We Asked AI for a Locksmith. Then We Checked Companies House.

Last Updated on September 28, 2026

We asked two AI engines for a trustworthy locksmith in 12 UK cities, then did what almost no customer does. We looked every name up on Companies House.

A locked-out customer does not have time to research. More of them now type one line into a chatbot and ring the first name that comes back.

So we did the same. On 26 September 2026 we asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini one question, “Recommend a trustworthy locksmith in [city]”, in 12 UK cities. We logged every business named. Then we checked each one against Companies House and the firm’s own website.

The finding, in five lines

1. The 24 answers contained 70 mentions, covering 54 different locksmiths.
2. The two engines agreed on 15 of the 54. The other 39 were named by one engine only.
3. 23 (43%) matched an active company registered in or near the city. 16 (30%) had no match on the register at all. 12 (22%) were ambiguous.
4. Three businesses matched only a dissolved company, in Sheffield, Cardiff and Southampton. In Cardiff, both engines named it. A fourth has an active proposal to strike off.
5. 57 of the 59 star ratings shown came from a map widget, not a register. The 32 rated mentions of businesses we could not match to an active local company had a median rating of 5.0. The median for those we could match was 4.9.

01 / The engines rarely agreed

ChatGPT named 43 different locksmiths and Gemini named 26. Only 15 appeared in both.

The engines also gave very different amounts. ChatGPT gave between two and six names in most cities, but only one in Leicester. Gemini, on its free default model (shown as Flash-Lite), gave a single business in four of the 12 cities: Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester.

One name is not a shortlist. For a customer locked out at 11pm, whichever name comes first is effectively the recommendation. The first business named in 12 of the 24 answers matched an active local company. The first business named in the other 12 did not.

02 / Half the names do not check out on the register

We searched Companies House for every business, using the name exactly as the engine wrote it plus one variant with the generic words removed.

The 23 in the finding are the 22 Active plus the one with a strike-off proposal.

“Ambiguous” means the register holds a same-name company, but it is registered somewhere else or there are two plausible candidates. For example, the only company called ARC LOCKSMITHS LTD is registered in Stevenage, while the ARC Locksmiths that ChatGPT named for Manchester has a Burnage address on its own site.

A “No match” is not proof that anything is wrong. Sole traders do not have to register with Companies House. But neither engine ever said that a name was unregistered, or that the customer should check.

03 / The ratings come from the map, not the register

Both engines now show businesses on a map or place card with a star rating. Of the 59 ratings shown, 57 came from those widgets. The other two were numbers the engine quoted in its text.

The ratings barely vary. The median was 5.0 and the lowest was 4.3. The 32 rated mentions of businesses we could not match to an active local company had a median of 5.0, slightly higher than the 4.9 median for those we could match. On this evidence, a high star rating tells a customer nothing about whether the business behind it is registered.

Worked examples

Every example below was logged in this run. None of them is a verdict on the quality of the firm’s work.

• Dissolved: City Locksmiths Cardiff. ChatGPT’s first pick in Cardiff (“4.9/5 from 145 reviews, 24/7”), and also named by Gemini. Companies House lists CITY LOCKSMITHS CARDIFF LTD (08287863) as dissolved on 2 July 2024. A separate company, City Locksmiths Gwent Limited, is active at the same registered postcode. The firm’s own website prints no company number.
• Dissolved: KeyWise 24hr Locksmiths, Southampton. ChatGPT’s first pick (“5.0/5 from 310 reviews”). The only KEYWISE LTD registered in the Southampton area (08664047, SO45) was dissolved on 23 September 2014. ChatGPT said the firm’s own site claims it has operated independently since 2013. We found no company number on that site, so the firm may now trade as a sole trader.
• Dissolved: Universal Locksmiths, Sheffield. Gemini said it had operated “since 1993” (5.0 on its place card). UNIVERSAL LOCKSMITHS LIMITED (04739708) was dissolved on 15 April 2014. Its registered postcode, S11 8QF, is the same as the address on the firm’s own website.
• Strike-off: Key Trouble, Manchester. ChatGPT described it as “long-standing” with “high ratings”. KEY TROUBLE LTD (11704166) is registered in Hale and shows an active proposal to strike off. Its own site advertises car keys.
• Renamed: Southern Stronghold t/a D.H Jones Master Locksmiths, Coventry. ChatGPT’s first pick, citing Yell. The old D.H. Jones domain no longer resolves, and southern-stronghold.co.uk redirects to a Croma Locksmiths page. That page says the business was acquired by Croma in 2022. The engine recommended it under a name that page describes as a former one.
• No match: J.F. Locksmiths Birmingham. Both engines’ first pick in Birmingham, with a Which? Trusted Traders listing. There is no company of that name on the register, and the firm’s site shows no “Ltd”. That is legitimate for a sole trader, but neither engine said so.
• Different name: DGM Locksmiths, Birmingham. No match under that name. The firm’s own site prints company number 14714963, which belongs to DGM GENERAL GROUP LTD. That company’s registered business activity is “other food services”.
• Wrong claim: Morgans Locksmiths, Leicester. Gemini called it “fully licensed”. Locksmithing is not a licensed trade in the UK, a point ChatGPT itself made in Birmingham and Bristol, citing a Yell page that carries the Master Locksmiths Association’s note.
• Old source: Haines Security Brighton. ChatGPT said the MLA “also lists Haines Security Ltd at this address”. The link it gave was the MLA’s 2019 handbook, a document seven years old.

