Curious Mind Labs

Report 01, as of 9 September 2026

The UAE AI Visibility Index.

Six industries, 3 cities, 18 markets. We ask Google AI Mode who to hire in each one and publish what it said, on the day it said it.

Published by Curious Mind Labs FZCO, as of 9 September 2026. AED 4,000 a month, 3-month minimum as it takes time to show results, named by AI in 90 days or every dirham back.

The finding, in three sentences

As of 9 September 2026 all 18 markets have a published snapshot, captured in Google AI Mode from fresh logged-out sessions.

Across the published markets the answer named 86 businesses in total, 4.8 on average per market, and 84 different businesses hold at least one named slot.

In 15 markets one business already appears in over half the questions we have run there, and in 3 markets no single business is ahead yet.

The run so far

What we have asked and screened.

Every figure here is computed from our own data file at build time. Markets we have not screened yet are listed as not published.

18

Markets in the study

6 industries x 3 cities

18

Snapshots published

Captured in Google AI Mode

86

Businesses named

4.8 on average per answer

90

Questions run

Out of a library of 180

Source: Curious Mind Labs screening, Google AI Mode, as of 9 September 2026.

The market table

All 18 markets, published or not.

One row per industry and city. The date is the day we captured the answer, the count is how many businesses it named, and the last column says whether one business is pulling ahead. Every row links to that market's page.

This table is wider than a phone screen. Swipe it sideways to read the rest of the columns.

Businesses named by Google AI Mode in each UAE market, with the date of each screen, as of 9 September 2026
IndustryCityScreened onBusinesses namedQuestions runAnswerWebsites screened
Business setup consultantsDubai9 September 202645still open17 screened, 2 with no schema, 13 with no Arabic
Business setup consultantsAbu Dhabi9 September 202655one business ahead11 screened, 3 with no schema, 11 with no Arabic
Business setup consultantsSharjah9 September 202635still open16 screened, 2 with no schema, 9 with no Arabic
Dental clinicsDubai8 September 202665one business ahead17 screened, 3 with no schema, 11 with no Arabic
Dental clinicsAbu Dhabi8 September 202645one business ahead13 screened, 1 with no schema, 7 with no Arabic
Dental clinicsSharjah9 September 202655one business ahead18 screened, 2 with no schema, 13 with no Arabic
Real estate brokeragesDubai9 September 202655one business ahead13 screened, 2 with no schema, 9 with no Arabic
Real estate brokeragesAbu Dhabi9 September 202655one business ahead9 screened, 4 with no schema, 6 with no Arabic
Real estate brokeragesSharjah9 September 202655one business ahead19 screened, 7 with no schema, 11 with no Arabic
Aesthetic clinicsDubai9 September 202655one business ahead16 screened, 3 with no schema, 12 with no Arabic
Aesthetic clinicsAbu Dhabi9 September 202655one business ahead12 screened, 5 with no schema, 7 with no Arabic
Aesthetic clinicsSharjah9 September 202655one business ahead14 screened, 1 with no schema, 3 with no Arabic
Interior design and fit-out companiesDubai9 September 202645still open15 screened, 3 with no schema, 13 with no Arabic
Interior design and fit-out companiesAbu Dhabi9 September 202655one business ahead13 screened, 4 with no schema, 12 with no Arabic
Interior design and fit-out companiesSharjah9 September 202655one business ahead11 screened, 2 with no schema, 8 with no Arabic
Hair transplant clinicsDubai9 September 202655one business ahead9 screened, 2 with no schema, 5 with no Arabic
Hair transplant clinicsAbu Dhabi9 September 202665one business ahead10 screened, 2 with no schema, 5 with no Arabic
Hair transplant clinicsSharjah9 September 202645one business ahead8 screened, 1 with no schema, 5 with no Arabic

Source: Curious Mind Labs screening and Google AI Modeanswers, as of 9 September 2026. Being named is not a quality judgement and answers change. Each market page carries the full snapshot for that market, including the businesses named and the 10 questions we ask there.

The websites behind the names

What a machine sees when it reads these sites.

Four checks a machine can run without an opinion, each one out of the same 241 sites we have screened, so the rows compare.

How to fix the first one is written out in the guides. None of it needs an agency.

