When a clinic asks ChatGPT to recommend a copywriter, it usually gives a short list of freelancers and agencies. That list changes almost every time you ask. I asked 14 hiring questions 84 times in October 2026. Two answers to the same question shared only about a third of the sites they cited.
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What did ChatGPT say when I asked who to hire?
People tend to believe the first answer they get, especially when it sounds sure of itself. So I wanted to see how steady these answers really are. I asked the same 14 hiring questions 3 times each, on 1 October and again on 14 October.
The questions were the kind a practice owner might type. A physio clinic needs a copywriter, or a dental practice wants a recommendation. A psychology practice wants someone who knows mental health websites.
Most answers were helpful, and they named real writers and agencies with links to their websites. But the names moved around a lot.
| What I measured | Result |
|---|---|
| Answers in total. | 84, across 14 questions. |
| Answers that named no one at all. | 22 of 84. |
| Websites cited per answer, when it cited any. | About 5 on average. |
| Different websites cited for one question, across its 6 answers. | About 10 on average. |
| Websites shared by 2 answers to the same question. | About a third (31%). |
That last line surprised me more than anything else. Ask the same question twice on the same day, and you'll often get a different shortlist. Asking 2 weeks apart made no real difference: the overlap was 32%.
The broad questions got no names at all. Asked who writes AHPRA compliant website copy, all 6 answers described kinds of writers instead. Asked for the best medical copywriter in Australia, 4 of 6 answers gave a checklist and named no one.
Did it name freelancers or agencies?
It named both, and usually in the same answer. ChatGPT seems to treat a freelance writer and an agency as the same kind of help. For a clinic owner, they're quite different hires.
I sorted every cited website by what it says about itself. A solo writer's site, an agency's site, a directory or a regulator. Then I counted the 62 answers that cited at least one website.
Freelancers showed up a little more often than agencies. Many of the agencies were marketing firms that also offer copy, like web design or ads agencies. A few answers also pointed to directories, such as the Australasian Medical Writers Association's list of freelancers.
So the shortlist mixes 2 different kinds of hire. That's worth knowing before you email anyone. A freelancer usually writes everything themselves, while an agency often hands the writing to someone on its team.
Would you like a second opinion on a shortlist? Book a free 30-minute call and we'll talk it through. You'll get a fixed quote within 48 hours.
Where did my own site show up?
I should be upfront here, because I'm a healthcare copywriter, so I'm in this data. My site was cited in 43 of the 84 answers. That's 23 in the first round and 20 in the second.
I don't read too much into that. It mostly tells me which of my pages match which questions. For cosmetic clinics and psychology practices, my site came up in all 6 answers. For the best medical copywriter in Australia, it never came up at all.
The pages it used were all service pages. It cited my website copy page most often, then pages written for one kind of clinic. It never cited one of my blog posts, even for questions my posts answer in detail.
That fits a pattern I keep seeing. ChatGPT tends to cite the page that answers the exact question. A page about dental copy gets cited for dental questions. A general page is easy to skip.
Why does the list change each time you ask?
Each answer starts with a fresh web search. The search results shift a little each time, and the answer is written again from scratch. So the names change, even when the question stays the same.
You can see this in the overlap between answers. Across all the answers I collected, ChatGPT cited 98 different websites. Yet any 2 answers to one question shared only about a third of them.
It's worth remembering that the list reflects pages, not a judgement about quality. A writer with a clear page for your profession has a better chance of being found. A brilliant writer with a thin website may never appear.
The same thing happens when patients ask ChatGPT about clinics. I looked at that in which clinic pages ChatGPT cites. If you'd like to track this for your own clinic, how to measure AI citations walks you through it.
How should you use ChatGPT when you hire a writer?
ChatGPT is a fine place to start a shortlist. It just works better as a starting point than a final answer. These steps help you get more from it.
- Ask the same question 3 times, in new chats. Keep the names that come up more than once.
- Name your profession and your city in the question. Broad questions often get a checklist instead of names.
- Decide first if you want a freelancer or an agency, then ask for that.
- Open each website and look for work in your profession, with examples you can read.
- Ask each writer how they handle the AHPRA advertising rules. A good writer will explain them simply.
If you're weighing the 2 kinds of hire, freelance copywriter or health writing agency compares them side by side. In-house or freelance covers the other choice clinics weigh up.
If you'd like to talk to me as one of your options, my medical copywriter page explains how I work. Every piece I write is checked by All Clear Audit, the 301-check audit I built.
How did I run this?
How I put this together. I asked GPT-5 mini, one of OpenAI's models, with its web search switched on. I sent 14 hiring questions 3 times each on 1 October 2026, then again on 14 October. Each answer was saved with the websites it cited.
I sorted each cited website by how it describes itself on its own page. I didn't name other writers or agencies here, because this is about how the answers behave.
- I used the model through its API, so the ChatGPT app may answer a little differently.
- The first round had 20 questions, but I stopped the second at 14 to stay within a set budget. This post compares the 14 that both rounds asked.
- Sorting a site as a freelancer or an agency is my reading of its own page.
- I'm in the data, so read my own results with that in mind.
- AI answers change over time, so treat these numbers as a snapshot.
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