The NZ AI-Findability Index
When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for “a good electrician in Tauranga”, the assistant can only name businesses it can read facts about. This index measures how many New Zealand businesses have given it those facts, across 112,573 New Zealand business websites we have checked, by region, trade and town. Of those, 23,525 did not load at all when we visited (20.9%). A site that does not resolve cannot be read by an assistant either, so those count as not findable. Among the 89,048 that did load, 76.9% carry at least 3 of the 4 facts.
According to the List-It NZ AI-Findability Index (live figures, list-it.nz/findability, read 8 October 2026), 60.8% of the 112,573 New Zealand business websites read could be confidently recommended by an AI assistant.
- Source register
- Companies Office Bulk Data September 2026, no file generation date stated in the release, 769,479 entities
- Websites read
- 112,573, read between 5 September 2026 and 8 October 2026, of 120,669 on the register with a website
- Method
- We read each business’s own website for four facts (about text of 40 characters or more, a dialable phone number of 6 to 12 digits, a logo image, and a link to at least one social profile). At least 3 of the 4 facts. Full method.
- Computed
- 8 October 2026 at 6:00 am NZ, frozen 8 October 2026 at 6:00 am NZ
- Code
- dpl_F2RqcaGCNkTXxNyLYnLdrm6veTRD
How we got this number
Latest edition: September 2026
Before findability: the register itself
Every registered New Zealand business has a public record. Almost none of them are finished. These are the counts across all 769,479 entities on the New Zealand Business Number register, from the September 2026 bulk release.
| What the record carries | Businesses | Share of register |
|---|---|---|
| A town or city | 709,326 | 92.2% |
| A category, so anyone can tell what they do | 458,564 | 59.6% |
| A phone number | 129,270 | 16.8% |
| A website | 120,669 | 15.7% |
| A logo | 83,464 | 10.8% |
| A phone number and a website together | 74,772 | 9.7% |
| A phone, a website and a category together | 64,488 | 8.4% |
By region
Ranked by the share of businesses an assistant could recommend. Every region has its own live page.
| # | Region | Findable | Description | Phone | Logo | Socials | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southland | 66.8% | 58.8% | 73.8% | 84% | 48.9% | 977 |
| 2 | Northland | 65.4% | 59.8% | 70% | 79.8% | 45% | 2,400 |
| 3 | Taranaki | 65% | 58.8% | 67.9% | 78.9% | 47.9% | 1,812 |
| 4 | Marlborough | 64.3% | 59.3% | 69.1% | 81.3% | 46.7% | 700 |
| 5 | Hawke's Bay | 64% | 58.2% | 68.4% | 78.7% | 47.2% | 2,837 |
| 6 | Bay of Plenty | 63.8% | 59.4% | 68.6% | 79.5% | 45% | 7,002 |
| 7 | Nelson | 63.4% | 57.6% | 70.1% | 80.1% | 46.3% | 1,580 |
| 8 | Otago | 63.2% | 59.1% | 67.3% | 79.5% | 46.3% | 5,245 |
| 9 | Waikato | 62.5% | 57.7% | 67.2% | 78.6% | 45.2% | 9,041 |
| 10 | Canterbury | 62% | 57% | 68% | 79.8% | 45.8% | 13,453 |
| 11 | Tasman | 62% | 57.4% | 65.2% | 79% | 47.5% | 305 |
| 12 | Manawatū-Whanganui | 61.9% | 55.4% | 68.6% | 79.5% | 43.7% | 2,711 |
| 13 | Gisborne | 60.9% | 53.6% | 67% | 79.6% | 45.5% | 560 |
| 14 | Wellington | 60% | 55.7% | 65.3% | 79.2% | 44% | 12,472 |
| 15 | Auckland | 58.9% | 54.5% | 65.4% | 78.2% | 42.8% | 51,232 |
| 16 | West Coast | 57.3% | 47.6% | 69.1% | 78.5% | 43.9% | 246 |
By trade
Vets & Pet Care leads at 70.5%. Web, SEO & Marketing trails at 49.4%.
| # | Trade | Findable | Claimed | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vets & Pet Care | 70.5% | 0% | 386 |
| 2 | Accommodation & Stays | 68.9% | 0.1% | 1,609 |
| 3 | Health & Beauty | 67.9% | 0% | 8,059 |
| 4 | Education & Training | 64.4% | 0% | 1,967 |
| 5 | Trades & Services | 64.3% | 0% | 27,681 |
| 6 | Automotive | 63.6% | 0.1% | 3,841 |
| 7 | Food & Producers | 63.4% | 0.1% | 1,820 |
| 8 | Makers & Studios | 61.5% | 0% | 5,517 |
| 9 | Cafés & Eating | 61.4% | 0.1% | 4,015 |
| 10 | Activities & Tourism | 60.1% | 0.1% | 3,175 |
| 11 | Retail & Shops | 59.5% | 0% | 10,286 |
| 12 | Professional Services | 59.2% | 0% | 19,021 |
| 13 | other | 57.6% | 0% | 16,427 |
| 14 | Web, SEO & Marketing | 49.4% | 0.1% | 8,769 |
By town
Towns with at least 150 businesses with a website. Top and bottom ten.
What the AI engines actually do
Everything above measures what a business publishes. This measures what the assistants do with it: how often an engine names the business when somebody asks for its trade in its town. Across 136 businesses checked in the last 90 days. Businesses that somebody chose to check. Not a random sample. Nobody is named here, at either end.
Cited, by engine
| Engine | Cited | Businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini | 80.9% | 136 |
| ChatGPT | 86% | 136 |
| Claude | 80.1% | 136 |
| Perplexity | 78.7% | 136 |
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