Irfan Vohra runs procurement for a specialty chemicals company in Ahmedabad. On a Tuesday morning, the company’s Vadodara plant needed a transporter for a trial load to Pune by Friday. The load contained packed chemical drums, so Irfan needed a suitable vehicle and a driver trained to handle hazardous goods. The budget was capped near ₹2.4 lakh for the round trip, including loading supervision.
Five years ago, he would have called known transporters, searched by city and service, and opened several websites. This time he put the complete requirement into ChatGPT, then asked Perplexity the same question so he could compare the sources. Two established transport companies appeared with service details and safety information he could forward to his compliance team. A third transporter Irfan already knew by reputation appeared only in an old directory result that led to a dead page.
That third transporter might have been capable. Irfan couldn’t tell that from the information in front of him.
Neither AI tool called a transporter, requested a quotation or confirmed that a vehicle was available. The tools simply turned the public information they could find into an initial answer.
AI search changes the first shortlist
OpenAI said in February 2026 that more than 900 million people were using ChatGPT each week. The number shows ChatGPT’s scale. It does not show how many people use it to find suppliers, or whether that behaviour is normal in Indian procurement.
OpenAI’s search documentation says ChatGPT can search the web and attach sources to its response. Perplexity says it searches the web, combines what it finds and shows links to the sources it used.
The buyer no longer has to begin with ten separate links.
The available evidence does not show how many Indian procurement teams search this way. For Irfan, the important change comes before a quotation: an AI answer can narrow the companies he investigates, and a missing company may never reach his compliance team.
The buyer may never see a good transporter’s name at all.
A missing company is different from a low ranking
With a normal search page, Irfan could open several results and keep looking. A combined AI answer feels more complete, even when a suitable company is absent from it. That doesn’t make the answer correct. Search tools can miss information, use an old source or misunderstand a service. The buyer still has to call the company and confirm the load, route, equipment, price and available capacity.
A listing with only a name, city and phone number does not solve that problem. It tells Irfan how to call, but not whether the company handles chemical cargo, runs the Vadodara-Pune route or has the right safety process.
Many strong regional transporters still depend on personal contacts. That works when the buyer already knows whom to ask. A search tool cannot call those contacts and ask about the business.
Suppose the third transporter has trained drivers and regularly carries similar cargo. If its old page says only “general transport” and the listed phone number no longer works, the search tool cannot fill in the missing details from the company’s reputation. Irfan sees a weak record, not the years of work behind it.
Those details may already be scattered across invoices, registration papers, old brochures and WhatsApp messages. Putting a website online is the one-time job. The harder job is making one person responsible for keeping the published facts correct after launch.
The company name also needs to stay consistent. If a brochure uses a trade name, an old directory uses a different spelling and the website uses the registered name, a search tool may treat them as separate businesses. One clear company record puts the same name and facts in one place. The tool can read that record, but it cannot correct wrong information.
The company record has to stay current
For the transport company, the job is keeping the record true. A route may stop, a service may begin, a contact may change and a safety certificate may expire. The public information has to change with the business.
Running a useful digital presence takes more than buying hosting. Someone has to collect the facts, write them clearly, protect the site and manage the technical systems. When the business changes, that person also has to update the information buyers see.
NH44 turns those changing facts into one maintained company data record. The team uses that same record for the member’s website, its NH44 network profile and the knowledge layer. This gives the business one source of truth for the information under the team’s care.
Keeping that source current is managed work. It includes content, data management, hosting, site security and technical updates. When a member sends a change, the team updates the record and uses the same information across the website, network and knowledge layer.
NH44 Intelligence searches the knowledge layer when a visitor asks a question. It can bring the relevant services, coverage and contact details into one answer drawn from the current company record.
The same public record gives external search tools clear information to read. Those services decide what appears in each answer. NH44 keeps the company’s information current and ready for them to understand.
Back in Ahmedabad, Irfan still has two companies he can investigate and a third he cannot properly assess. He has not compared their rates or available vehicles yet. One capable transporter is missing from the shortlist before the first phone call.
For the transport company reading this, that missing name is the problem. A buyer outside your existing circle may never know enough about the business to call.
The next step is a 30-minute NH44 onboarding call. The team maps your services, routes, credentials and contacts, then explains how it will turn them into one maintained company record. The result is a clear account of what your business handles and whom to contact, ready for buyers and search tools to read.
