Quick answer
AI assistants recommend local businesses they can find, trust and match to the question. For Google's AI features that means being indexed and having a complete Business Profile with reviews; for ChatGPT it means letting OAI-SearchBot crawl your site and being mentioned on sources it reads. Consistent details, real reviews and clear service pages help across all of them.
More people now trust an AI assistant's local recommendation than distrust it. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US consumers, 40% said they trust AI platforms to recommend businesses, against 32% who don't. Not long ago, few local owners would have thought to ask whether ChatGPT knew they existed.
The good news is that AI assistants don't invent local businesses from nothing. They work from the same profiles, reviews, websites and listings you already manage. This guide shows where each assistant looks, the six steps that make your business easier to recommend, and a simple monthly audit to see whether it's working.
What AI search means for a local business
AI search means customers ask an assistant a full question, such as "Who's a good electrician near Riverside that can come out tomorrow?", and get a short answer naming a few businesses. For a local business, the goal is to be one of those names.
The shift is already visible in how people look for local services. In BrightLocal's 2026 consumer research, the share of people using ChatGPT and other AI tools for local recommendations rose "from 6% last year to 45%," making AI the third most popular source of local recommendations. Local search specialists are taking note too: Whitespark's 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey of 47 experts scored AI search visibility as its own category for the first time. The same survey found 82% of consumers read AI-generated review summaries, and 23% would rely on those summaries alone to decide.
Read that last figure again. For nearly a quarter of customers, an AI summary of your reviews may be the only part of your reputation they read. Our guide to what generative engine optimization is covers the wider practice behind all of this.
Where each assistant gets local information
Each assistant builds its answer from a different mix of sources, but they overlap heavily: your website, your Google Business Profile, review sites, directories and local press. Knowing which sources feed which assistant tells you where to focus.
- Google AI Overviews and AI ModeGoogle Search’s index plus your Business Profile detailsGoogle
- ChatGPT searchPages OAI-SearchBot can crawl, plus third-party search providersOpenAI
- Feeds bothReviews, directories and local press that mention your businessShared sources
Based on Google Search Central and OpenAI crawler documentation.
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google's AI features documentation states: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." Both are built on Google Search, and both may issue "multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources" to build an answer, a technique Google calls query fan-out. Google also recommends "Checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date," which is the clearest signal that your profile feeds local AI answers.
ChatGPT search. OpenAI's crawler documentation says OAI-SearchBot is used "to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features," and that sites opting out of it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." ChatGPT also draws on third-party search providers and the sites they surface, such as review platforms and directories.
Other assistants, including Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini, follow similar patterns: a crawler or search partner finds pages, and the assistant summarizes what it finds. The same groundwork serves them all.
Step 1: Make your site crawlable by AI search bots
Check that your robots.txt file allows Googlebot and OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot, since a blocked crawler means your site can't feed those assistants. This takes five minutes and rules out the most basic reason for being left out.
Open yoursite.com/robots.txt in a browser and look for any "Disallow" rules that apply to all crawlers or to these bots by name. If you fix something, give it a day: OpenAI notes that "it can take ~24 hours from a site's robots.txt update for our systems to adjust."
Don't mix up search bots and training bots. OpenAI's GPTBot collects content for training models, and OAI-SearchBot finds pages for ChatGPT search. Blocking GPTBot is a reasonable choice for some businesses and doesn't remove you from ChatGPT search. Blocking OAI-SearchBot does.
Step 2: Treat your Google Business Profile as your AI profile
Of everything Google knows about your business, the Business Profile is the most structured record, which is why AI answers lean on it so heavily. Every field you complete is a fact an assistant can repeat.
The facts that decide your map ranking, which Google's local ranking help page groups as relevance, distance and prominence, also shape local AI answers. Focus on the fields that answer customer questions directly:
- Categories: a primary category that matches your core service.
- Hours: regular hours plus holiday and special hours, so "open now" questions get the right answer.
- Services: every service listed, with short descriptions in plain words.
- Attributes: accessibility, payment options, languages spoken and similar details customers filter by.
- Photos: real images of your work, team and premises.
When a customer asks for a "family-friendly dentist open Saturdays," an assistant can only match you if Saturday hours and family dentistry appear somewhere it can read.
Take two dental practices on the same street. One lists "Dentist" as its category, regular hours and no services. The other lists "Pediatric dentist" as a secondary category, Saturday hours, services such as "children's cleanings" and "emergency dental care," and photos of its family-friendly waiting room. For a question about Saturday care for kids, the second profile gives an assistant every fact it needs. Work through the full list with our Google Business Profile optimization checklist.
Step 3: Build reviews AI can read
Reviews give AI assistants the specific, first-hand details they use to describe and compare businesses. A steady stream of recent reviews on more than one platform, with replies from you, gives assistants plenty to work with.
Customers lean on them heavily. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found "97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses" and "89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews." Google's local ranking help page adds: "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."
