through local press coverage, trade association listings and customer reviews.
