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

We put the 14 questions a person in Guildford 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. 29 firms in Guildford were checked against those answers. 7 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 Guildford?
2. How much does a planning and engineering feasibility study typically cost in Guildford?
3. Is it better to hire a local independent planning consultancy near Guildford or use a national firm?
4. I'm converting a barn near Godalming and need both structural advice and planning permission help - who handles both?
5. How can I check if a planning consultant near Guildford is properly accredited and reliable?
6. What's the difference between a civil engineer and a planning consultant for a small extension project?
7. Should I use a one-off freelance planning consultant or a retained consultancy for an ongoing development near Woking?
8. Are there independent engineering consultancies around Farnham with good client reviews, not just big national chains?
9. What's a reasonable quote for drainage design and planning drawings for a site just outside Guildford?
10. We're buying a plot off the A3 near Guildford and need a drainage and access survey before submitting plans - what kind of firm do we need?
11. How do I know if a structural engineer is properly insured and a member of ICE or IStructE before hiring them locally?
12. Which is better value for a small housing scheme near Cranleigh - an independent planning consultant or a large regional practice?
13. Do I need a transport assessment as well as a planning application for a new access road?
14. I'm self-building near Guildford and my architect says I need a structural engineer's sign-off - where do I start looking?

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. 29 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.