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

We put the 14 questions a person in Farnborough and Aldershot 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. 12 firms in Farnborough and Aldershot were checked against those answers. 1 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 can my architect handle the application near Aldershot?
2. What does it typically cost to get a structural engineering survey done in Farnborough?
3. Is it better to hire a specialist planning consultancy or go with a general engineering firm for a small extension near Aldershot?
4. I'm converting a barn just outside Farnborough and need advice on planning permission before I buy the land - who should I speak to first?
5. How can I check if an independent planning consultant near Farnborough and Aldershot is actually accredited?
6. Should I use a local independent engineering consultancy or go contract-by-contract with freelancers for ongoing site assessments?
7. What accreditations should a structural engineer in Hampshire actually have before I trust their reports?
8. Which independent firm should I use for a drainage and flood risk assessment near Aldershot?
9. Are local engineering consultancies around Farnborough generally cheaper than ones based further out in Guildford?
10. We're buying a commercial unit between Farnborough and Aldershot and need a building survey - how do we find a reliable independent consultancy fast?
11. Are there any review sites or local directories where I can see ratings for planning consultants near Aldershot?
12. Roughly how much should a small residential planning application cost if I hire a local firm instead of a big national chain?
13. Which independent engineering consultancy would you recommend for a loft conversion survey in Aldershot?
14. I need a drive-out assessment done along the route from Aldershot to Farnborough for a new access road - what kind of consultancy handles that?

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. 12 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.