---
id: "REF-INS-025"
title: "Who AI recommends in Dubai, original research from 2,175 answers"
description: "Refina put 145 Dubai buyer questions to five AI assistants in 22 categories. In each, the ten most named businesses took 57 to 89 per cent of all mentions."
author: "Hamad Hayyat"
publisher: "Refina"
published: "2026-10-27"
modified: "2026-11-09"
canonical_url: "https://www.refina.ae/insights/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai/"
type: "article"
service: "SEO, GEO and AEO Search Authority"
pillar: "Online Digital Presence"
category: "Online Digital Presence"
primary_topic: "which businesses AI assistants recommend in Dubai"
canonical_question: "Which Dubai businesses do AI assistants recommend and why?"
framework: "Refina Search Authority Framework"
tags: "AI recommendations Dubai, AI search research, GEO, AEO, AI search visibility"
word_count: 3420
reading_time: "18 min read"
language: "en"
geo: "Dubai, UAE"
---

# Who AI recommends in Dubai, original research from 2,175 answers

By Hamad Hayyat.

![A strategist studying a research dashboard that compares the recommendations of five AI assistants.](https://www.refina.ae/insights/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai/images/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai-hero-1440w.jpg)
*Buyer questions in 22 categories, five AI assistants and 2,175 answers, each stored in full.*

AI assistants in Dubai, Refina's research found, recommend a short, shifting list of businesses in each category. Refina put 145 questions, written the way buyers ask them, to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI search, three times each, between 21 October and 4 November 2026 and checked all 2,175 answers by name. In the seven categories researched in October, 30 of the 146 founder led Dubai businesses checked were named at least once and 116 were named in no answer to their own category's questions.

A buyer who asks an assistant for the best jeweller, supercar dealer or aesthetic clinic in Dubai receives a handful of names. The businesses on that list receive the enquiry, the visit and the trust that comes with being chosen by a source the buyer already relies on. This research measures who holds those places today, how often the list changes and what separates being named from being cited.

The figures are original research by Refina, a luxury branding agency in Dubai. Most answers were collected on a Dubai connection and the rest through search data services set to a Dubai location, with every answer stored in full. Refina anonymises business names on this page. Each category's full report is available on request.

This research is still in progress, with these figures as its initial findings. Refina continues to research further brand categories in Dubai. This page is updated continuously as each one is completed.

> An AI recommendation is the most personal endorsement a brand can earn online. In every Dubai category tested, a small group holds most of it.

## What did Refina's research into AI recommendations in Dubai test?

Refina's research tested which businesses five AI assistants name when a buyer in Dubai asks for a recommendation, across 22 categories, 145 questions and 2,175 answers collected between 21 October and 4 November 2026, with every question asked three times on each assistant.

Each question was written the way a buyer types it, with no business named. Two examples are "Who are the best jewellers in Dubai?" and "Which luxury car dealer in Dubai is most trusted for buying a supercar worth over a million dirhams?"

Every question went to each assistant three times, each time in a new conversation. Fine jewellery received the deepest study, 40 questions and 600 answers. Each of 21 further categories received five questions and 75 answers.

The five assistants were ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, with Google's AI search as the fifth, read through AI Overviews in five categories and AI Mode in 17. From 26 October 2026, Refina reads Google's AI search through AI Mode as standard, so each new category runs on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Claude. Every answer was checked by name and common spelling against Refina's list of businesses for its category.

## The 22 categories researched

| Category | Questions asked | Answers collected |
|---|---|---|
| Fine jewellery | 40 | 600 |
| Luxury car dealers | 5 | 75 |
| Bullion dealers | 5 | 75 |
| Aesthetic clinics | 5 | 75 |
| Used car showrooms | 5 | 75 |
| Car exporters | 5 | 75 |
| Business setup services | 5 | 75 |
| Bespoke tailors | 5 | 75 |
| Boutique hotels | 5 | 75 |
| Boutique law firms | 5 | 75 |
| Dental clinics | 5 | 75 |
| Fertility clinics | 5 | 75 |
| Fine dining restaurants | 5 | 75 |
| Hair restoration clinics | 5 | 75 |
| Interior design studios | 5 | 75 |
| Ladies salons | 5 | 75 |
| Luxury car rental | 5 | 75 |
| Luxury real estate brokerages | 5 | 75 |
| Luxury wedding planners | 5 | 75 |
| Pre owned luxury watch dealers | 5 | 75 |
| Recruitment firms | 5 | 75 |
| Yacht charter companies | 5 | 75 |
| All 22 categories | 145 | 2,175 |

## How many founder led businesses in Dubai do AI assistants recommend?

In the seven categories researched in October, 1,050 answers, AI assistants named 30 of the 146 founder led Dubai businesses Refina checked, approximately one in five. The other 116, 79 per cent, appeared in none of the answers to their own category's questions, across all five assistants and all three runs.

