Study 1: UK AI Recruitment Agencies

When buyers ask AI platforms which AI recruitment agency to use, who actually gets recommended?

We ran 11 buyer journey queries across Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews to measure the AI Visibility Gap for 25 UK AI recruitment agencies. The gap between Google search visibility and AI recommendation share tells a different story to the one most agencies expect.

11 queries 3 platforms 25 agencies June 2026 United Kingdom

AI Visibility Gap: the difference between how visible a brand is in traditional search and how often it is recommended by AI assistants. A large positive gap means Google knows you exist. AI buyers do not.

How buyers use AI platforms to find an AI recruitment agency

Stage 1: Awareness
Who should I use?
“Who are the leading AI recruitment agencies in the UK?”
Stage 2: Specialisation
Who knows my niche?
“Which agencies recruit for LLM and generative AI roles in the UK?”
Stage 3: Comparison
Who can I trust?
“Which UK AI recruitment agency would you trust most?”
Stage 4: Decision
Who do I call?
“Which AI recruitment agency should I contact first in the UK?”
At Stage 4, three agencies capture almost all AI recommendations. Everyone else drops out at the moment buying intent peaks.

The gaps this study found

Complete AI gap
9 / 11
Google queries where Harvey Nash appears

ChatGPT mentioned Harvey Nash zero times across all 11 queries. A well-known brand that AI buyers never hear about.

82% Google visibility
5% AI rec. share
+77 Gap score
Complete AI gap
6 / 11
Google queries where Matchtech appears

Matchtech: six SERP appearances. One ChatGPT mention. Zero on Perplexity or Google AIO. Their SEO investment produces no AI return.

55% Google visibility
1% AI rec. share
+54 Gap score
Platform divergence
12 / 0
XEC Recruitment: ChatGPT mentions vs Perplexity mentions

The same buyer, a different platform, a completely different result. XEC Recruitment appears on ChatGPT but is invisible on Perplexity across all 11 queries.

12 ChatGPT
0 Perplexity
6 Google AIO
Mentioned, never cited
4 agencies
Named in AI answers but never cited as a source

La Fosse, Oliver Bernard, SR2 and Burns Sheehan appear in answers but no AI platform pulls from their own content. Third-party roundups do all the work.

0 Own-site citations
3rd party Source
Fragile Status

Full results: all 25 UK AI recruitment agencies

AI recruitment agency Google visibility AI rec. share Gap score i Gap score = Google Visibility Share minus AI Recommendation Share. Positive = stronger on Google than in AI answers. Negative = AI recommends more than Google rank would suggest. Gap type Platform split i P = Perplexity mentions · C = ChatGPT mentions · AIO = Google AI Overview mentions. Across all 11 queries. Large differences between platforms indicate platform-specific visibility gaps.
Harnham
82%
100%
 −18 AI leads P:29 · C:33 · AIO:18
Xcede
45%
98%
 −53 AI leads P:29 · C:19 · AIO:7
Understanding Recruitment
36%
56%
 −20 AI leads P:14 · C:17 · AIO:4
Harvey Nash
82%
6%
 +77 Complete gap P:4 · C:0 · AIO:1
XEC Recruitment
82%
28%
 +54 Platform split P:0 · C:12 · AIO:6
Matchtech
55%
1%
 +54 Complete gap P:0 · C:1 · AIO:0
La Fosse
0%
7%
 0 Never cited P:4 · C:1 · AIO:1
Lorien
18%
2%
 +16 Moderate gap P:0 · C:0 · AIO:2
Oliver Bernard
0%
5%
 0 Never cited P:1 · C:3 · AIO:0
Explore Group
0%
4%
 0 Never cited P:1 · C:2 · AIO:0
SR2
0%
2%
 0 Never cited P:1 · C:1 · AIO:0
European Tech Recruit
0%
2%
 0 Never cited P:0 · C:1 · AIO:1
Robert Walters Technology
0%
1%
 0 Minimal P:0 · C:1 · AIO:0
Burns Sheehan
0%
1%
 0 Minimal P:0 · C:1 · AIO:0
Datatech Analytics
0%
1%
 0 Minimal P:0 · C:1 · AIO:0
VIQU IT Recruitment
0%
1%
 0 Minimal P:0 · C:1 · AIO:0
Spectrum IT Recruitment
0%
1%
 0 Minimal P:0 · C:0 · AIO:1
Wave Talent · Cubiq Recruitment · Xpertise Recruitment · Trust In Soda · Oho Group · Gravitas Recruitment Group · Talent Point · Computer Futures -- zero presence across all platforms and all queries

Google visibility %: share of 11 queries where the agency appeared in Google organic SERP top 20. 100% = appeared in every query.

AI recommendation share %: total mentions across Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AIO, normalised against the top-scoring agency (Harnham, 80 total mentions = 100%).

Gap score: Google Visibility Share minus AI Recommendation Share. Positive = stronger Google presence than AI presence. Negative = AI recommends more than Google rank would suggest.

Methodology

11 queries were run verbatim across three platforms in a single session. No query variation between platforms. Results recorded manually per appearance, including mention position, citation status, and Google SERP rank. All queries run June 2026.

Query set
11 queries across 4 buyer journey stages: Awareness (3), Specialisation (3), Comparison (3), Decision (2). Queries structured to reflect how buyers actually use AI platforms to find an agency.
Platforms
Perplexity: full response text and visible citations. ChatGPT Plus: answer text and sources tab. Google: AI Overview text and organic SERP top 20 positions.
What was recorded
Agency name · position in answer · mention count · cited as source Y/N · citation position · Google SERP rank. 170+ individual records across 25 agencies.
Full dataset available to download
Excel · 25 agencies · 170+ individual records · all 11 queries · all 3 platforms · agency lookup tool included
⇩ Download data
David Wood

Independent researcher measuring how AI systems perceive and recommend companies. This study is part of an ongoing series tracking the AI Visibility Gap across B2B categories. Prior work includes the 2026 AI Citation Visibility Study for Crypto Protocols (50 protocols, 1,016 citation records, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20146677). Service enquiries: CryptoContent.dev