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RESEARCH REPORTApril 2026

Florida Eye Doctor AI Visibility Study

What happens when patients ask AI to find an eye doctor in Florida? We ran 627 queries to find out.

Last updated: April 2026

627

AI Queries Tested

10

Florida Metro Areas

5

AI Platforms Analyzed

0

Practices on All 5

Study scope

627

AI queries tested

Across 5 eye care specialties: ophthalmologist, optometrist, eye doctor, LASIK surgeon, pediatric eye doctor

10

Florida metro areas

Miami, Orlando, Naples, Tampa, Jacksonville, St. Pete, Tallahassee, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Sarasota

5

AI platforms tested

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude

5

Specialties tested

Ophthalmologist, optometrist, eye doctor, LASIK surgeon, pediatric eye doctor

Key findings

Executive summary from the full report. No email required.

  • AI barely answers eye care questions. Only 69.7% of queries returned specific local eye care practice names. That is the lowest response rate of any vertical we have studied, well below dental (86%) and home services.
  • 97.8% of practices appeared on just one platform. Of the 1,587 practices recommended, nearly all showed up on a single AI tool. This is the worst fragmentation of any industry we have studied.
  • Zero eye care practices made all five platforms. Not one. Dental had 1. Home services had 23. Eye care has none. Each AI platform sees entirely different practices.
  • Google AI is essentially blind to eye care. Google AI Overviews triggered on only 4% of eye care queries vs. 45% for dental and 59% for home services. Google is nearly invisible for this vertical.
  • ChatGPT and Gemini agree on nothing. The two largest AI platforms had 0% agreement on eye care recommendations. They recommend completely different practices for the same queries.
  • Franchises are invisible in AI results. LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, VisionWorks, and My EyeLab hold just 1.3% of AI recommendations. Independent practices own 98.7%.
  • Miami leads. Sarasota trails. AI response rates range from 82.7% in Miami to 61.7% in Sarasota, a 21-point gap. Larger metros with more digital presence generate higher AI visibility.
  • Healthgrades and Zocdoc dominate citations. These two platforms account for 59% of all source citations when AI recommends eye care practices. Your profile on these directories matters more than your website.

Platform comparison

How often each AI platform named specific local dental practices (A-response rate).

Claude100%

150/150 queries returned local practice names

Gemini100%

150/150 queries returned local practice names

ChatGPT98%

147/150 queries returned local practice names

Perplexity71%

107/150 queries returned local practice names

Google AI Overview4%

6/150 queries returned local practice names

The bottom line

If your eye care practice only shows up on one AI platform, you are invisible on the other four where patients are already searching. And with 0% agreement between the two largest platforms, optimizing for just ChatGPT or Gemini means the other one will never find you.

Cite this research

Valero, A. (April 2026). Florida Eye Doctor AI Visibility Study. Local Vitals. getlocalvitals.com/research/florida-eye-doctor-ai-visibility

This research is published under CC BY-NC 4.0. You may cite and reference this data with attribution.

Get the full report

The complete study with city-by-city breakdowns, specialty analysis, platform deep dives, DSO vs. independent data, and the full cross-platform fragmentation analysis.

Free. Just takes an email.

About this study

627 queries were run across ChatGPT (GPT-4o with search), Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude during March-April 2026. Queries covered 10 Florida metro areas and 5 eye care specialties. Every response was coded by type (local practice named, general advice, franchise only, platform referral, or not triggered). No sponsored placements or paid tools were used. Full methodology is included in the report.

Questions about the data or methodology: hello@getlocalvitals.com

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