Tulsa – – October 14, 2026 -- Eighty of 100 U.S. small businesses landed in the lowest "Ghosted" tier of a new AI-visibility benchmark, averaging 50.9 out of 100, according to Modern Asset Lab, which today launched its Match ProtocolTM framework for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Benchmark ran up to 32 blind buyer conversations per business
The Match ProtocolTM Benchmark tested 100 businesses across 10 industries and 11 metro areas in the South, West and Midwest. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini answered an average of 27.8 buyer conversations per business, without the business being named in the questions. Industries covered HVAC, plumbing, roofing, dental, med spa, personal injury/family law, auto repair, independent restaurants, CPA/accounting and landscaping.
The company cautions that at n=100, results are directional rather than nationally representative.
AI never recommended 36 businesses and never named 31
Of the 100 businesses, 62 were recommended three times or fewer across their conversations. Only 8 were recommended in more than half of them. Tier results were 80 Ghosted, 13 Friend Zone, 5 First Date and 2 Going Steady; none reached "The One" (90–100).
Businesses score 88 on trust but 18 on recommendation
The stage scores show where visibility breaks down. Businesses averaged 80 of 100 on the Found stage and 88 on Trusted, yet only 18 on Recommended. In other words, AI engines can read these businesses and consider them credible, but rarely send buyers to them.
No industry escaped. Among industries with enough samples to quote, plumbing averaged highest at 56.6, followed by HVAC at 54.9. Dental practices scored under 60 in 10 of 11 cases, auto repair in 9 of 10 and roofing in 9 of 11.
Five-layer framework targets the recommendation gap
Match ProtocolTM comprises five layers: Machine-Readable Architecture, Algorithmic Alignment, Targeted Extraction, Citation & Corroboration and Human Handoff. Modern Asset Lab says it optimizes a business as an entity, using structured data, extractable answers, third-party corroboration and a conversion path. Traditional SEO, by contrast, optimizes pages for keyword rankings and backlinks.
The Match Protocol ScoreTM applies the same method to any business. It weights five stages (Found, Matched, Recommended, Trusted and Chosen) into a 0–100 score. Recommended carries the most weight, so a business that AI never recommends cannot leave the Ghosted tier (0–59). The other tiers are Friend Zone (60–69), First Date (70–79), Going Steady (80–89) and The One (90–100).
Founder Clint Rogers, who is also CEO of Techstars-backed Creativo AI, developed the framework with Creativo AI as its proving ground. "Most businesses have never been introduced," Rogers said of the findings. Business owners can obtain a free score from the company.