The pattern held in every category with enough businesses to measure. Across the five categories where 15 or more founder led businesses were checked, approximately 70 to 87 per cent were named in no answer to their category's questions. Luxury car dealers came closest to the top, with 7 of their 23 founder led businesses named, the highest share among those five categories. An assistant names the businesses it finds described in the pages it reads, so a reputation built through referrals, showroom visits and private messages stays outside its answers until it is written down.

## Founder led businesses named in no answer

| Category | Founder led businesses checked | Named in no answer |
|---|---|---|
| Fine jewellery | 50 | 42 |
| Business setup services | 35 | 29 |
| Luxury car dealers | 23 | 16 |
| Car exporters | 23 | 17 |
| Used car showrooms | 15 | 13 |
| Bullion dealers | 2 | 1 |
| All categories, each business counted once | 146 | 116 |

Two bullion businesses were checked in fine jewellery as well, so the category rows add to 148 businesses checked and 118 named in no answer. The final row counts each business once, and one of the two is named in bullion answers. Aesthetic clinic founders were identified from the clinics the assistants named, so that category appears in the tables that follow and carries no absence figure here. The 15 categories added from 28 October drew their founder led businesses from the names the assistants gave, so they also carry no absence figure.

Picture a family jeweller in Deira whose clients know the workshop, the craftsmen and the quality of every setting. An assistant asked where to commission a custom engagement ring in Dubai knows only what the open web says. It names the jewellers whose pages and listings describe that service.

## How concentrated are AI recommendations in each Dubai category?

AI recommendations in Dubai, Refina's research found, gather around a short list. In each of the 22 categories, the ten most named businesses took between 57 and 89 per cent of all mentions, across 666 businesses named in total in the 1,650 answers compared, 75 in each category.

The most named business in a category appeared in between 19 and 66 of its 75 answers. In fine jewellery, the category with the widest field, the most named house still appeared in 43 of its 75 answers, more than half of them.

In ten of the 22 categories, at least half of the businesses named appeared in five answers or fewer. Concentration ran strongest in luxury real estate brokerages, where the ten most named took 89 per cent of mentions. It ran lightest in fine jewellery, at 57 per cent, the category with the most businesses named. The 15 categories added from 28 October concentrated further, with the ten most named taking between 60 and 89 per cent, as assistants named a smaller field in each.

## Concentration of AI recommendations by category

| Category | Businesses named | Share of mentions held by the ten most named |
|---|---|---|
| Fine jewellery | 72 | 57 per cent |
| Dental clinics | 44 | 60 per cent |
| Bullion dealers | 41 | 61 per cent |
| Recruitment firms | 40 | 62 per cent |
| Aesthetic clinics | 39 | 64 per cent |
| Ladies salons | 35 | 64 per cent |
| Luxury car dealers | 47 | 66 per cent |
| Used car showrooms | 32 | 66 per cent |
| Car exporters | 32 | 67 per cent |
| Interior design studios | 32 | 70 per cent |
| Business setup services | 40 | 72 per cent |
| Hair restoration clinics | 29 | 72 per cent |
| Pre owned luxury watch dealers | 22 | 75 per cent |
| Fine dining restaurants | 25 | 80 per cent |
| Boutique law firms | 20 | 81 per cent |
| Luxury car rental | 24 | 81 per cent |
| Luxury wedding planners | 22 | 82 per cent |
| Boutique hotels | 21 | 83 per cent |
| Fertility clinics | 17 | 85 per cent |
| Yacht charter companies | 19 | 85 per cent |
| Bespoke tailors | 23 | 87 per cent |
| Luxury real estate brokerages | 16 | 89 per cent |

The fine jewellery row uses five of its 40 questions, following the same five question pattern as the other categories, so every row compares 75 answers. The total of 666 counts each business once, so a business named in more than one category appears in several rows and once in the total.

