Peace Family,
Here’s the Rundown: almost half of people now ask an AI, like ChatGPT, which local business to call. The AI only recommends businesses it can read about, and it skips almost everyone. Ten minutes of cleanup gets you back in that conversation, free.
The shift: customers now ask an AI first
A year ago, about 6 people in 100 asked an AI to recommend a local business. Today it’s 45 in 100 [1].
And the AI skips almost everyone. One study watched ChatGPT talk about big national brands and found it named barely 1 in 100 of their locations [2]. If household names get skipped, a business the AI has never read about isn’t in the conversation at all.
Being great on Instagram doesn’t carry over by itself. For this question, the AI mostly reads two other things.
What does the AI actually read?
The card that pops up when someone searches your business name, and your own website [3].
That card is Google’s. It shows your hours, your address, your reviews. If it’s half-empty, or it says one thing while your website says another, the AI treats you like a rumor it can’t confirm, and it moves on to a business it can.
Your website works the same way. “Comfort, delivered” sounds nice and tells the AI nothing. “Same-day drain repair in St. Louis” tells it exactly when to say your name [4].
Reviews close the deal. Almost half of people won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 3 out of 4 only trust reviews from the last few months [1]. Old praise reads like a closed shop.
The fix: ten minutes, three moves
- Google your business name like a stranger would. Make the card match your website: hours, address, what you do.
- Read your homepage out loud. Swap the vaguest line for the plainest one: what you do, where, how fast.
- Text your last five happy customers and ask for a review.
The Google Business Profile checklist walks that card step by step. If you’d rather hand the whole thing off, that work is described plainly at getting found by AI search.
Want the full picture? Book a consultation: $125 for the hour. I’ll show you where the AI finds you today, and if something small can be fixed inside the hour, I’ll fix it right then. You leave with the list either way.
Sources
- brightlocal.com · people asking AI tools for local recommendations grew from 6 in 100 to 45 in 100 in a year; 47 in 100 won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews; 74 in 100 only trust recent reviews
- prnewswire.com · SOCi 2026 Local Visibility Index: ChatGPT named about 1.2% of tracked brand locations
- support.google.com · Google’s guidance on how local businesses get picked: relevance, distance, prominence
- lumar.io · AI systems favor businesses stated plainly and consistently