AI Search in the Gulf: Two in Three Sources Come From Companies Selling in the Category

We asked Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews 10 real B2B buying questions about the UAE and Saudi Arabia, from "What is the best PR agency in Dubai for tech companies?" to "Best HR software for companies in the UAE", and classified every source behind the 20 answers.

Full disclosure: Jamco PR is a PR agency, and one of the questions is about PR agencies. We counted our own site as a company selling in its category, the same as every other agency.

Key findings

• About two in three sources (44 of 65, ~68%) behind AI answers to Gulf "best X" buying questions were published by a company that sells in that same category.
• Google's AI Overview named CyberQuell as a top cybersecurity pick in the UAE; its main source was CyberQuell's own "Top 10 Cyber Security Service Companies in UAE for 2026".
• All three sources Perplexity used for "best HR software in the UAE" were HR software vendors' own lists.
• Gulf answers rest on very few sources: about three per Perplexity answer, and just one for UAE cybersecurity and Saudi CRM.
• Independent Gulf publications barely appeared, and no Arabic-language sources appeared at all.

Who wrote the sources, by tool

Examples

• Cybersecurity, UAE (Google): the top pick's main source was the pick's own top-10 list; the other source was another security firm.
• HR software, UAE (Google): 4 of 8 sources were HR software vendors' own pages, and the answer named those vendors.
• "Which PR agency in Saudi Arabia guarantees media coverage?" (Google): all 5 sources were Saudi PR agencies' own service pages. Perplexity's answer opened by warning that guarantees of earned coverage are a red flag.
• "Is Tabby a good payment option for businesses in the UAE?" (Google): a Reddit thread, a comparison site, the App Store and Tabby's own pages.

What it means for companies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

When buyers in the Gulf ask AI tools to recommend a vendor, the answer often comes from a competitor's content. Because Gulf answers rest on so few sources, a single well-structured page can shape the whole answer, which cuts both ways: companies that publish honest comparison pages and get onto independent lists get named, and companies that don't are described by their competitors.

Independent coverage in regional and international business media is still rare in these answers, which makes it a differentiator for companies that have it.

Method and limits

10 questions (4 PR, plus payments, cybersecurity, IT services, CRM, HR software and one name check), asked in English on October 30, 2026 from a signed-in browser in Jordan. Perplexity sources from its Links tab; Google sources from the AI Overview's full source panel. ChatGPT and Gemini were not included in this round because they no longer show full source URLs.

Each source was classified by hand as published by a company selling in the same category or as independent (publications, directories, review sites, forums, video). Borderline cases were counted as independent, so the true share may be higher. This is a small sample (20 answers, about 90 sources) from one day and one location; treat percentages as approximate.