A buyer comparing luxury car dealers in Dubai sees the effect directly. Ten businesses hold two thirds of all mentions, so the same few names return question after question. A dealer outside that group reaches the buyer by another route.

## Do AI assistants agree on which Dubai businesses to recommend?

AI assistants agree on few Dubai businesses. Of the 666 businesses named across the 22 categories, 98 (15 per cent) were named by all five assistants. Another 269 (40 per cent) were named by one assistant only and absent from the other four.

Each assistant reads its own search index and weighs sources in its own way, so each builds its own short list. Fine jewellery had the broadest agreement, with ten businesses named by all five, followed by luxury real estate brokerages with eight. Boutique hotels and hair restoration clinics had one each.

Visibility in one assistant therefore tells a business little about the others. Two in five of the businesses named reached a single assistant's answers, so Refina measures each platform on its own. A Dubai jeweller named only by Perplexity, for example, is absent from the answers a buyer receives from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google's AI search.

## How often does an AI recommendation change when the same question is asked again?

An AI recommendation changes more often than it holds. In fine jewellery, 153 of 200 question and assistant pairs, 77 per cent, returned a different set of the twenty tracked brands across three runs of the same question, from 53 per cent on ChatGPT to 95 per cent on Gemini. A pair counts as changed when the brands named differ in any of its three runs, so one name gained or lost is enough.

A buyer who puts the same fine jewellery question to Gemini three times, for example, meets a different set of those brands for 38 of its 40 questions. Fine jewellery carries the deepest reading of this because it is the one category asked 40 questions on every assistant, 200 pairs in all.

## Fine jewellery answers that changed between runs

| Assistant | Question pairs | Changed between runs | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 40 | 21 | 53 per cent |
| Perplexity | 40 | 24 | 60 per cent |
| Claude | 40 | 34 | 85 per cent |
| Google AI Overviews | 40 | 36 | 90 per cent |
| Gemini | 40 | 38 | 95 per cent |
| All five | 200 | 153 | 77 per cent |

Two things move the answer between runs. An assistant that searches the web gathers its sources afresh for each question, and Google describes AI Overviews and AI Mode issuing several related searches across subtopics to build one response. The language model then writes the answer with an element of chance in each word it chooses, and Anthropic's own documentation states that identical inputs can produce different outputs even at its most predictable setting. A 2024 study of five language models by [Atil and colleagues](https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.04667) found accuracy varying by up to 15 per cent across repeated runs of the same task.

In this study ChatGPT gave the steadiest answers and Gemini the most changeable. A single answer is a snapshot, so Refina counts a business as holding a place when it is named in at least two of three runs of the same question on the same assistant. A single appearance counts as chance.

Measured that way, few brands hold a position. Of the twenty jewellery brands tracked in the deep study, six held a place in at least 20 of the 200 question and assistant pairs. Those six took 60 per cent of all mentions of the twenty.

![Three runs of the same AI question shown side by side, with recommendations shifting between them.](https://www.refina.ae/insights/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai/images/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai-figure-1440w.jpg)
*In fine jewellery, the same question asked three times returned a different set of the twenty tracked brands in 77 per cent of question and assistant pairs.*

## What is the difference between being named and being cited by an AI assistant?

Being named means an assistant recommends a business in its answer. Being cited means the business's own website appears among the sources the assistant shows. Of the 666 businesses named across the 22 categories, 348 (52 per cent) had their own website cited at least once.

The jewellery study shows the gap clearly. Across 600 answers, ten of the twenty brands tracked never had their own website cited. Three of those ten were each named between 58 and 66 times. The assistants recommended them while quoting directories, magazines and review pages written by others.

A business recommended through other people's pages holds its place through their words. The description the assistant gives, the details it repeats and the link the buyer follows all come from a third party. A business whose own pages answer the question clearly is cited directly, so its own words reach the buyer.

## Why do AI assistants recommend some Dubai businesses over others?

AI assistants recommend the businesses they can find, read and confirm in the pages their search index holds. Google's guidance and published research both point to clear, evidenced pages as the material assistants draw on when they name a business.

