How Does AI Describe Your Region to Companies Deciding Where to Build?
Michael Etheredge is VP of Product Development at QuestionFuel, where he leads how the firm measures and corrects the way AI answer engines describe companies. He was featured by the Southern Economic Development Council on how AI is changing the way companies research communities and regions.
Answer engines like ChatGPT now shape early business research. Published studies show their answers about places can vary by engine, by repeat, and by region size. This guide covers what is known, what is not, and what an economic development organization should check first.
Key takeaways
- Business buyers use answer engines heavily, but we found no published data on how many location decision makers use ChatGPT for early research.
- Studies of how answer engines describe places show variation across engines and repeat questions, plus a tilt toward wealthier and larger places.
- The 2026 Site Selectors Guild report shows companies screening on power, water, talent, and community acceptance, so accurate facts on those points matter.
- An economic development organization can run a three step test this week to see how its region appears.
Quick answer: Answer engines like ChatGPT now shape early business research, and published studies show their answers about places vary by engine, by repeat, and by region size. Economic developers cannot see that variation unless they test for it. This guide covers the evidence and the first three checks to run.
What is Regional Silent Exclusion?
Regional Silent Exclusion: when a qualified region is left out of an answer engine's response to a relevant location question, or appears only with framing its own record does not support, and the region's economic development organization has no signal that it happened.
It is the regional version of Silent Exclusion, the pattern QuestionFuel has documented for companies. A region dropped late in a project can often ask why. A region that never appears in the first answer has nobody to ask.
AI Narrative Drift: the gap between what is currently true about a company or place and what answer engines say about it, because those answers update slowly and imperfectly when facts change.
Drift is a different failure. The region appears, but with outdated or incomplete facts. AI Narrative Drift and Silent Exclusion can happen together, and each calls for a different fix.
Do companies and site selectors use answer engines for location research?
Business buyers in general do, but published data on location decision makers specifically is thin.
Forrester reported in January 2026 that 94% of business buyers used AI in their buying process, and that twice as many named generative AI or conversational search as their most meaningful source than named any other source, ahead of company websites, product experts, and sales. A Semrush survey of more than 600 US business professionals found that 66% regularly use AI to research products, vendors, or solutions. Both measure purchasing research, not location decisions.
Buyers also verify. Gartner found that 69% of B2B buyers prefer to validate AI generated insights with sales representatives. Forrester describes buyers using these answers as a starting point and then confirming them through a wider buying network.
For site selection specifically, the closest primary evidence is the Site Selectors Guild research. In fall 2023 it surveyed members on current and expected AI use and tested three answer engines against human built shortlists on two real projects. We did not find published data on what share of corporate location decision makers use ChatGPT for early research.
The practical reading: treat answer engines as an early research layer that can shape which regions get a second look, not as the place where the decision is made.
What does research show about how answer engines describe places?
Four sources are worth knowing. None is a benchmark of how a specific region appears to a specific industry today.
| Source | Published | What it tested | What it suggests for regions | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Oxford researchers, "The Silicon Gaze" | January 2026 | More than 20 million ChatGPT responses comparing countries, cities, and neighborhoods on subjective questions | Answers favored wealthier, Western regions and can carry negative associations built from partial or outdated information | Subjective questions, not site selection; one model version |
| Virginia Tech | December 2023 | ChatGPT questions on environmental justice across 3,018 US counties | ChatGPT gave location specific answers for 515 counties, or 17%, with gaps between large and small, urban and rural places | Older model; one topic |
| Site Selectors Guild and Development Counsellors International | Fall 2023 test; commentary November 2024 | Two location scenarios on three answer engines | Shortlists overlapped with human lists but deviated, differed by platform, and changed when the same platform was asked the same question repeatedly | 2023 models; two scenarios |
| Zen Media | September 2026 | 900 buyer intent prompts across three campaigns and five answer engines | One brand appeared in 15.5% to 59.5% of prompts depending on the engine | Company visibility, not regions; agency data |
The shared pattern is that answers about places are not fixed and not neutral. That is the gap this series addresses.
Why does this matter more in 2026?