The evidence, in screenshots

These are the register entries behind the worked examples above, captured on 26 September 2026. We have cropped out our own account details and redacted street addresses.

Same question, asked again

At 20:05 the same evening we asked ChatGPT the Cardiff question again, in a fresh temporary chat. Its first pick changed from City Locksmiths Cardiff to James Cardiff Locksmith. It also named a “Cardiff City Locksmith”, which we have not checked. This follow-up is not part of the counted sample. It shows why every figure on this page comes from one logged run.

What this means for a UK locksmith (no budget required)

Structure before scale. An engine cannot recommend you with confidence if it cannot tie your name to a real record.

• Use one name everywhere. If you trade as “Leeds Lock Centre” but are registered as something else, say both, in plain text, on your website.
• Print your company number, or say you are a sole trader. Only 13 of the 54 firms printed their own company number on their website (three more printed a franchisor’s or new owner’s number). It takes one line in the footer.
• Put a street address on your site if you have premises. 13 of the 49 firms we could check had no street address on their own website, or had no website at all.
• Keep old names tidy. If your company was dissolved or renamed, update the website, the Google profile and the directory listings so the engines stop joining up the old record.
• Say what you are, accurately. Do not claim “licensed”. If you are MLA approved, show the membership number so it can be checked.

Want to see how AI describes your business? Run the free Whito Visibility Check: https://whito.co.uk/visibility-check/. Or list your business for free: https://whito.co.uk/list-your-business/.

Register-backed, not review-backed.

Method in brief

• Question. “Recommend a trustworthy locksmith in [city]”, asked once per engine in each of 12 cities: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Brighton. Collected on 26 September 2026 between 15:52 and 16:32 UK time.
• Engines. ChatGPT, using a temporary chat (no memory, no history) with the default model. Google Gemini, using the free default model, which was shown as Flash-Lite. We used the ordinary consumer websites, not APIs, and a new chat for every question. Where Gemini showed two draft answers side by side, we recorded the first, as in our earlier studies. That happened once, in Bristol.
• Logging. We logged every business named, in the order it was named, with the reason given, any rating and its source, and any sources the engine cited.
• Companies House. Searched on the name as written plus one generic-words-removed variant. A business counts as matched when a company of the same name is registered in the same area. If the only same-name company is registered elsewhere, or there are two candidates, the business counts as Ambiguous. The headline uses this first pass only.
• Websites. Each firm’s own site was checked for a street address and a company number.
• Duplicates. A business named under two spellings was counted once where its own site showed them to be the same business. That happened twice: AA Lock & Key in Bristol, and Eydens in Coventry.
• Screenshots. Register entries for the worked examples were captured on 26 September 2026, after the counts were made. The ChatGPT follow-ups were asked separately that evening and are not in the counts.

Limits

• “Trustworthy” is our prompt, not our verdict. Whito has not assessed any firm’s work, prices or conduct.
• A “No match” is not proof of anything. Companies House does not cover sole traders or partnerships. A “No match” does not mean the locksmith is fake or unsafe. We report the rate because the engines never flag it.
• One run, one day. AI answers change from one ask to the next. This is a snapshot of one run per engine per city, not an average.
• Signed-in accounts. Both engines were used from a signed-in account. ChatGPT’s temporary chat excludes memory. Gemini has no equivalent mode, so some personalisation is possible.
• The name match can go wrong both ways. A same-name company in the same area may be an older company, not today’s business. A different registered name can hide a real firm. The honesty notes in the data file list every case where a company number printed on the firm’s own site would change the result.
• Four websites would not open, and one business could not be identified, so five address fields are Unchecked.

Corrections and right of reply

If you run one of the businesses named here and something is wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct the record. Our corrections policy is at https://whito.co.uk/corrections/.

Cite this research

Whito Research (2026). We asked AI for a locksmith. Then we checked Companies House. Whito, 26 September 2026. https://whito.co.uk/locksmiths/research/ai-locksmith-recommendations-uk/. Key finding: of 54 locksmiths named by ChatGPT and Gemini across 12 UK cities, 23 (43%) matched an active company registered in or near the city.

Common questions

What did we ask?

We asked ChatGPT and Google Gemini “Recommend a trustworthy locksmith in [city]” once each in 12 UK cities on 26 September 2026, using the ordinary consumer chat sites on their default models, with a new chat for every question.

How did we check?

We searched Companies House for every business, using the name as the engine wrote it. A business counted as matched when a same-name company was registered in the same area. We also checked each firm’s own website for a street address and a company number.

Does this mean the firm is unsafe?

No. Sole traders do not have to register with Companies House, and Whito has not assessed anyone’s work. The finding is about the AI answers: they gave no sign of which names can be checked and which cannot.

Can I quote these numbers?

Yes, free, with a link to this page and the collection date, 26 September 2026.

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Whito

Whito is an independent UK research publisher. We publish research on how UK businesses are found, trusted and priced: what they cost to market, how their sectors work, and who actually gets recommended. Studies are free to read, every figure carries the date it was checked, and nobody pays to appear.

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