What Happens When Someone Asks ChatGPT to Recommend a Dubai Business?

When a customer asks ChatGPT to recommend an AC company in Dubai Marina or a family dentist in Jumeirah, the answer usually comes back as a few names, a reason for each and often a map. What happens in between is only partly public.

OpenAI documents the main steps. ChatGPT decides whether to search the web, turns the question into one or more searches, adds general location, ranks what comes back and writes an answer with links to its sources. What OpenAI does not publish is how it decides which businesses to name. For a business owner, the point is this: ChatGPT can only recommend you on the strength of what it can find and understand about you, so the information you control matters more than any trick.

Does ChatGPT search the web?

ChatGPT can answer from what its model learned in training, or it can search the web first.

Answers from training alone have a built-in time limit. OpenAI explains that its models "are trained on data up to a certain point and responses do not incorporate information about events beyond that, unless tools are used" (OpenAI Help Center). A clinic that opened last year, a company that moved from Deira to Business Bay or a brand that changed its name may be missing or out of date in that kind of answer.

Web search is the other route. According to OpenAI, "ChatGPT may search the web automatically when your question would benefit from current information", and users can also switch search on themselves (OpenAI Help Center). In the small check described below, every request for a Dubai business triggered a search.

What happens when ChatGPT searches

OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search sets out the process step by step.

1. It rewrites the question. ChatGPT "typically rewrites your query into one or more targeted queries" and sends them to the search providers it works with. A customer's long, conversational request becomes several shorter searches.
2. It draws on search partners and content partners. When OpenAI launched ChatGPT search, it said the feature "leverages third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners" (OpenAI). So ChatGPT is not reading only your website; it also works with what other search services and sources return.
3. It adds general location. ChatGPT collects "general location information based on your IP address" and may share that general location with search providers to improve accuracy. It does not share the IP address itself or the user's account information with them. Users can also share their device's precise location; without it, OpenAI notes, "local results may be less specific".
4. It ranks the results. "ChatGPT ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information. Placement is not guaranteed."
5. It writes an answer with sources. Answers that use search can include citations, and a Sources button lists what was used. OpenAI also warns: "Search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect." For some categories, the answer comes with a visual layout; OpenAI listed maps among the categories that received "new visual designs" at launch (OpenAI).

Why two customers can get different answers

The same request does not always produce the same list. OpenAI's documentation explains the first three reasons below; the fourth comes from our own observation.

• Wording and detail. Because ChatGPT rewrites the question into searches, what the customer mentions shapes what it looks for. "A dentist in Dubai" and "a dentist in Dubai for a nervous four-year-old" can lead to different searches.
• Location. General location from the customer's IP address feeds into local results, and precise location sharpens them further.
• Memory. "If memory is enabled, ChatGPT may use relevant saved memories when rewriting a search query" (OpenAI Help Center). A customer who has told ChatGPT they live in Arabian Ranches may get answers built around that.
• Timing. Search results change, reviews are added and pages are updated, so an answer today may not match an answer next week.

So a single check and a screenshot tell you very little.

What the answers looked like in a small check

To see what customers actually get, AI Visibility asked ChatGPT three typical Dubai questions in September 2026: a request for an AC maintenance company in Dubai Marina, a family dental clinic for young children, and a business setup consultant for a small e-commerce company. Each question was asked twice on one paid account, on one day, in a temporary chat with personalisation switched off. Six answers are not a study, but they are a useful snapshot.

Every answer searched the web and showed a map with three businesses, each with a star rating, a category and an open or closed label. The explanations often repeated details from the businesses' own websites, such as a programme for online sellers, a children's dentistry service, a warranty or a starting price. One answer also cited a review platform and a local directory, and another cited the Dubai Health Authority's public records to note which types of dentists were licensed at a clinic it suggested. Asking again also changed things: for two of the three questions, ChatGPT's first choice was a different business.

There are three different outcomes to watch for. A business can be mentioned (named in the answer or shown on the map), cited (its own page listed under Sources) or recommended (presented as the choice, with a reason). They do not always go together: in one answer, the three businesses on the map were not the websites ChatGPT cited.

The lesson is that a clear page describing what you offer, for whom and where, gives ChatGPT something concrete to say about you. Vague pages give it less to work with.

What OpenAI does not tell you

As of September 2026, OpenAI's documentation stops at "multiple factors". It does not publish a list of ranking factors for businesses, how much reviews or distance count, or exactly where the business details in its maps come from. Anyone who claims to know "the ChatGPT algorithm" for local recommendations is working from observation, not from published rules.

Lunasol, the agency behind AI Visibility, builds its generative engine optimisation (GEO) work on exactly this kind of evidence: it asks AI assistants the questions customers ask, the way they ask them, and re-asks them over time, reporting what changes every quarter (Lunasol). Repeated checks are the practical way to measure something that is not published.

What a Dubai business can control

You cannot decide ChatGPT's answer, but you can shape much of what it finds.

• Let OpenAI's crawler in. "Any public website can appear in ChatGPT search", provided it does not block OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI Help Center). OpenAI also asks site owners to confirm that their host or content delivery network (CDN) allows traffic from OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI Help Center). Your developer can check both.
• Give each core service its own clear page. Say who it is for, which areas and emirates you serve, what is included and how pricing works. Detailed pages give ChatGPT facts it can repeat.
• Keep your details consistent everywhere. Use the same business name, address, phone number, opening hours and category on your website, map listings and the directories your customers use.
• Earn reviews and independent mentions. Pages beyond your own site, such as review platforms and directories, can shape what ChatGPT says about you.
• Keep official records in line. In regulated sectors such as healthcare, public registers can be part of the picture, so make sure the details on your website match your licensing records. Healthcare providers should also check that prices and claims on their site follow the advertising rules that apply to them.
• Keep prices and claims current. If your site lists a starting price or promises a warranty, ChatGPT may repeat it. Outdated claims become outdated answers.

How Lunasol approaches this. Lunasol's process starts with an audit of what AI assistants currently say, then builds consistent facts, brand mentions and structured data across the sources models read, such as directories, profiles and the open web, before working on page content (Lunasol). You can start in the same order: run the check at the end of this article first, then fix what it shows.

Can you pay to appear in ChatGPT's answers?

Money does not buy a place in ChatGPT's answers. OpenAI states that "Ads do not influence ChatGPT's answers" and that "advertisers have no ability to shape, rank, or alter ChatGPT's responses"; where ads appear, they are labelled as sponsored and shown separately from the answer (OpenAI Help Center). For shopping, OpenAI says product results "are selected independently by ChatGPT and are not ads" (OpenAI Help Center).

Your next step

1. Open a temporary chat in ChatGPT and ask the question a customer would ask, including your service and area. Ask it twice, in separate chats.
2. Note whether your business is recommended first, listed among others or not shown at all, whether the description is correct, which sources appear under Sources, and what any map card shows for your name, category and opening status.
3. Compare what you see with your website and listings. Anything missing, vague or wrong is where to start.

If you would like a second opinion, you can ask Lunasol for a free AI visibility check by WhatsApp or email; the contact details are on its GEO and AEO service page. The full service covers AI visibility audits, consistent business information across directories and the wider web, pages structured with direct, quotable answers, and quarterly tracking.

AI Visibility is owned by Lunasol.