Are AI recommendations personalized?
By the Pickgap team · Updated Oct 15, 2026 · 1 min read
Partly. Location is the biggest factor: 'near me' questions depend on where the person is. Account features like ChatGPT's memory, past chats and custom instructions can also shape answers, and Google may personalize some results. The core of the answer, which businesses the web supports for that question and place, is shared. To test fairly, use a fresh session and name the city.
What personalizes an answer
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Location | Strong: decides which area "near me" means |
| Wording | Strong: different conditions, different answers |
| Memory and past chats | Can shape answers if the assistant knows preferences |
| Custom instructions | Can shape tone and priorities |
| Signed-in Google history | May personalize some Google results |
What's shared
The pool of businesses an AI can recommend for a given question and place comes from the same web for everyone: the same directories, reviews, lists and websites. Personalization shifts the answer around that pool; it doesn't invent a different set of local businesses for each person.
Why it matters for testing
Your own results are among the most personalized: you've probably searched your business many times, your location is your office, and your assistant may remember you. That's why owners sometimes see themselves named when customers don't.
To see something closer to a typical customer's answer:
- Use a temporary chat or a signed-out browser.
- Put the city or neighborhood in the question.
- Ask several times.
Pickgap asks every question as a new searcher located in the business's city, with no account history, so results are comparable over time and between businesses.
What you can influence
You can't control anyone's location, memory or wording. You can control the shared part: what the web says about you. Reviews, listings on the sites AI reads, and a website that states what you do and where are the inputs every personalized answer draws from. See how to get recommended by ChatGPT.