92% of Security Companies Are Invisible to ChatGPT — Here's Proof
We checked 1,882 U.S. security and alarm companies against ChatGPT's recommendations. Only 8% ever got named. The rest simply don't exist to AI.
Watch the 40-second breakdown above.
For decades, being findable meant being in the phone book, on page one of Google, or having a truck with your logo parked in the right driveway at the right time. That world hasn't fully disappeared — but a new one has quietly grown up next to it. More and more people are opening ChatGPT and just asking: "who's a good security company near me?" And the answer they get back is either your name, or it isn't.
We wanted to know how many security and alarm companies actually show up when that question gets asked. So we ran a real benchmark.
What We Actually Did
We checked 1,882 U.S. security and alarm companies against ChatGPT's recommendations. For each one, we asked the kind of question a real homeowner would type: who should I trust for home security, alarm monitoring, or a security system install? Then we looked at whether that specific company ever got named in the answer.
No tricks, no leading questions, no company inputting their own name to "test" themselves. Just the plain question a normal person would ask before picking a security company.
The Number That Should Worry Every Dealer
Out of 1,882 companies, only 151 ever got recommended by name. That's 8%.
The other 92%? They never came up. Not once, across the entire benchmark. Not a mention, not a runner-up, not a "you might also consider." As far as ChatGPT was concerned, they didn't exist.
That's the part that should sit heavy with any independent dealer reading this. It's not that these companies were ranked low. It's that they weren't in the conversation at all — the AI equivalent of not being in the phone book, except this phone book is the one more and more people are opening first.
Why This Is Happening Now
Google and ChatGPT don't work like the old search engine model where you paid for an ad and showed up. They synthesize an answer from what's out there about a business — reviews, mentions, structured information, how consistently and clearly a company is described across the web. If that picture is thin, outdated, or inconsistent, the AI has nothing solid to recommend. It doesn't guess. It just moves on to a company it does have a clear picture of.
That means a dealer with a great reputation, five-star reviews, and years of loyal customers can still be part of the invisible 92% — simply because none of that reputation ever made it into a form the AI could read and trust.
What This Means for RMR
Recurring monthly revenue lives and dies on new accounts replacing the ones that churn. For years, the front door to new accounts was a Google search or a neighbor's word of mouth. Now there's a third front door, and it's the one growing fastest — someone asking Google and ChatGPT who to call. If a dealer isn't showing up there, that whole channel of new business is quietly closing, and most owners have no idea it's happening because there's no complaint, no lost bid, no signal at all. Just silence where new customers used to come from.
Where You Can Check This Yourself
This isn't a one-off statistic we're asking dealers to take on faith. There's a public leaderboard at mostrecommendedhomesecurity.com where you can see how companies stack up in these AI recommendations. And if you want to know specifically where your own business stands, AI Security Edge offers a free AI visibility check at /audit — it takes a few minutes and tells you plainly whether you're in the 8% or the 92%.
Either way, it's better to know now than to keep wondering why the phone isn't ringing the way it used to.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did you check 1,882 companies against ChatGPT?
We asked ChatGPT the kind of plain question a homeowner would actually type — who to trust for home security, monitoring, or installation — and recorded whether each of the 1,882 companies in our list ever got named in the responses. We didn't feed it leading prompts or company names to fish for a mention.
Why did 92% of companies never get mentioned at all?
Google and ChatGPT build their answers from information that's already out there about a business — reviews, mentions, and how clearly a company is described online. If that picture is thin or inconsistent, the AI has nothing to recommend, so it simply doesn't mention that company.
Does a good reputation guarantee visibility to AI?
No. A dealer can have great reviews and loyal customers and still be invisible if that reputation was never captured in a way AI systems can read and trust. Visibility to AI and real-world reputation are related but not the same thing.
How can I find out if my company is in the 8% or the 92%?
AI Security Edge offers a free AI visibility check that tells you exactly where you stand. You can also compare your business against others on the public leaderboard at mostrecommendedhomesecurity.com.