20%

No structured data on the homepage

No LocalBusiness, Service or FAQ markup at all. The site tells a person what the business does and tells a machine nothing, so an answer engine has to guess the name, the services and the emirate out of prose.

Source: Curious Mind Labs screening, 49 of 241 sites, as of 9 September 2026

66%

No Arabic version of the site

English only, in a country where Google has answered in Arabic since October 2025. Every Arabic question in that market is answered from somebody else's pages.

Source: Curious Mind Labs screening, 160 of 241 sites, as of 9 September 2026

5%

No mobile viewport tag

The page carries no instruction on how to render on a phone. It is the cheapest signal of an unmaintained site, and most people reading the answer are on one.

Source: Curious Mind Labs screening, 11 of 241 sites, as of 9 September 2026

9%

Copyright year of 2023 or older

The footer says the site has not been touched in years. It is not a ranking factor on its own, it is a symptom: the pages, the prices and the service list behind it are usually as old.

Source: Curious Mind Labs screening, 21 of 241 sites, as of 9 September 2026

Method

How to check our work.

The markets
Six industries chosen for the UAE, each in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, which gives 18 markets. The list is fixed, so a market that looks bad for us stays in the table.
The questions
Ten buyer questions per market, written in the words people actually type, with the city named. That is a library of 60 questions. The money question is asked first in every market, then up to four more, and the rest are run as the screening continues. So far 90 questions have been run.
The answers
Asked in Google AI Mode, in English, from a fresh logged-out session, on the date shown against each market. We record the businesses named exactly as the answer gave them, with the rating and review count it showed. We measure Google AI Mode first because 95.8% of UAE searches happen on Google (Statcounter, August 2026), and Google's AI Mode has been available in over 200 countries and territories, and in Arabic, since October 2025 (Google, October 2025).
The website screen
For each named business we open the website and record four mechanical facts: whether the homepage carries any structured data, whether it declares a mobile viewport, the most recent year in the footer, and whether an Arabic version exists. A market only gets a findings section once we have screened at least 3 of its sites.

Citation

Use any figure on this page. We ask for one thing: name Curious Mind Labs as the source and link to this page, so a reader can see the date and the method.

Sources for the numbers on this page

Limits

What this does not say.

We would rather publish the limits than be quoted as saying something we did not measure.

  1. 01This is a snapshot, not a ranking. Every row records what one answer said on one day, in one language, from one logged-out session.
  2. 02Answers change. Ask the same question next week and the names may differ. That is a property of generated answers, not an error in the data, and it is why we date every screen.
  3. 03Inclusion is not a quality judgement. Being named says nothing about whether a business is good, safe or right for you, and being absent says nothing bad about anyone.
  4. 04The website checks are mechanical and shallow. They say what a machine can read in seconds, not whether a site is well built or a business is well run.
  5. 05We sell a service in these markets, which is a real interest to declare. It is also why the method is published in full, so you can run any row yourself and disagree with us.

Questions

What people ask about this data.

Where does this data come from?
From our own screening. We ask ten fixed buyer questions per market in Google AI Mode, from a fresh logged-out session, and record the businesses named with the date. Then we open the websites of those businesses and record four mechanical checks. Nothing is bought, licensed or estimated.
Why are some markets empty?
None are empty at the moment. As of 9 September 2026 all 18 markets have a published snapshot, captured in Google AI Mode from fresh logged-out sessions. When we add a market or re-run one, it sits in the table with the date of its latest screen, and a market we have not captured yet is shown as not published rather than guessed at.
Is a business named in the answer better than one that is not?
No, and we do not say that anywhere. The lists are a dated snapshot of what one AI answer said on one day. They are not rankings, not endorsements, and not a judgement about anyone's work. Businesses appear and disappear from these answers for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of their service.
Can I cite these numbers?
Yes, free of charge. Name Curious Mind Labs as the source and link to the report page so your reader can see the date and the method. If you want the market table as a file, email us and we will send it.
How often is this updated?
Every figure is computed from the data file when the site is built, so a report updates the moment the data does. We re-run screened markets as we go, and every answer carries the date it was captured.

See what AI says about your market.

We run 10 real buyer questions for your service and your city through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode and send you the dated screenshots: who is named today, and whether the answer is still open. No call required.

All research reportsThe questions we askWhat the free check includes