What AI Says About Orlando's Trades
When an Orlando homeowner needs a plumber today, more and more of them don't search — they ask AI. So we asked AI the same questions for eight trades, and counted who actually got named: 12 answers per trade, 96 answers in all. The full results are below, before anything else — the same one or two names repeat answer after answer, and most local owners aren't named at all.
Plumbing — two franchises take almost everything
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
House Cleaning — one name, ten answers
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
Pest Control — the two national brands, plus one local
| Named in the answers | Count |
|---|---|
| Terminix | 8 of 12 |
| Orkin | 6 of 12 |
| Orlando Pest Control | 5 of 12 |
| Truly Nolen | 4 of 12 |
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
Painting — the winner isn't a painter
The most-repeated name in Orlando painting answers is Sherwin-Williams — named in 5 of 12. It's a paint manufacturer, not a painting contractor.
Benjamin Moore, another manufacturer, followed at 4 of 12. The most-named actual contractor, Certapro Painters of Orlando, appeared in just 3 of 12. Across the answers, 43 distinct names appeared: the AI conflated brands with service companies, and no contractor's signal was loud enough to repeat.
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
Drywall — a crowded, shallow field
One leader, then a seven-way pile-up. Orlando Drywall Services led at 5 of 12; underneath it, seven names tied at 3 of 12 each:
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
Tree Service — no dominant default
| Named in the answers | Count |
|---|---|
| Orlando Tree Service | 5 of 12 |
| Davey Tree Expert Company | 4 of 12 |
| Arborist USA | 2 of 12 |
| J & J Tree Service | 2 of 12 |
| Tree Care Services of Orlando | 2 of 12 |
| Orlando Tree Removal | 2 of 12 |
| Tree Service Orlando | 2 of 12 |
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
Roofing — no AI default yet
No roofing name appeared in more than 3 of 12 answers. The top spot is a three-way tie.
Orlando Roofing Company, Universal Roofing and Construction, and ABC Supply Roofing each appeared in 3 of 12 — and 42 distinct names split the answers. In Orlando roofing, the answer AI gives your next customer is not settled yet.
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
HVAC — the most fragmented trade we tested
| Named in the answers | Count |
|---|---|
| Del-Air Heating and Air Conditioning | 3 of 12 |
| Air Tech of Central Florida | 3 of 12 |
| Orlando Air Conditioning and Heating | 2 of 12 |
| Reynolds Air Conditioning | 2 of 12 |
| Carrier Home Comfort | 2 of 12 |
| Green Air Heating and Cooling | 2 of 12 |
Source: The Lead Lab AI-answer battery — Orlando, FL, run Oct 14, 2026 · 12 answers (4 buyer questions × 3 AI models) · full methodology below
Why the same names keep winning
This isn't AI playing favorites. AI repeats what it has seen most. What it has seen most is review volume, a complete Google business profile, and a website that states plainly who a business is, what it does, and where it works. The businesses that get named have those basics done completely, in places AI can read them. Most owners haven't — not because their work is worse, but because nobody ever told the machines otherwise.
Your reviews live on rented land.
The names AI repeats are built on reviews and profiles that sit on platforms owners don't control. The owners who get named tomorrow are the ones building on ground they can actually tend: recent reviews asked for systematically, a complete profile, and clear facts on their own website.
What this means if you run one of these businesses
If your trade already has a default — cleaning, plumbing, pest control — the answer your next customer hears is one or two names, and breaking in takes a louder, more complete signal than the names already repeating: more recent reviews, nothing left blank on your profile, facts stated plainly on your site.
If your trade has no default — roofing, HVAC, and painting, where the AI reached for a paint brand — the ground is unclaimed. The first owners in those trades to get the basics done completely are the ones the AI will learn to repeat.
Either way: being named is not about being the biggest company in town. In this dataset it's about being the most completely described one.
Questions owners ask us about this data
Does AI just recommend the biggest companies?
Mostly, it recommends the most visible ones — and in cleaning, plumbing, and pest control those happen to be national franchises (10 of 12, 9 of 12, and 8 of 12 for the top names). But size isn't a guarantee: in roofing and HVAC no big name dominates at all — 42 and 46 distinct names, nobody above 3 of 12 — and in painting the top answer was a paint manufacturer. What the AI repeats is the loudest signal, not the biggest company.
I'm not named at all. What actually drives being named?
The pattern across all 96 answers: AI repeats what it has seen most — review volume (lots of recent reviews), a Google business profile with nothing left blank, and a website that states plainly who you are, what you do, and where you work. The named businesses have those basics done completely, where AI can read them.
Why did a paint store beat every actual painter?
Because in the painting answers the AI conflated brands with service companies: Sherwin-Williams was named in 5 of 12 answers and Benjamin Moore in 4 of 12, while the most-named real contractor appeared in only 3 of 12. When no contractor's signal is loud, the AI reaches for the most familiar name in the category — even if it doesn't sell the service.
Is this a ranking of the best companies in Orlando?
No. This is a count of who got named in one day's sample of AI answers — a single-day snapshot, not a rating. It says nothing about the quality of any business, named or unnamed. It measures one thing only: whose name the AI repeats when a customer asks.
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How we ran this — methodology & honest labels
For each trade, we asked four buyer-intent questions, phrased the way customers ask them:
- "What are the best [trade] companies in Orlando, FL? List the top names you'd recommend."
- "Can you recommend a good [trade] in Orlando, FL? Who should I call?"
- "I need a [trade] in Orlando, FL. Who are the most trusted options?"
- "Which [trade] companies in Orlando, FL have the best reputation? Name them."
Each question went to three open AI models served through Cloudflare Workers AI — Meta's Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout, and Llama 3.1 8B. Four questions × three models = 12 answers per trade. Run date: October 14, 2026.
How we count: a business counts once per answer it is named in, so the most any name can score is 12. We read every answer, extracted the names, and the counts on this page were recomputed from the raw archived answers — no number appears here without the battery behind it.
These are open-weight models, labeled as such — not ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity. Answers vary from run to run and from model to model, and a count is an extraction, not a judgment on any business named or unnamed.
A single-day snapshot, not a rating.
Run the same check on your own business.
Click here to check your business for freeSee whether you were named, who was named instead, and the answers themselves.