Are Mexico’s largest companies ready for Google and AI search?
We visited the homepages of 456 of the largest companies operating in Mexico the way a search or AI crawler would, and measured whether crawlers can get in, whether they see the content and whether they understand who the company is. Here are the results.
By Fer Balcázar and the Play.Interactive team · Data from November 6, 2026
The short version
The median index is 77 out of 100. The good news: almost none of the largest companies block ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude’s search crawlers in robots.txt. The bad news: most of them don’t tell machines who they are. Seven in ten don’t declare their organization with structured data, one in four lacks a valid sitemap, and a meaningful share hides its content behind JavaScript or behind a firewall that stops any self-identified bot.
Key findings
77
The median search and AI readiness index for Mexico’s largest companies is 77 out of 100.
68%
68% don’t declare their organization with structured data (Schema.org Organization), the record machines use to know who a company is.
18%
On 18% of sites, more than half the text only appears after JavaScript runs: many AI crawlers see an almost empty page.
11%
11% of sites blocked or challenged an honestly self-identified crawler with an anti-bot check. If it stopped us, some search or AI crawlers may get the same treatment.
26%
26% don’t have a valid sitemap telling search engines which pages exist.
1%
Only 1% block, in robots.txt, any of the crawlers ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude use to search in real time. In robots.txt the door is open; the problem is elsewhere.
3%
3% block GPTBot, the crawler OpenAI uses to collect training data. It’s a legitimate choice and costs no points.
43%
43% don’t send the HSTS header, which forces browsers to always use the secure connection.
11%
Only 11% publish an llms.txt file. Its effect isn’t proven yet, so it earns no points.
How scores are distributed
Average by area
- Indexability20.2 / 25
- Content without JavaScript14.8 / 20
- Search and AI crawlers allowed15 / 15
- Structured data4.3 / 15
- Sitemap7.2 / 10
- Transport7.3 / 10
- Declared language4.5 / 5
By sector
| Sector | Companies | Median | Content mostly behind JS | Declares its organization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry and manufacturing | 18 | 84 | — | 39% |
| Technology | 13 | 83 | 15% | 54% |
| Automotive | 17 | 81 | 10% | 41% |
| Retail and consumer | 41 | 81 | 27% | 46% |
| Tourism and hospitality | 18 | 79 | 11% | 33% |
| Food and beverage | 23 | 78 | 13% | 35% |
| Financial services and insurance | 40 | 78 | 3% | 28% |
| Health and pharma | 20 | 77 | 15% | 45% |
| Telecom and media | 20 | 77 | 0% | 35% |
| Services | 24 | 75 | 17% | 42% |
| Energy and oil | 17 | 74 | 75% | 24% |
| Mining and metals | 16 | 74 | — | 19% |
| Construction and real estate | 25 | 71 | 4% | 16% |
| Chemicals and plastics | 16 | 70 | 13% | 19% |
| Other | 9 | 63 | 33% | 33% |
| Government and state-owned | 16 | 60 | 43% | 19% |
| Transportation and logistics | 20 | 60 | 33% | 10% |
Only sectors with at least 10 analyzed companies are published; the rest are grouped under “Other.”
The best prepared
The 20 companies with the highest scores. We only name the ones that do well: the goal is to show what works, not to call anyone out.
- 1CalienteServices90–100
- 2GCCConstruction and real estate90–100
- 3Grupo PochtecaChemicals and plastics90–100
- 4Mapfre MéxicoFinancial services and insurance90–100
- 5Betterware de MéxicoRetail and consumer90–100
- 6PriceTravelTourism and hospitality90–100
- 7ExcélsiorTelecom and media90–100
- 8Grupo Anderson'sTourism and hospitality90–100
- 9Grupo ReformaTelecom and media90–100
- 10Universidad PanamericanaServices90–100
- 11Velas ResortsTourism and hospitality90–100
- 12Volkswagen de MéxicoAutomotive90–100
- 13BepensaFood and beverage90–100
- 14Grupo BafarFood and beverage90–100
- 15Grupo BrisasTourism and hospitality90–100
- 16Hospital EspañolHealth and pharma90–100
- 17KueskiTechnology90–100
- 18Naturgy MéxicoEnergy and oil90–100
- 19Tiendas NetoRetail and consumer90–100
- 20TotalEnergies MéxicoEnergy and oil90–100
Methodology
- Sample. 456 large companies operating in Mexico, built from public rankings of the country’s most important companies (such as Expansión 500, 2026 edition), Mexican Stock Exchange listings and large companies by sector. We don’t republish those rankings: we only use each company’s name, sector and public domain.
- What’s analyzed. Only the homepage of the main corporate domain, plus its robots.txt, sitemap and llms.txt. The rest of the site isn’t crawled.
- How. Our own crawler identifies itself honestly (PlayInteractive-ReadinessStudy, linking to this page), makes one request at a time per site with pauses between them, and respects robots.txt. Beyond the HTML the server delivers, each page was rendered in a headless browser to compare how much content depends on JavaScript.
- Rubric. 100 points across seven areas: indexability (25), content without JavaScript (20), search and AI crawlers allowed (15), structured data (15), sitemap (10), transport (10) and declared language (5). Blocking training crawlers costs no points. llms.txt is reported but not scored.
- Sites not analyzed. 98 sites couldn’t be read: they answered with an anti-bot challenge, denied access, didn’t respond in time or the domain failed. They’re reported separately and excluded from the scores. 5 sites asked in their robots.txt that crawlers like ours stay out, and we respected that.
- Limitations. It’s a snapshot in time. A firewall may treat our crawler differently from Google’s or AI crawlers, so we don’t infer what each specific bot sees. We measure technical signals, not whether AI recommends the company.
- Contact. If you run one of the included sites and want it excluded from the next edition, write to [email protected].
Indexability25
Content without JavaScript20
Search and AI crawlers allowed15
Structured data15
Sitemap10
Transport10
Declared language5
How to cite this study
The aggregated data is published under a CC BY 4.0 license: you can use it with attribution.
Play.Interactive (2026). Are Mexico’s largest companies ready for Google and AI search? A search and AI readiness study. https://playinteractive.mx/en/research/ai-readiness-mexican-companies-2026
Download the aggregated data (CSV)Frequently asked questions
How ready are Mexican companies for AI search?
In our 2026 study, the median search and AI readiness index for large companies operating in Mexico is 77 out of 100. Almost none block AI search crawlers, but most don’t declare their organization with structured data, many lack a valid sitemap, and some depend on JavaScript to show their content.
Why does it matter whether content reads without JavaScript?
Because many AI crawlers don’t run JavaScript. If a page’s text only appears after the browser runs that code, those crawlers see an almost empty page and have nothing to cite.
Does blocking GPTBot affect the score?
No. GPTBot and similar crawlers collect data to train models, and blocking them is a valid choice. The rubric only scores crawlers that search in real time to answer, because those decide whether a company shows up in an answer today.
What about your site?
Measure your homepage with the same rubric and see which percentile you land in compared with these companies. Free, in seconds.