AI Chatbots – You Get What You Ask For
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By: Becky Masterman
AI assistant made by Anthropic.
If you don’t care about AI chatbots, I understand. But maybe you should reconsider your position. The increasing number of AI assistant or chatbot users worldwide is staggering and the advice they give about landscaping can impact your bees. Beekeeper messaging might just help make the impact a good one.
I had very little use for AI until I needed to transform some very bee friendly gardens into bee friendly gardens that would not overwhelm a prospective homebuyer. I used an AI chatbot to organize several gardens throughout a yard. This exercise taught me a few things about AI chatbots. First, they know a lot more about landscape design than I do. The suggestions were easy to implement and made a striking difference in the gardens. Second, they are pretty good at identifying plant species. And finally, this chatbot knew that I was a beekeeper and its recommendations were heavy on supporting pollinator health.
I was surprised when I recently asked a chatbot about a different garden in another yard. I inquired about how to manage some shrubs and received unsolicited advice regarding a few weeds in an adjacent gravel parking area. These spray and pre-emergent application recommendations were very unfriendly to pollinators and water sources. When I responded that I was disappointed to see the information they shared, I received a very pollinator friendly list of alternatives.
The AI chatbot recommendations changed when they were challenged with different parameters. The AI tool is powerful and able to customize information to meet the user’s needs. Seeing its first response, I wondered just what this chatbot was telling its users when asked questions that impact honey bees and other pollinators. So, I asked a few AI Chatbots if they recommended landscaping practices that aren’t pollinator friendly. I got these responses:
ChatGPT
My default goal is to give advice that is broadly practical for the average homeowner. That means I’ll sometimes suggest practices like herbicides, pre-emergents, or ornamental plants that are commonly used because they reduce maintenance. Those suggestions aren’t intended as endorsements — they’re simply among the options many people consider.
Response generated by Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic
AI landscaping advice optimizes for what’s asked — low-maintenance, showy, or tidy — not pollinator health by default. That means turf lawns, double-flowered ornamentals, pesticide fixes, and fall cleanup routines all get recommended without a pollinator caveat, unless the prompt specifically requests bee-friendly guidance.
This response was generated with assistance from Perplexity AI
No. I aim to recommend pollinator-friendly landscaping whenever possible: diverse, season-long flowering plants; native species suited to the site; nesting habitat; and integrated pest management. When a pest problem genuinely requires treatment, I recommend the least-risk, targeted option—never routine spraying or applications to blooming plants visited by bees. Note: When asked how to cite this response, the chatbot gave me both the wording for crediting Perplexity AI and asked to cite the Fisheries and Wildlife resource that I placed in the references.
Grok (xAI)
Yes, when people ask general landscaping questions, I often start with conventional, practical recommendations. Some of those practices — large chemical-treated lawns, systemic insecticides, double-flowered ornamentals, or heavy mulching — are not very pollinator-friendly. I flag the most harmful ones and offer better options when users mention bees, pollinators, or sustainability, or when the downside is especially clear.
Readers, are you still with me? It has taken me some time to put it together, but I am starting to understand just how much power these chatbots wield. I asked ChatGPT about its user numbers. The chatbot suggested that I write, “ChatGPT now serves hundreds of millions of people each week — on the order of 900 million weekly active users according to OpenAI’s public announcements — making it one of the world’s largest sources of everyday advice, including advice about gardening and landscape management.”
A graphic provided by Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic (Figure 1, AI Chatbots are Already in the Garden) summarizes some of the staggering user numbers I referenced earlier. Estimates of Meta AI monthly users are at 1.2 billion and Google Gemini monthly users are at 900 million. If these users are looking for landscaping help and not asking the chatbots to provide bee friendly advice, they might be pointed towards not so bee friendly landscape management practices (except for Perplexity AI users!).
Beekeepers now have another challenge to the health of their colonies. Despite the bee friendly movement in landscaping, most AI chatbots readily admit that it is not their priority. Although they will expertly share bee friendly landscaping recommendations when prompted, most need to be prompted.
