Which vet does AI recommend in Vienna?

More and more pet owners no longer ask Google, they ask AI: “Which vet in Vienna is good?” Whoever gets named gets the call. So we asked four AIs, and this time we not only noted who is recommended, but also checked whether what the AI says is even true.

The experiment

On 13 June 2026, from a Vienna-based browser, we asked all four major AI engines the exact same question, word for word:

Engines

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode

Date

13 June 2026

Location

Vienna, Austria (real IP, no VPN)

Counted

Every practice named and the details supplied for it (address, phone, website)

Fact-check

Every named website opened, every address and number checked against the practice page

Finding 1: No practice makes all four

Across the four engines, 16 different vet practices and clinics came up. The furthest anyone got were TAPS am Stadtpark and the AniCura Tierklinik Erdberg with 3 out of 4 mentions each, and even those were each overlooked by one AI. At the very top, named by all four: no one.

TAPS am Stadtpark

3/4

AniCura Erdberg

3/4

Fachtierärzte Althangrund

2/4

Praxis am Bacherplatz

2/4

Praxis Praterstern

2/4

~11 more practices

1/4

Finding 2: Even Google's two AIs disagree

The most striking finding: Gemini and Google's AI Mode, both from the same company, did not name a single practice in common. Two AIs from the same provider, the same question, zero overlap. Here is what each engine's list looked like, along with the sources it drew on:

Which vet the AI names for you depends mostly on which AI you happen to open.

The fact-check: is what the AI says true?

This is the genuinely new part. We opened every named practice and checked address, phone and website against the real practice page.

The good news first: the AIs did not make up any practice. Every practice named really exists, and addresses and phone numbers were correct in almost all cases, often down to the right extension.

But roughly every fourth recommendation had a catch:

• A broken website. Gemini pointed to tierleben.at, a site that does not load securely in the test (certificate error, the browser shows a security warning).
• A page that does not load at all. Perplexity named the practice “Wimmer & Feuchtmüller” with the website meinetierarztpraxis.at, which was unreachable in the test.
• A retired namesake. Perplexity recommended a practice as “Dr. Nora M.”. The address and number are correct, but according to its own website the eponymous vet is already retired; the practice is run today by someone else.
• An outdated address. Google's AI Mode still included an old address fragment for the “Praxis am Floridsdorfer Markt” (Schloßhofer Straße), even though the practice moved to Fahrbachgasse in March 2025.

Why this happens: the sources decide

AI does not invent recommendations, it repeats what its sources say. And the sources differ from engine to engine:

• ChatGPT and Perplexity rely heavily on Google Maps, reviews, Reddit and the practice websites, that is, on current, local signals.
• Gemini discloses no sources, and this is exactly where the broken website link came from.
• Google's AI Mode pulled together 27 websites and in doing so carried over an outdated address.

The logic behind it is simple: no source, no mention. Outdated source, outdated recommendation. Whoever is missing from an engine's sources, or is listed there with old data, drops out or is reported incorrectly.

This matches what other studies show: in ChatGPT, only about one in six local businesses ever appears at all¹, and different AIs deliver very different lists for “best” questions². Our vet test is exactly this pattern in miniature.

What this means for Vienna businesses

Whether vet, tax advisor or trades, the mechanics are the same:

• Visibility is a matter of luck as long as you don't appear cleanly in every engine's sources. A practice can be at the very top in ChatGPT and missing in Gemini.
• Wrong details cost customers. When AI gives out your old address, a broken website or an outdated name, you lose exactly the people who had already found you.
• Both are fixable. Consistent, up-to-date details across your Google profile, your own website and the directories the AIs read from make sure you get named, and named correctly. This approach is called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and it is what KIGEO specializes in.

Methodology & sources

All four engines were queried on 13 June 2026 from a Vienna-based browser (logged in, one answer per engine) with the exact wording quoted above. Every practice named was recorded; the addresses, phone numbers and websites given by the AI were then checked against the respective practice website, with unreachable pages additionally verified in the browser. A sample, not a full census. Sources used or consulted for verification:

1. Local Falcon, The AI Visibility Crisis (March 2026), context: in ChatGPT, only about one in six local businesses ever appears.
2. Omni Search Labs, Search experiment (April 2026), context: AI engines deliver very different lists for “best” questions.
3. Practice websites opened for verification (selection): taps.vet, anicura.at/erdberg, althan.vet, vetcat.at, tierarztwien1020.at, tierarztpraxis-lazri.at, tierklinik-hutter.at, tierklinik-doebling.at, tierarzt-marx.at.

Download this study's raw data as CSV ↓
Note: names of individual persons are abbreviated in the raw data too (personality rights / GDPR), see the legal notice below.