Google's [Search Central guidance on AI features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features), last updated on 10 December 2025, states that a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in Google Search to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The research paper that named the discipline, [Generative Engine Optimization by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735), found that adding cited sources, quotations and statistics to a page lifted its visibility in generated answers by roughly 30 to 40 per cent on the study's main measure.

The answers Refina collected fit that picture. For nine of the twenty jewellery brands tracked, every recommendation came from other sites, since the brand's own website never appeared among the sources shown, and the tenth brand without a citation was named in no answer at all. A business whose prices, specialisms, opening hours and credentials live in brochures and private messages leaves the assistant to rely on what others have written.

An aesthetic clinic in Jumeirah that publishes each treatment, its practitioners' qualifications and its consultation process on clearly headed pages gives an assistant the facts to answer "Which aesthetic clinic in Dubai would you recommend for natural looking anti ageing treatments?" in its own words.

## What does AI recommendation research mean for luxury brands in Dubai?

For a luxury brand in Dubai, an AI recommendation is, in Refina's view, a personal endorsement delivered at the moment a buyer asks for advice. The research shows that endorsement is concentrated, changeable and open to the brands that describe what they do clearly and completely.

The luxury categories follow the same pattern as the rest. In luxury car dealers, 47 businesses were named and the ten most named took 66 per cent of mentions; in fine jewellery, 72 were named, 37 of them by one assistant only. The buyers in these categories ask precise questions about provenance, certification, private appointments and rare pieces. The assistant names the brand whose pages answer them.

A supercar dealer in Al Quoz that publishes the provenance, specification and availability of each car on its own pages gives an assistant the facts to answer "Where in Dubai can I find a rare limited edition supercar for sale?" directly. That dealer earns its name in the answer. The 15 categories added from 28 October carry the same pattern into boutique hotels, luxury real estate, yacht charters and pre owned watches, where the ten most named took between 75 and 89 per cent of mentions.

## How can a Dubai business find out whether AI assistants recommend it?

A Dubai business finds out whether AI assistants recommend it by putting a fixed set of real buyer questions to each assistant several times on a Dubai connection, then recording each answer in full and checking whether it names the business and cites its website.

Refina's method follows four steps. The questions are written the way buyers ask them, with no business named; each one goes to each assistant three times in new conversations. Each answer is checked for whether the business is named, whether its own website is cited and whether it holds its place across runs. The same questions then run again each cycle, so every change can be traced to a date.

Refina runs this measurement within its [SEO, GEO and AEO search authority services](https://www.refina.ae/services/ai-search-authority/). The wider method is set out in [how brands become visible in AI search](https://www.refina.ae/insights/ai-search-visibility/). Each category's full report from this research is available on request through the [contact page](https://www.refina.ae/contact/?offer=research). A Dubai business that wants [the same reading](https://www.refina.ae/services/ai-search-authority/#first-read) for its own name, question by question and assistant by assistant, can request it there as well.

## How was this research carried out?

Refina collected the answers between 21 October and 4 November 2026, with fine jewellery on 21 October, the six further categories between 22 and 27 October and the 15 categories added from 28 October to 4 November 2026. Most answers came through the assistants' own websites on a Dubai connection and the rest through search data services set to a Dubai location. Each run started a new conversation.

A business counts as named when its name or a common spelling appears in the answer. A business counts as cited when its own website appears among the sources the assistant returned. A business holds a place when it is named in at least two of three runs of the same question on the same assistant.

Every answer is saved in full with its question, assistant and collection time, and a category is counted only once all of its answers are in. A failed load, a short notice or a robot check is collected again and never counted as an answer. Source names and links are read as citations and never as recommendations.

Five points shape how the figures read.

1. The research is a reading tied to its collection dates. AI answers drift over days and weeks, so each figure describes October and early November 2026.
2. Answers were scored by name, so a business named in passing counts the same as one recommended first.
3. Google AI Overviews figures are a lower bound, since the collection route occasionally drops names held inside list items.
4. Founder led businesses were checked against their own category's questions only.
5. Google's AI search was read through AI Overviews in five categories and through AI Mode for bullion dealers, aesthetic clinics and the 15 categories added from 28 October.

This research is published under [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may be cited in the form suggested at the close of this page. A [four page summary](https://www.refina.ae/assets/docs/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai-summary.pdf) is ready to download.

