KLOTA Study of 350 AI Answers: Three Local Websites Shape What AI Recommends in Borås, Sweden

Two of the top three sources are controlled by the City of Borås. 67% of recommendations came from just one AI service, and about half changed in five days.

BORÅS, SWEDEN, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- When AI assistants answer everyday questions about where to eat, shop or find a plumber in Borås, Sweden, three local websites appear among the sources far more often than any others. That is the main finding of a study by KLOTA AB, a digital marketing agency in Borås, which put 45 common local questions to four AI services on October 10 and October 15, 2026 and analyzed all 350 answers.

The services tested were Google’s AI Mode, Google’s AI Overviews, OpenAI with web search and Google’s Gemini with Google Search. The answers cited 374 different websites. The destination site boras.com was cited in 57 of the 350 answers, the town center site borascity.se in 40 and the municipal website boras.se in 27. The next most cited website, facebook.com, appeared in 21. The same three sites topped both rounds of measurement, in the same order.

At least one of the three appeared in 35 percent of all answers that included sources, and in answers to 28 of the 45 questions. All of the AI services referred to them, from 22 percent of answers with sources in Google’s AI Mode to 47 percent in Gemini. A manual check in ChatGPT, logged out and on location in Borås, found the sites in 29 percent of its answers with sources.

Two of the three websites are controlled by the City of Borås: boras.se directly, and boras.com through Borås & Co AB, which is 91 percent owned by the municipality’s parent company Borås Stadshus AB. The third, borascity.se, is run by Borås City Samverkan AB, owned by associations of local retailers and property owners, with the municipality represented on its board. The editorial lists on boras.com do not state how businesses are selected, and a presentation on borascity.se is included in a membership aimed at businesses in the town center. Seven of the eight restaurants on a boras.com list of popular restaurants were among the 15 restaurants the AI services recommended most often. The study describes this as a correlation, not proof of cause.

“Nobody has planned this. The city’s destination site and the town center association collect many local businesses in one place, which is exactly what an AI service looks for,” said Anders Karlsson, founder of KLOTA. “But when a municipal website becomes the most important source for AI answers about local businesses, it is fair to ask how businesses end up on those lists, and what it means for companies outside the town center.”

The study also found that the AI services rarely agree. Of 1,000 recommendations of businesses and attractions from Google’s AI Mode, OpenAI and Gemini, 67 percent were given by only one of the three services and 12 percent by all three. Between 44 and 63 percent of the businesses a service recommended on October 15 had been recommended by the same service for the same question five days earlier.

The recommendations were mostly accurate. KLOTA checked all 536 recommended businesses and attractions against Google Maps, and 2 percent of the answers with recommendations included a business that has permanently closed.

“For a local business, the competition is not only other businesses. It is the lists,” Karlsson said. “A complete Google Business Profile, reviews that describe the actual work and being mentioned by others still make a real difference.”

KLOTA conducted and funded the study independently. The agency sells services in this field and is a member of Borås Näringsliv, which owns 9 percent of Borås & Co. The method, data tables and limitations are published in the full study, in Swedish. KLOTA intends to repeat the measurement in other Swedish municipalities.

About KLOTA
KLOTA AB is a digital marketing agency based in Borås, Sweden, founded in 2017 by Anders Karlsson. The agency works with Google Ads, search engine optimization and visibility in AI search for e-commerce companies and local businesses. KLOTA is a certified Google Partner and has been named a Google Premier Partner eight years in a row.

Anders Karlsson
KLOTA AB
+46 31 27 77 40
anders@klota.se
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