What AI assistants tell a US staffing agency to buy, with every price checked on the vendor page

A staffing agency has two audiences asking about it at once, employers and candidates, and both engines we measured on 21 October 2026 understood that. Where they parted company was on money. ChatGPT named one paid product and quoted it as from 31 dollars a month billed annually, which is word for word what the vendor's page says. Gemini named five and attached figures to four of them. We opened every page on 22 October 2026. Two of Gemini's four figures are wrong by a factor of more than ten, one vendor publishes no price at all and the engine said so correctly, and one figure is a near miss on a renamed plan ladder.

The question, the surfaces and the dates

"What should a recruitment agency do to be named by AI assistants?" went to the ChatGPT product surface at 22:20 UTC and to Gemini at 22:38 UTC on 21 October 2026, through a data provider, with no agency named. Both engines ran a live search. ChatGPT returned 57 citations, led by developers.google.com with eight, developers.google.cn with four, help.openai.com with three, brightlocal.com with two, support.google.com with two, plus g2.com, capterra.com, onrec.com, business.linkedin.com and hrfuture.net once each. Gemini returned two, webiske.com and kaizen-seo.com, both agency blogs.

What each engine told a staffing firm to do

• ChatGPT wrote the goal as a query, not a slogan. It said the point is to be a credible source when someone asks for best healthcare recruiters in Chicago or recruitment agencies specialising in US cybersecurity roles, and that the core strategy is strong SEO, distinctive expertise and credible third party mentions rather than AI specific hacks.
• Then four ordered steps, three of them free. Search Console first to check indexing and crawlability of service pages. Then crawler access, allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and checking the host or CDN permits its traffic. Then Google Business Profile for local and regional firms, with accurate locations, categories and genuine client reviews. Then BrightLocal, described as optional with foundational work first.
• Then the publishing, which is where it was most specific. A genuinely useful page for each specialisation and market, with its own example, Cybersecurity Recruitment in Washington DC, including roles filled, geographic coverage, hiring process, verified placement outcomes and the fee model where you can state it.
• Then third party credibility, in a stated order. LinkedIn company and consultant profiles, then Clutch for B2B agency listings and genuine reviews, then the American Staffing Association for industry participation and credibility, then US trade publications and local business media for expert commentary, original salary data and case studies.
• Its what not to do list is the shortest honest summary of this field we measured. It said llms.txt, schema markup and keyword repetition do not settle the outcome, that fake reviews and bulk low quality links are a mistake, and that a paid GEO agency cannot promise placement. Then buy tracking software once you have a baseline.
• Gemini ordered four steps and named five paid or part paid tools. Google Business Profile free and Schema App paid for Organization, RecruitmentAgency and FAQPage JSON-LD, then Clutch and G2 free with paid sponsorship options plus Yext for listings, then AnswerThePublic for query research, then Profound and Semrush for share of AI voice, then First Page Sage or DevCommX as agencies.
• Both engines independently named Clutch. For a B2B staffing firm that is the overlap worth acting on, and a Clutch profile is free to claim.

