In Montreal, AI says check who is bilingual. It names two

Short answer: in Montreal, the AI knows the language matters, and leaves the checking to the customer. Asked in English for the best lawyers, plumbers, dentists or driving schools in Montreal, Gemini raised the question of language in 16 of its 32 answers, and in 12 of them it told the reader to check it themselves: "it is vital to ask if their service team is fully bilingual", "check their Google reviews". Of the 64 answers from ChatGPT and Gemini, two say which business serves in both languages. Across six countries and 4,519 answers, an engine gave a named business its language 14 times, and 11 of those were driving schools.

It knows Montreal is bilingual. It does not say who is.

What was measured

Six studies asked in English: the United States (collected September 13, 2026), the United Kingdom (July 31) and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore (October 16). The same buyer questions ("What are the best plumbers in Montreal?") were put to ChatGPT (gpt-4o-mini) and Gemini through their APIs, without web search and without any location; the British study also asked Perplexity. None of the questions mentions language. We removed the cities that the engines answered for another place of the same name (Victoria, Hamilton, Newcastle, Woodlands), which leaves 4,519 answers about 58 cities. In each answer we looked for a language spoken: "bilingual", "multilingual", "French-speaking", "lessons in English and Spanish", "languages spoken". The detector was first tested on phrases it must catch and on phrases it must leave alone, such as "a French bakery", "Spanish tapas" or "Korean BBQ". It found 43 answers, and we read all 43. Eleven are about something else: the languages of the job seekers a staffing agency places, a "multi-lingual campaigns" service, a keyword for a CV. The other 32 speak of the language a business serves its customers in, and we sorted them by hand: either the answer gives one named business its language, or it speaks of the city or of the whole list at once. We saw the same gap on October 8 with lawyers: AI says lawyers offer free consultations. It never says which.

Montreal: twelve times "check", two names

Montreal is the only city where language comes up often: 21 of its 64 answers mention it, against 22 of the 4,455 answers about the 57 other cities. Gemini does most of it. In 16 of its 32 Montreal answers it raises the language a business serves in, and in 12 it hands the check back to the customer: "ensure the broker is fully bilingual", "Verify that the instructor you are assigned is fluent in your preferred language", "check their website to ensure the staff is comfortable in your language of choice". Three of those send the customer to the business's Google reviews or its website. Two other answers settle a whole list in one sentence: "All these salons are bilingual." Only two answers single out a business: a driving school in a ChatGPT list ("They offer classes in both English and French") and a dental clinic in a Gemini list ("bilingual service"). ChatGPT mentions a language in 3 of its 32 Montreal answers, and two of those are about job seekers. Outside Montreal, an engine gave a named business its language 12 times, 10 of them driving schools: "They offer lessons in English and Spanish" in New York, "They offer lessons in both English and Mandarin" in Jurong East. In Singapore, which has four official languages, that happened once in 608 answers.

What it means if you are the business

If you serve customers in two languages, in Montreal or anywhere else, the answer rarely says so, and when it raises the question it tells the customer where to check: your Google reviews, your website. Make that check easy to pass. Write the languages you serve in on your own pages, in plain text, next to your services and your contact details ("Service in English and French"), and in your Google Business Profile. The sentences that did come back about a named business are short and plain: "They offer lessons in English and Spanish." That is the kind of sentence to have on your site. Then ask the engines the question your customers ask, in both languages, and see who comes back. Nothing here guarantees being named.

What this does not prove

• These are the models' answers through their APIs, without web search and without the user's location, to questions asked in English. A question asked in French, or from a phone in Montreal, may be answered differently.
• We did not check whether the businesses called bilingual are, nor whether the others are not.
• Our detector catches the usual phrasings; a language mentioned in other words is missed. The sort between a named business and the city as a whole was done by hand, by one reader.
• Montreal is one city: 64 answers, one pass per question, collected on October 16, 2026.
• Nothing here shows that writing your languages on your site changes the answer.