Which engineering and planning consultancies in Camberley do AI assistants actually recommend?

We put the 14 questions a person in Camberley asks before choosing engineering and planning consultancie — cost, specialism, who to use, how to check them — to Claude, 5 times each, 70 answers in all, and recorded every firm the answers named. 17 firms in Camberley were checked against those answers. 2 of them were named at least once. The rest were not recommended in a single answer.

The league table

Firms are ranked by the number of answers that named them, then by how many different questions. The assistants do not give identical answers twice, so a difference of one or two mentions is noise; being named on questions a rival is absent from is not.

The questions we asked

1. Do I need a planning consultant or a structural engineer for a loft conversion in Camberley?
2. How much does a pre-application planning consultation cost near Camberley?
3. Is it better to hire a local planning consultancy near Frimley or go with a bigger regional firm?
4. I've had a planning application refused by Surrey Heath Borough Council - who should I use to appeal it?
5. How do I check if an engineering consultancy near Bagshot is actually accredited and not just claiming it?
6. Should I get a full topographical survey before speaking to a planning consultant, or will they arrange it?
7. What's the difference between using an independent engineering consultancy and a national chain for a drainage report in Farnborough?
8. We're buying a plot of land just off the A30 near Camberley and need to know if it's buildable - who do we ask first?
9. Are there any reviews for independent structural engineers operating around Aldershot?
10. What's a reasonable quote range for a flood risk assessment for a site in Sandhurst?
11. Is it worth hiring a consultancy on retainer, or just bringing one in ad hoc per project?
12. Which is more responsive for small residential planning jobs - a sole-trader consultant or a small local firm near Fleet?
13. My neighbour in Yateley is objecting to my extension plans - what kind of consultancy helps resolve planning disputes like this?
14. How reliable are small independent engineering consultancies compared to larger practices when it comes to meeting deadlines?

How this was measured

• Date: 1 October 2026. This is one day, not a trend; the index is re-measured monthly.
• Sample: 14 questions × 1 assistant × 5 runs = 70 answers. 17 firms checked.
• Assistants used: Claude (Anthropic’s Sonnet model, through its API, with web search). Answers from these programming interfaces can differ from what the consumer apps show.
• Counting: a firm is counted when its name appears in an answer. Names are picked out of the answer text automatically, then matched to the firm list.
• Limits: the assistants vary between runs, so small gaps are noise. Firms that were not named may still be recommended by an assistant or a question we did not ask. National chains are left off the list.