Every price in the two answers, opened on 22 October 2026

• BrightLocal, as ChatGPT quoted it, from 31 dollars a month billed annually. Exact. brightlocal.com/pricing publishes, for one location, "Track $41 USD / mo billed monthly. $369 USD billed annually ($31 / mo)", and the Track feature list opens with a Local AI Visibility Tracker flagged new. The engine chose the annual reading, which is the cheaper of the two the page gives, and said so. Worth recording that the same plan cards also print the words "Price on request" immediately beside the published 31 dollar figure, so the page shows a price and a request for a price in the same block. We report both readings rather than the tidier one.
• AnswerThePublic, which Gemini put at a free tier with paid plans from 99 dollars a month. Wrong by a wide margin on the page we were served. answerthepublic.com/pricing redirected to answerthepublic.com/en/pricing on 22 October 2026 and publishes Starter at US 5 dollars a month billed yearly, Growth at US 24.50 a month billed yearly and Business at US 49.50 a month billed yearly, under a banner reading "SPECIAL LIMITED TIME OFFER" and the line "Our top plan? US$594." The cheapest paid plan on the page is a twentieth of the engine's figure. A limited time offer banner is a reason to re check this one yourself rather than to treat 5 dollars as permanent.
• Semrush, which Gemini said starts at 139.95 dollars a month. A near miss on a ladder that has been renamed. We fetched semrush.com/pricing on 22 October 2026 and were served semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search/, which publishes three tiers at 139, 199 and 299 dollars a month billed monthly, with annual equivalents of 117.33, 165.17 and 248.17. There is no 139.95 and no Pro or Business plan name on that page.
• Yext, which Gemini said starts around 499 dollars a year. Not verifiable. yext.com/pricing, yext.com/pricing/ and yext.com/platform/pricing all returned HTTP 404 on 22 October 2026, the first two by redirecting to yext.com/404. A 404 records what the server did on that date and is not evidence about Yext's real rate.
• Schema App, which Gemini said starts around 100 dollars a month. schemaapp.com/pricing/ returned 200 and renders 2,159 words with no plan price. The only dollar figure is an overage line, 100 dollars per 100,000 external chatbot requests beyond an included 100,000 a month, which is a different thing from a 100 dollar entry plan.
• Profound, which Gemini called enterprise pricing and gave no figure. Correct. tryprofound.com/pricing returned 200 on 22 October 2026 and renders 1,302 words with no dollar figure anywhere in them. Any specific dollar price in circulation for Profound did not come from that page.
• First Page Sage and DevCommX, both named as agencies with no figure. firstpagesage.com returned 200 and renders 766 words with no dollar amount, and the two pricing URLs we tried on that domain returned HTTP 404. We did not reach DevCommX.
• The free credibility surfaces both engines named check out as free to claim. americanstaffing.net returned 200 on 22 October 2026 and a membership page redirected to its testimonials page, so we did not read a dues figure and are not inventing one. Clutch, G2 and LinkedIn company profiles are free to claim with paid options on top.

The cheapest published path for a 12 desk agency

• Zero. Search Console verified, OAI-SearchBot allowed in robots.txt and at the CDN, Google Business Profile complete, LinkedIn company and consultant profiles filled out, Clutch and G2 profiles claimed. ChatGPT put all of this before any purchase and Gemini agreed on Clutch.
• Zero, and this is the whole game. One page per specialisation and market, in ChatGPT's own format, naming the roles you actually fill, the geography, the hiring process, the placement outcomes you can evidence and the fee model if you will state it. An answer about healthcare recruiters in Chicago is assembled from pages that say healthcare, Chicago and the job titles in text.
• Zero. Original salary benchmarks and hiring trend data from your own placements. ChatGPT asked for this by name and called it evidence rather than blogging, and it is the one asset a staffing firm has that software vendors do not.
• Zero. The monthly test ChatGPT described, 20 to 30 questions about your niche and markets on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, recording whether you are named, which competitors are, and which URLs are cited.
• 5 dollars a month billed yearly. AnswerThePublic Starter, under a limited time offer banner, for the query research half of the job.
• 31 to 41 dollars a month. BrightLocal Track for one location, 369 billed annually or 41 billed monthly, with a Local AI Visibility Tracker included. The figure ChatGPT quoted and the only subscription in its answer.
• 139 dollars a month. The cheapest published Semrush tier on the page we were served, if you want prompt and organic tracking in one suite.
• Ask. Yext, Schema App, Profound, First Page Sage and DevCommX. Five paid names with no published figure between them on the pages we read.

The two audience problem, and why it changes the measurement

Every other vertical we measured has one buyer. A staffing firm has an employer asking who can fill a cybersecurity role in Washington DC and a candidate asking whether your agency is any good to work with, and an engine will answer both from the same website. That means a prompt test with only employer questions in it measures half your exposure. The cheap fix is to split the list in two before you run it, employer questions and candidate questions, and record the named firms separately, because the pages that win the two sets are usually different pages.

