Routeless — Industries

Six industries. One measurement.

We build the same connected system for every trade below — site, visibility, intake, follow-up. What differs is how buyers arrive and what stalls the sale, so each page is written for that trade and backed by a scan of that market.

Original research

AI does not treat every industry the same way.

We put hiring questions to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity in the same five metros for each industry below, and saved every answer. All three will name businesses. What changes by trade is where they get the answer from — and that determines what the work actually is.

36.4% of sources cited about law firms were directories, not company websites
20.0% of sources cited about roofing companies were directories, not company websites
21.3% of sources cited about hvac companies were directories, not company websites
22.1% of sources cited about plumbing companies were directories, not company websites
15.2% of sources cited about dental practices were directories, not company websites
10.7% of sources cited about med spas were directories, not company websites

The spread matters more than any single number. In a trade where assistants lean on directories, the work is getting your listings complete and consistent, because that is the evidence being read. In a trade where they lean on companies' own sites, the work is on the site you control — which is the better position to be in, and the rarer one. Each industry page below breaks down its own result, including who got named and which sources decided it.

Caution tracks regulation, not difficulty

One pattern held across every trade we measured. Assistants answer freely about work you hire for your house, and hedge about work you hire for your body or your legal position. The share of answers that named nobody, worst assistant per industry:

If you are at the cautious end of that list, the assistant is not withholding your name because your competitor outranked you. It is declining to make a recommendation at all, and the way through is evidence it can safely cite — credentials, licensing, and verifiable third-party sources — rather than louder marketing.

Method. Identical prompts issued to each assistant's public API across Las Vegas, Tampa, Denver, Phoenix, and Austin, split between commercial phrasing and the situational phrasing a buyer with the actual problem uses. Every assistant was queried with web search enabled, because that is what a buyer's app does; without it these models answer from memory and decline to name almost anyone, which measures the model rather than the market. Business names were resolved across spelling variants within each metro before counting. Assistants are non-deterministic, so these figures describe one collection run rather than a permanent state of the world. Want the same measurement for your own business? The free AI visibility report runs it against your market.

Pick your trade

Where the work differs.

The system is the same. The intake questions, the objections, and the moment the buyer decides are not.

Roofing companies

Win the storm-season calls and the estimates that follow.

Roofing demand spikes, and most websites are built for the average week.

  • Demand arrives all at once
  • Out-of-town crews outspend you
  • Insurance questions stall the sale
Includes our July 26, 2026 scan of 90 AI answers
HVAC companies

Be the company they call when the AC quits.

HVAC is won on response time and lost on everything after it.

  • The first real answer wins
  • Replacements are price-shopped
  • Maintenance plans stay invisible
Includes our July 26, 2026 scan of 90 AI answers
Plumbing companies

Answer the burst-pipe call before the next company does.

Plumbing gets two kinds of customer, and most sites are built for neither.

  • Emergencies do not wait
  • Planned work needs a different pitch
  • After-hours calls disappear
Includes our July 26, 2026 scan of 90 AI answers
Dental practices

Turn “dentist near me” into a booked new-patient exam.

The booking is usually lost on insurance and availability, not on dentistry.

  • The insurance question blocks everything
  • New-patient calls arrive during chair hours
  • High-value cases are marketed like cleanings
Includes our July 26, 2026 scan of 90 AI answers
Med spas

Book consultations for the treatments worth booking.

Med spa marketing is constrained in ways most agencies ignore.

  • Claims are regulated
  • Price shoppers crowd out the right clients
  • The proof lives on Instagram
Includes our July 26, 2026 scan of 90 AI answers
Not on the list

We work with other trades too.

These six have published research because they are where we have run the measurement so far. The underlying work — the services that make up every engagement — applies to any business where customers search, compare, and then contact someone. If your industry is not here, check your fit and we will tell you honestly whether it is a good match.

You can also run a free AI visibility scan against your own business first — same measurement as the research above, pointed at your market, with sources you can check.