ChatGPT says check a tradesperson's insurance 404 times, never where

Short answer: ask ChatGPT for a plumber, an electrician, a locksmith or a heating engineer, and more often than not it will tell you to check that they are insured. It does so in 404 of 712 answers, across 89 cities in eight countries. But it is almost always a formula, "licensed and insured", with no register to check it in and no certificate to ask for: 0 times in 404. Gemini says it less often, 246 times, and more usefully: 47 times about a named business, 62 times with an official body or the certificate to ask for. Perplexity, which searches the web, 20 times in 312.

A quote lands in your inbox. At the bottom, a line most customers skip: the insurer, the policy number, the date. In France, that line is the law. The certificate of ten-year liability insurance, the décennale, must be attached to quotes and invoices, and a builder who has not taken it out risks six months in prison and a 75,000 euro fine (Service Public Entreprendre, page F2034, checked on 10 April 2026). Gemini tells French customers to ask for that certificate in 28 of 104 answers and names the décennale in 44. ChatGPT, in the same 104 answers, says civil liability 26 times, the décennale once, and never asks for a document.

ChatGPT says insured. Gemini says show me the certificate.

What was measured

Eight Waseit studies asked two buyer questions - the best providers of a trade in a city, then the most recommended ones and why - in 89 cities: 13 each in France (30 July 2026), the United Kingdom (31 July), Brazil (6 August) and the United States (13 September), then 11 in Canada, 10 in Australia, 6 in New Zealand and 10 in Singapore (16 October), each time in the local language. As yesterday, we kept the four trades that enter the home: electrical, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, locksmiths. That gives 712 answers from ChatGPT (gpt-4o-mini) and 712 from Gemini, through their programming interfaces, without web search, plus 312 from Perplexity, which searches the web, in France, the UK and Brazil. We pulled every sentence about the tradesperson's insurance - insured, bonded, liability insurance, assurance, décennale, RC pro, segurado - then swept again with a wider net (insurance on its own, assuré, seguro) and read 739 answers one by one. 69 were set aside: French locksmiths "approved by insurers", the customer's own home policy, "seguro" meaning safe in Portuguese, "quality assurance". Each remaining answer was classed: does it credit a named business with being insured, or give general advice? Which insurance does it name? Does it say where to check, through an official body, or what to ask for, a certificate?

Which assistant says insured, and which says where to check?

For ChatGPT, it is a formula. "Licensed and insured", or "licensing and insurance", appears in 267 of its 404 answers, almost always in the checklist that closes the answer: ensure the plumber is licensed and insured. In 313 answers it names no particular insurance; in 90 it says liability insurance. It never names a body where a licence or a policy can be checked, never asks for a certificate, never says the insurance is required. It credits a named business with being insured 6 times. In Singapore, 2 of its 42 mentions add "in Texas", the slip we measured in Woodlands, Singapore, answered for Texas. For Gemini, it is a document. It names the insurance: the décennale 44 times, liability 44, a bond 41, workers' compensation 16. It names an official body 23 times: California's contractors board, Washington's Department of Labor and Industries, Ontario's Electrical Safety Authority, Queensland's building commission, New Zealand's electrical workers register. It asks for the certificate 41 times. In France it writes "obligatoire", compulsory, 17 times, always about the décennale. It credits a named business 47 times, often a locksmith: "DBS-checked and fully insured" in Britain, "fully bonded, licensed and insured" in the United States. Perplexity reports what a directory shows. 9 of its 12 British mentions repeat the "verified insurance" badge of one directory, next to a named electrician. The country matters more than the engine. In the United States, ChatGPT mentions insurance in 92 answers of 104, in Brazil in 3; Gemini, 59 and 0. In France, Gemini talks about the décennale and ChatGPT about civil liability, and only Gemini says the word compulsory.

What it means if you are the business

If you work in people's homes, the assistants are already telling your customers to check your insurance, in more than half of ChatGPT's answers. They are not telling them how. So write it where a customer, or an engine that reads your site, can find it: which insurance you carry, with whom, until when. In France, the décennale certificate already has to go with your quotes and invoices; the same line on your website costs nothing. In Britain, say whether you hold public liability cover and whether you are on the Gas Safe register; in North America, give your licence number and the board that issued it, because that is the page Gemini sends people to. These are reasonable steps, not levers with a known effect: we have not measured whether a visible policy makes a business named more often. And when a customer asks ChatGPT for an electrician in your town, is it your name that comes with the word insured, or a competitor's? The audit shows you, question by question.

And your business, what do the assistants say?

The free Waseit audit asks ChatGPT and Gemini the questions your customers type, in their language and for your city. In about 60 seconds you get a score out of 100, the competitors named instead of you, the questions where you do not appear, the tone of the sentences that mention you and, when Gemini searched Google, the pages it actually read. It is free, with no account and no card; an email address only unlocks competitor names and the action plan. It is a dated snapshot, not a ranking: answers change from one day to the next, and we promise no position.

What this does not prove

• These are the models' answers through their programming interfaces, with no user location; ChatGPT and Gemini answered without web search, Perplexity searched and was asked in three countries only.
• Each question was asked once, between 30 July and 16 October 2026; ChatGPT here is gpt-4o-mini, not necessarily the model in the app, and the models may have changed since.
• We did not check whether the named businesses are insured, nor whether the bodies Gemini names are the right ones for each trade. We measure what the assistants say, not whether it is true.
• The law was checked for France only, on page F2034 of Service Public Entreprendre, read on 31 October 2026; we did not open the insurance code itself. In Britain, only employers' liability insurance is compulsory, and only once you employ someone (GOV.UK). The other countries were not checked.
• The count rests on a word list, read sentence by sentence. The first pass missed 88 answers that the wider net caught, mostly ChatGPT's "check licensing, insurance and reviews" and its French "assure-toi que" sentences; they are in the figures above. "Licensed" on its own was not counted.