The top plumbing companies in Charlotte, NC, according to AI

The short version

• Most-named: On ChatGPT, Charlotte Plumbing, in 12 of 18 answers. Gemini never named it. Gemini’s most-named was Brothers Air, Heat & Plumbing, in 4 of 8, and ChatGPT never named that one.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)
• Booking: ChatGPT offered to help book in 5 of its 18 answers. Gemini did in 1 of 8, by asking to turn on its Google Calendar app. In 14 of the 26 answers, there was nothing beyond a phone number or a website.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)
• Where it breaks: Asked to book, Gemini said it couldn’t in 6 of 7 answers. ChatGPT opened an in-chat booking form in 3 of 10. None of the 26 answers ended in a booked appointment.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Who ChatGPT names most (18 answers)

Who Gemini names most (8 answers)

Ties are listed alphabetically. Across both assistants, 36 different companies were named, and 8 of them appeared on both. On the 8 questions both assistants answered, they had at least one plumber in common in 4. The other 4 had no overlap at all.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Can you book them?

Ten of the 18 questions asked the assistant to book, including the “soonest slot” request, “Find me…and book the appointment for me,” a Sunday-night request for first thing tomorrow, a landlord and an out-of-state family member asking for a visit, and the same kind of request in Spanish. Gemini answered 7 of those 10.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)

• Gemini said it couldn’t book in 6 of the 7. In the other one, it asked for permission to turn on its Google Calendar app. We didn’t grant it.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)
• ChatGPT opened an in-chat booking form in 3 of the 10. In the other 7, it listed plumbers and asked for more details before going further: a ZIP code in 5, what the problem was in 2.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Our tester stopped at every form and every request for details without entering anything. Across all the questions, ChatGPT offered to help book in 5 of 18 answers and Gemini in 1 of 8. In 14 of the 26 answers (ChatGPT 8 of 18, Gemini 6 of 8), there was nothing beyond a phone number or a website. The homeowner gets a list and has to call, click or keep searching.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Named isn’t booked.

The takeaway for a Charlotte plumber

The two assistants keep different shortlists here. On the 8 questions both answered, ChatGPT named Charlotte Plumbing in 7 and Gemini in none. Gemini named Brothers Air, Heat & Plumbing in 4 and ChatGPT in none. Roto-Rooter is the closest thing to common ground: 5 of ChatGPT’s 8 and 2 of Gemini’s. Getting named is only half of it. Asked to book, Gemini mostly said it couldn’t, and no answer ended in a booking. Being bookable the moment you’re named is the part a shop can control.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Method & data

18 customer questions to ChatGPT and 8 of the same questions to Gemini, one run per question per assistant, captured November 4–5, 2026 in our v2.1 re-run of the sweep. The November 4 Charlotte runs (Eastern time) captured ChatGPT only. Gemini was run alongside ChatGPT on November 5. The maintenance-plan question isn’t asked of plumbers, so there’s no plumbing answer for it. These answers are not part of the 5,788-answer study (collected October 5–28, 2026, across 20 Southeast U.S. metros), and we don’t compare or trend them against it. In that study, 79.1% of sampled ChatGPT/Gemini answers offered neither a booking path nor a connector (4,578 answers); on Gemini the rate was 92.2%. Neither the study nor this re-run measured completed appointments, and neither tested Google Search’s AI Mode. ChatGPT ran on its “Instant” setting and Gemini on “Flash”. When an assistant asked for a ZIP code, an address or other details, none was given and no form was submitted. Two of the questions were follow-ups in the same chat (“book the first one you listed” and “I don’t want to call around”). For those, we counted the companies recorded for that conversation. A company counts once per answer. Obvious spellings of the same business were merged, for example the three spellings each of Roto-Rooter and Swift Brothers. “Brothers Heating, Cooling & Plumbing” was counted as Brothers Air, Heat & Plumbing, matching how the HVAC answers’ own sources linked the two names. Names we couldn’t confidently match were kept separate, including “E.R. Services” and “ER Plumbing Services”. One of the 26 answers showed placeholder-style phone numbers. We print no phone numbers, prices or ratings from the answers, and being named here doesn’t confirm that a business exists or serves Charlotte. This is a count of mentions, not a review or a quality rating, and AI answers vary from run to run.Sources: https://coppoak.com/journal/top-plumbing-companies-charlotte-nc-according-to-ai#method-heading (retrieved 2026-11-04); https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23745742 (retrieved 2026-11-05); https://coppoak.com/canopy/research/ai-assistant-booking (retrieved 2026-11-05)