So, beekeepers, let’s prompt. Let’s encourage those who are landscaping and using AI to prompt. How do we prompt? Let’s ask our chatbots:
ChatGPT
“What are the most bee-friendly, pollinator-conscious ways to manage my landscape while balancing my practical needs?”
Response generated by Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic.
Ask your AI: “Suggest bee-friendly landscaping — native, pesticide-free plants blooming Spring through Fall, with water and undisturbed ground.”
This response was generated with assistance from Perplexity AI
State your location, sun, soil and space; ask for native, pesticide-free, season-long blooms and nesting habitat for bees.
friendly in their prompts. Graphic created with ChatGPT (OpenAI), incorporating an original photograph by Rebecca Masterman.
Grok (xAI)
Add: “Recommend honey-bee friendly plants with continuous nectar and pollen; prefer natives and avoid pesticides.”
Well you can see that these chatbots really like the native flowers! Let’s work on accepting some non-native flowers on a different day. For now, we should probably focus on the task at hand: bee friendly AI chatbots. My graphic design skills are not quite up to the task of starting a great social media campaign to get this message out to the planting public. So, I asked my new AI friends for some help. Check out Figures 2 and 3 for their ideas.
Are there any talented beekeepers out there who can share a human designed message to AI users? I think that we would all welcome that help. If you want to share your design ideas for a Bee Friendly AI campaign, please email me at mindingyourbeesandcues@gmail.com.
For now, when you are telling the public how to help bees, think about adding the message that if they consult with AI for their gardens and landscapes, include a bee friendly prompt.
References and Resources
Malik, Aisha. February 27, 2026. ChatGPT reaches 900M weekly active users
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/27/chatgpt-reaches-900m-weekly-active-users/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. “Highlighting the Importance of Pollinators.” U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov/story/highlighting-importance-pollinators. Accessed August 8, 2026
Chatbot user numbers (bar chart):
“Best AI Chatbots in 2026 (ChatGPT and the Alternatives)” — rework.com, citing a16z’s Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps report (Feb 2026) and Similarweb Generative AI Traffic data
https://resources.rework.com/tools/ai-tools/best-ai-chatbots-2026
“ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Perplexity Statistics 2026” — sqmagazine.co.uk
https://sqmagazine.co.uk/chatgpt-claude-gemini-perplexity-statistics/
“Top Generative AI Chatbots by Market Share – July 2026” — First Page Sage
https://firstpagesage.com/reports/top-generative-ai-chatbots/
“ChatGPT Market Share Falls to 46.4% (2026) Data” — Tech Insider, citing Sensor Tower’s State of AI 2026 report (via TechCrunch, June 16, 2026)
https://tech-insider.org/chatgpt-market-share-below-50-percent-2026/
“ChatGPT still leads the AI model race, but Gemini and Claude are changing the scoreboard” — citing Reuters/Sensor Tower and Google I/O 2026 keynote figures
https://webiano.digital/chatgpt-still-leads-the-ai-model-race-but-gemini-and-claude-are-changing-the-scoreboard/
“ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini (Revenue, Users & Funding)” — aifundingtracker.com
https://aifundingtracker.com/chatgpt-vs-claude-vs-gemini/
“AI & ChatGPT Statistics for 2026 (Usage & Adoption Data)” — Instant Press, citing OpenAI, Google I/O 2026, and Meta’s Q1 2026 earnings (via DemandSage)
https://www.instantpress.co/ai-statistics
“AI Market Share 2026: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & the Battle for AI Dominance” — citing Momentic (July 2026), Sensor Tower via TechCrunch (June 2026)
https://aibusinessweekly.net/p/ai-market-share-2026
“From avid gardeners to novices who aren’t sure how to get started, AI can be a helpful tool’” — Homes & Gardens (Aug 2024)
https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/ai-in-gardening
“Best AI landscape design apps in 2026” — Remodel AI, citing Houzz’s U.S. Landscaping Trends Report
https://www.remodelai.io/blog/best-ai-landscape-design-apps
Becky Masterman earned a PhD in entomology at the University of Minnesota and is currently a host for the Beekeeping Today Podcast. Please send an email sharing your AI Chatbot thoughts to mindingyourbeesandcues@gmail.com.