It also changes which third party surface matters. ChatGPT ordered LinkedIn ahead of Clutch ahead of the American Staffing Association, and LinkedIn is where the candidate side of that answer gets assembled. None of that is software you buy.

Where AI Knows Us sits, and where a rival beats us

We sell AI visibility measurement. We do not sell recruitment marketing, job advertising, applicant tracking, candidate sourcing or employer branding, and nothing above is a pitch for any of that. What we do is ask the employer's and the candidate's questions with your agency's name absent from the question, on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, and report which firms were named and which URLs produced the answer. Our ladder, read from aiknowsus.com/llms.txt on 22 October 2026, is SEO Start at 149 dollars a month in the US and UK or 99 elsewhere, which watches 0 buyer questions on 0 engines, Growth at 299 in the US and UK or 199 elsewhere for 100 questions on all five surfaces weekly, and Scale at 599 and 399 for 300 questions. Growth is the cheapest plan of ours that reads all five surfaces, so 149 is not an AI visibility starting price.

Where a rival beats us, by name and with the figure. For a single office agency, BrightLocal is the cheaper and more appropriate first purchase and the engine that cited BrightLocal's own site was right to name it rather than us. Its one location Track plan reads 41 dollars a month billed monthly and 369 billed annually, which the page shows as 31 a month, and the Local AI Visibility Tracker sits inside that plan, which is roughly a ninth of our cheapest engine watching tier. SE Ranking beats our arithmetic for a firm with more questions to watch, publishing Core at 129 dollars a month billed monthly with 100 prompts tracked daily on seranking.com/subscription.html, read 22 October 2026, against our 299 for 100 questions watched weekly. We did not verify which engines sit behind its prompt count, so read that line yourself. Profound publishes single sign on, SAML, SOC 2 compliance and up to nine answer engines on its enterprise tier, and a word boundary search of our own pricing page, 119,203 bytes read on 22 October 2026, returns zero hits for sso, saml, soc 2, iso, dpa and white label, so an agency filling in a client's vendor security questionnaire on our behalf will be leaving those lines blank. Our pricing page also contradicts itself, rendering "Businesses covered 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 1" above "More than one business No" in all eight columns, and listing "Claude included No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes" beside an FAQ describing all five apps. Both readings render and we publish both.

What this page establishes. One question per engine on one night, one fetch per vendor URL on 22 October 2026, every figure attached to the page it was read on. The only price that binds anybody is the one in a written quote.

What staffing and recruiting firms ask about being named by AI

Do we need to buy anything

Not to start. Three of the four steps in the searching engine's plan are free, and its closing line was to buy tracking software only once you have a baseline. The 20 to 30 question monthly test it described costs nothing but an hour.

What page wins a niche recruitment query

One that names the specialisation and the market in the heading and then proves it. Roles actually filled, time to fill, geography, the hiring process, placement outcomes you can evidence and the fee model if you will publish it. The engine wrote its own example of the title, Cybersecurity Recruitment in Washington DC, which is a useful template.

Does Clutch or G2 matter for a staffing firm

Both engines named Clutch independently, which makes it the one third party listing with agreement behind it, and the basic profile is free to claim. ChatGPT ranked LinkedIn ahead of it and the American Staffing Association behind it.

Why do the two engines disagree on prices so badly

Sourcing. The answer that quoted BrightLocal correctly had read brightlocal.com twice. The answer that priced four vendors had cited two agency blogs and had not opened any of the four. An AnswerThePublic plan at 99 dollars a month against a page publishing 5, 24.50 and 49.50 is the clearest example of what that costs you.

Should we measure employer and candidate questions separately

Yes, and no vendor in either answer mentioned it. The same site answers both audiences, the pages that win each are usually different, and a prompt list made only of employer questions reports half your exposure as all of it.