Because the facts companies screen on are changing, and accurate facts are now the point. The Site Selectors Guild and Development Counsellors International released The State of Site Selection 2026 on September 15. Its central theme is that the challenge is no longer only scarce resources but a growing scarcity of certainty, and it points to power, talent, infrastructure, and community acceptance as defining competitiveness.
Area Development's 2026 survey of corporate and consultant respondents points the same way. It reports electric power availability at 98.5%, with 82.6% rating it very important, and political and regulatory stability cited by 94%.
If a first answer about your region misses or misstates the facts a company now screens on, the region may be set aside before certainty is ever tested. How often that happens is not yet measured, which is why testing matters.
What should an economic development organization check first?
Run three checks this week.
- •Ask the shortlist question the way a company would. Name the industry and the geography you compete in, not your organization. For example: "Where should a [industry] company build a new plant in [state or region]?" Use a private browsing window, logged out of any account.
- •Run the same question three times in new chats. Variation across runs is a finding in its own right.
- •Check every stated fact against your own published record. Compare power capacity, water, workforce programs, available sites, and incentives. Note anything missing, outdated, or unsupported.
Our step by step guide, How to Audit What AI Says About Your Region, expands this into a full prompt set.
When is this not the right place to start?
This may not be the right first step if your own published data is old or missing, because there is less accurate material for any answer to draw on. Fix the source record first.
It is also one layer, not the whole process. The authors of the Guild commentary, who work in site selection consulting, argue that site selection depends on fieldwork, negotiation, and judgment that an answer engine cannot supply. The aim is an accurate first impression, not a replacement for the relationships that close projects.
QuestionFuel runs regional narrative audits for economic development organizations. You can see the approach on our page for AI visibility for economic development organizations.
Frequently asked questions
Is Regional Silent Exclusion the same as ranking poorly on Google?
No. Google rankings measure where pages appear in a list of results. Regional Silent Exclusion is about whether a region appears at all in a generated answer, and how it is framed when it does. A region can do well in one and poorly in the other.
Can an economic development organization control what ChatGPT says about its region?
No, and no honest partner can promise that. An organization can improve the accuracy, consistency, and availability of the public record that answers draw on, then test whether answers change.
Do site selectors rely on ChatGPT to build shortlists?
We did not find published data that answers this. The Site Selectors Guild studied AI use among its members in 2023 and concluded with caution. Broader buyer research shows heavy AI use in purchasing, so the safer assumption is that companies and their advisors may use it early.
How often should a region test its AI visibility?
Quarterly is a reasonable baseline, plus a fresh test after a major announcement, such as a large project, a new utility commitment, or a rebrand. Answers change as engines update.
Does this apply to a single county or city, or only to states?
It applies at any level where you compete for projects. Test at the geography a company would name in its question, which may differ from your organization's boundaries.
Sources and references
- •Forrester, blog post on zero click buying and AI use among business buyers, January 2026
- •Semrush, survey of 600+ US business professionals on AI and B2B buying
- •Gartner findings as reported by Demand Gen Report
- •University of Oxford, New study finds that ChatGPT amplifies global inequalities, January 2026
- •Virginia Tech, Researchers use environmental justice questions to reveal geographic biases in ChatGPT, December 2023
- •Site Selectors Guild, The Potential and Limitations of AI in Site Selection
- •Site Selection Magazine, AI Challenges Traditional Site Selection, November 2024
- •Site Selectors Guild, The State of Site Selection 2026, September 2026
- •Area Development, 40th Annual Corporate and 22nd Annual Consultant Site Selection Survey
- •Zen Media, One Brand's AI Visibility Tracking Ranged From 15.5% to 59.5%, September 2026
Related reading: Why Your Company Might Be Invisible to AI, Even If Your SEO Is Perfect · Silent Exclusion: Why Qualified AEC Firms Disappear From AI Search Results · How to Audit AI Narrative Drift · How to Audit What AI Says About Your Region: A Step by Step Test for Economic Developers · Why Does ChatGPT Give Different Site Selection Shortlists to the Same Question? · Does AI Describe Your Region by the Criteria Site Selectors Now Use? A 2026 Checklist · How Should an Economic Development Organization Choose an AI Visibility Program? · How Do Answer Engines Describe Regions? A Guide for Economic Development Organizations