Swiss AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 edition: two new industries, six assistants, 35 in 1,000 firms recommended

The October 2026 edition of the Swiss AI Recommendation Index (Schweizer KI-Empfehlungsindex, published in German) measures six industries in three regions with six AI assistants: ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, AI Overviews and Perplexity. Of 24,904 measured Swiss firms, 863 are recommended at least once in their industry and region, 35 in 1,000.

Key takeaways

The finding: 35 in 1,000 firms are recommended

Of 24,904 measured Swiss firms, 863 are recommended by at least one of the six AI assistants in their industry and region, 35 in 1,000. In every measured industry, 90 to 98 in 100 firms appear in no ranking. The firms measured are those in the commercial register of each region; the rankings pool up to three monthly collections.

Industry and region	measured	recommended	without a recommendation, in 100
Fiduciary services, Zurich	3,116	202	94
Fiduciary services, Zug	1,303	119	91
IT service providers, Switzerland	17,719	335	98
Real estate, Zurich	1,325	56	96
Real estate, Zug	441	30	93
Web agencies, Zurich	738	29	96
Staffing firms, Zurich	897	66	93
Insurance brokers, Zurich	314	31	90
Total	24,904	863	97

Source: Swiss AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 edition, Carigiet GEO, index.carigiet.com.

The recommendations go to a few names. What that means for a firm that is mentioned but not recommended is set out in AI mentions or recommends your company.

What is new in the October 2026 edition

Since this edition, Gemini is measured in every ranking, through its web interface and weighted by its reach from the IGEM-Digimonitor 2026. The index now measures six AI assistants.

Staffing firms (permanent placement, temporary staffing) and insurance brokers (commercial insurance, occupational pensions) have been added as industries for Zurich, after a passed test run. Fiduciary firms are now also measured on VAT returns, IT service providers on cloud and migration.

The question catalogue is at version 1.9 with 408 buyer questions, 24 per ranking. Collection ran from 28 to 30 September 2026, with 3,472 counted answers.

What changed in the methodology

• Own sources do not count. Answers that cite the index or carigiet.com as a source no longer count, neither in the numerator nor in the denominator.
• A group is one firm. Head office, branches and the companies of one group count as one firm.
• Similar names are confirmed. Since this edition, similar-sounding names are a suggestion we confirm one by one. 45 firm profiles from the August and September editions were removed as a result.
• Succession questions rewritten. 19 of the 24 questions on succession planning asked for «advisers» instead of fiduciaries and were replaced. These rankings are only partly comparable with August and September.
• Split-half check weighted. The check now computes each half the way the ranking is computed, weighted by reach.

Corrections in this edition: 1. The full change log and the methodology are in the index (in German).

Next edition

The next edition appears in early November 2026. How the index is built and what it measures is summarised on the page Swiss AI Recommendation Index. Whether your own company is recommended is shown by the firm search in the index; an analysis of your website comes with the free AI visibility analysis.