We Asked 5 AI Platforms to Recommend Movers in 18 Cities. Here Is Who Got Cited.

We wanted to know something simple: when consumers ask AI for moving company recommendations, who actually gets named?

Not who ranks on Google. Not who pays for ads. Who does the AI actually cite when a consumer types 'best movers in [my city]' into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, or Claude?

So we ran the experiment ourselves. 18 metros. 5 AI platforms. Hundreds of prompts. The results reveal a new competitive landscape that most moving companies do not yet understand.

Between August and September 2026, Trunk prompted 5 major AI platforms with standardized queries for 18 metro areas. The core prompt was 'best movers in [city]' with variations including 'movers in [city] with pricing,' 'most reliable moving companies in [city],' and 'who should I hire to move in [city].'

The 18 metros tested: Washington DC, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, New York City, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland, Austin, Raleigh, San Diego, Seattle, and Denver.

The 5 platforms tested: ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude.

For each metro and platform combination, we recorded every mover named, the context in which they were cited, and what data points the AI included (pricing, ratings, years in business, specialties). We then cross-referenced each cited mover against FMCSA records, review platforms, and independent verification platforms to identify what the cited movers had in common.

Across all 18 metros and 5 platforms, 473 unique moving companies were cited at least once. That sounds like a lot until you consider that there are roughly 10,000 to 12,000 active FMCSA-registered movers operating in these 18 metros combined. The vast majority, over 95%, were never mentioned by any AI platform.

The average number of movers cited per city per platform was 5 to 6. AI models do not give consumers a list of 20 options. They name a handful and move on.

Only about 15 movers were cited in 3 or more metros, indicating genuine national recognition by AI. The most cited nationally were Two Men and a Truck with 16 citations across 4 metros, All My Sons Moving and Storage with 12 citations across 3 metros, Gentle Giant Moving Company with 10 citations across 4 metros, and Meathead Movers with 10 citations across 3 metros.

The concentration is striking. In most cities, the same 5 to 8 movers appeared across multiple AI platforms, while hundreds of competitors in the same market appeared on none.

We analyzed the top-cited movers across all metros and platforms to identify shared traits. The patterns are unmistakable.

Over 80% of the most-cited movers had published pricing available on at least one independent platform. This was the single strongest predictor of AI visibility. Movers without published pricing were almost never cited.

More than 95% had clean FMCSA records with active authority, current insurance, and recently updated MCS-150 filings. AI models clearly cross-reference federal compliance data.

About 90% had 100 or more Google reviews. But volume alone was not enough. The cited movers tended to have reviews with specific details: crew names, service descriptions, pricing mentions, and problem resolution stories.

Around 70% had a presence on at least one independent verification platform beyond Google and Yelp. This includes platforms like Trunk that serve structured data to AI models.

Roughly 60% held a BBB rating of A or A+. The BBB profile served as an additional cross-reference point for AI models verifying business legitimacy.

Each AI platform has its own data sources and citation style, which means your visibility can vary significantly across them.

ChatGPT names 5 to 6 movers with brief descriptions for each. It emphasizes years in business, ownership type, and service specialties. It draws from Bing's index, structured data feeds, review aggregators, and llms.txt files.

Google AI Overviews pull heavily from Google Business Profiles and structured data. They show star ratings, review counts, and sometimes pricing. The overlap with traditional Google ranking is significant but not complete.

Perplexity cites sources with clickable links and names 4 to 5 movers per city. It crawls the web broadly, including Reddit threads, review platforms, and government databases. Movers mentioned positively on Reddit appeared in Perplexity results at a higher rate than on other platforms.

Microsoft Copilot uses Bing's index and shows BBB data prominently. It tends to include accreditation status and complaint counts. Movers with BBB profiles performed disproportionately well on Copilot.

Claude emphasizes verified data from independent platforms. It is more cautious about citing specific companies unless it has strong verification from multiple independent sources. When it does cite, it tends to include more context about why the mover is recommended.

The 95%+ of movers who never appeared in any AI response shared common gaps.

No structured data was the primary issue. These movers existed only on their own websites and perhaps a Google Business Profile. They had no verified presence on independent platforms that serve machine-readable data to AI models.

Website-only presence meant AI models had only self-reported information to work with. Without independent verification, the model has no basis for recommending one website-only mover over another, so it recommends neither.

No published pricing meant the model could not make a useful recommendation. When a consumer asks 'best movers in Dallas,' the AI wants to provide actionable information. A mover with no pricing data gives the model nothing concrete to share.

These gaps are fixable. Every one of them can be addressed within a week. The movers who close these gaps fastest will capture AI visibility while their competitors remain invisible.

Trunk publishes detailed AI visibility results for each metro we tested. You can see exactly which movers were cited, on which platforms, and with what context.

Visit trunk.so/insights/visibility to find your city. Each metro report shows the specific movers cited, the platforms that cited them, and the data traits that correlated with visibility.

If your company is not appearing in AI results for your city, the AI visibility report will show you exactly what your cited competitors have that you do not. From there, the fix is straightforward: get verified on a platform like Trunk that serves structured data to AI models, publish your pricing, and maintain your FMCSA record.