## The Refina approach to AI recommendations

Refina builds AI recommendations for luxury brands through the Refina Search Authority Framework, starting with a measured reading of who the assistants name today and which questions each brand can answer best, then writing those answers into its own pages.

The work begins with the questions buyers already ask. Refina records how each assistant answers them, then writes the brand's own expertise into clearly headed pages an assistant can read, quote and cite. The same questions run again each cycle, so the brand sees its place in the answers move with each change.

Picture a fine jewellery house that learns it is named for engagement rings and absent for high jewellery. It has a clear first step. Its next pages answer the high jewellery questions directly. The following cycle shows whether the assistants have followed.

## Where to begin with AI recommendations in Dubai

The right starting point is [a measured reading](https://www.refina.ae/services/ai-search-authority/#snapshot) of the questions buyers in a category already ask, since that reading shows exactly where a brand is named and where it is absent, assistant by assistant and question by question.

The most direct route is Refina's [AI Search Authority service](https://www.refina.ae/services/ai-search-authority/), which turns that reading into an ongoing programme.

[Competitive positioning research](https://www.refina.ae/insights/luxury-competitive-intelligence/) shows which rivals hold the answers today. [The research behind branding](https://www.refina.ae/insights/research-behind-branding/) sets out how Refina gathers the evidence every recommendation rests on.

A founder's own visibility shapes what an assistant knows about the business, which is why [a founder's personal brand in Dubai](https://www.refina.ae/insights/founder-personal-brand-dubai/) belongs in the same picture. The wider system sits inside [luxury digital presence](https://www.refina.ae/insights/luxury-brand-digital-presence/), where AI visibility joins website, social and reputation work.

The research is ongoing. Refina continues to work through further brand categories in Dubai, so this page grows as the research proceeds.

The assistants name the businesses they can read. Every business can choose to be read.

Suggested citation. Hayyat, H. (2026). Who AI recommends in Dubai, original research from 2,175 answers. Refina Branding LLC, Dubai. https://www.refina.ae/insights/who-ai-recommends-in-dubai/

Parts of this article have been researched and written using AI assisted drafting.

## Questions clients ask about AI recommendations in Dubai

### What share of founder led Dubai businesses do AI assistants recommend?

AI assistants named 30 of the 146 founder led Dubai businesses Refina checked in the seven October categories, approximately one in five. The other 116, 79 per cent, appeared in none of the answers to their own category's questions, across all five assistants and all three runs.

### Which AI assistants did Refina test?

Refina tested ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google's AI search, read through AI Overviews in five categories and AI Mode in 17. Each question went to each assistant three times in new conversations, collected on a Dubai connection or through search data services set to a Dubai location.

### Why does the same question to an AI assistant give different answers?

The same question gives different answers because an assistant builds each answer afresh from the sources it retrieves at that moment and writes it with an element of chance in each word it chooses. In Refina's fine jewellery study, 77 per cent of question and assistant pairs returned a different set of the twenty tracked brands across three runs, from 53 per cent on ChatGPT to 95 per cent on Gemini.

### How does AI search change the way buyers in Dubai choose a brand?

AI search gives a buyer in Dubai a short list of names, each carrying the assistant's endorsement, before the buyer visits a single website. Refina's research across 2,175 answers found that in each of 22 Dubai categories the ten most named businesses took between 57 and 89 per cent of all mentions. The short list now forms inside the answer, so a brand earns its place there through pages the assistants can read, quote and cite.

### Can a business improve how often AI assistants recommend it?

A business can give AI assistants more to work with, the work of Refina's AI Search Authority service, by describing its services, specialisms, credentials and availability clearly on its own pages and keeping those facts consistent across the guides and directories that describe it. Published research found that adding cited sources, quotations and statistics lifted a page's visibility in generated answers by roughly 30 to 40 per cent on the study's main measure.

### Can I see the full research for my category?

Refina shares each category's full report on request through its contact page. The reports cover the questions asked, the answers collected and how each business performed across the five assistants.

### How can a Dubai business check whether AI assistants recommend it?

A Dubai business checks whether AI assistants recommend it by asking each assistant a fixed set of real buyer questions three times on a Dubai connection, then noting whether each answer names the business and cites its website. Refina's AI Search Authority [Snapshot](https://www.refina.ae/services/ai-search-authority/#snapshot) gives a first reading on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, at AED 2,950 excluding VAT.