What makes a review useful to an AI summary is detail. A review that says "Fixed our tankless water heater the same afternoon in Riverside, fair price" tells an assistant your service, speed, area and pricing in one line. Encourage that kind of detail by asking customers to mention the job when they review. Spread your requests across Google and one or two other platforms your customers use, such as Yelp, Facebook or an industry site. Our guide to how to get more Google reviews covers the compliant way to ask.
Step 4: Keep your business details consistent everywhere
Make your business name, address, phone number and hours identical on your website, Business Profile, directories and social profiles. AI assistants compare sources, and conflicting details make it harder for them to trust any single one.
Old details are the usual culprit: a previous address on a directory, a retired phone number on a social profile, holiday hours that never changed back. List every place your business appears, check each one, and update them in a single afternoon. Repeat the check whenever something changes, such as a move or new hours.
The places to check usually include:
- Your website footer, contact page and location pages
- Your Google, Apple and Microsoft business listings
- Yelp, Facebook and your industry's main directory
- Your chamber of commerce and association listings
- Any marketplace listings, such as Angi or Thumbtack
Step 5: Write service and location pages that answer real questions
Give every service and every area you serve its own page, open each section with a plain answer, and close with an FAQ taken from questions customers really ask. These pages give AI assistants the detail profiles can't hold.
What each service page should include:
- A plain opening answer, such as "We repair and replace residential roofs across Tulsa and Broken Arrow, usually within a week of your first call."
- Prices or price ranges where you can share them.
- An FAQ section answering the questions customers ask on the phone.
- Local proof, such as recent jobs in named neighborhoods.
A short FAQ block might look like this on an electrician's page:
- Do you offer same-day service in Riverside? Yes, for calls received before noon, Monday to Saturday.
- Do you install EV chargers? Yes, we install Level 2 home chargers and handle the permit.
- What does a service call cost? Our call-out fee is listed on our pricing page, and it's credited toward the repair.
Each answer gives an assistant a specific fact it can repeat when a customer asks.
Add LocalBusiness structured data to your location pages. Google's LocalBusiness structured data guide, updated September 8, 2026, covers properties such as opening hours and departments, while noting that Google "does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results." Our on-page SEO checklist covers the rest of the page setup.
Step 6: Earn mentions on sources assistants read
Get your business named on the local and industry sites assistants already trust: local news outlets, chambers of commerce, trade associations, "best of" lists and active community sites. Independent mentions back up what your own site says.
Practical ways to earn them:
- Local press: share a story about a community project, a new hire or a seasonal tip with local reporters.
- Chambers and associations: join and complete your member listing with consistent details.
- Community involvement: sponsorships, events and volunteer work often earn a mention on partner sites.
- Respected "best of" lists: apply where a list is independently judged, and skip any that charge for placement.
Avoid paid-link schemes and fake listings. They break Google's guidelines and add nothing an assistant should trust.
One good local mention often outweighs a dozen weak ones. A feature in the city paper about your team's work after a storm tells both readers and assistants far more than another listing on a generic directory.
How to run a monthly AI prompt audit
Run the same set of customer questions through each AI assistant every month and record who gets named. It's the simplest way to see whether your work is changing what assistants say.
Here's how:
- Write 10 to 20 prompts a real customer would use, such as "best plumber near downtown Austin" or "emergency vet open Sunday in Plano."
- Run each prompt in ChatGPT, Google (looking at AI Overviews and AI Mode) and any other assistant your customers use.
- Record the results in a tracking sheet like the one below.
- Compare month to month, looking at how often you're named and which sources the assistants cite.
| Prompt | Assistant | Businesses named | Sources cited | You named? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency plumber near downtown Austin | ChatGPT | Three competitors | Yelp, a local news list | No |
| Emergency plumber near downtown Austin | Google AI Mode | You plus two competitors | Business Profiles, your service page | Yes |
The cited sources column is often the most useful. If the same directory or news site keeps appearing, that's where to earn your next mention.
A few habits make the audit more reliable. Run prompts from your actual service area where possible, since location affects local answers. Use a fresh session each time, so earlier conversations don't steer the results. And keep the wording identical month to month, so changes reflect the assistants rather than your phrasing.
What you can't control
Some parts of AI recommendations are outside any business's control, and it helps to know which ones before you judge results.
Keep these in mind:
- Answers vary: the same prompt can return different businesses depending on the person asking, their location and the exact wording.
- No guarantees: nobody can promise placement in an AI assistant's answer, so treat any offer of guaranteed recommendations with suspicion.
- Shortcuts backfire: fake reviews and paid placement schemes break platform rules and the FTC's rule on fake reviews.
Local SEO vs GEO: do you need both?
Yes, and most of the work is the same. Local SEO builds the profile, reviews, listings and pages that help you rank in Google Maps, and those same assets feed AI assistants. GEO adds three things on top: checking crawler access, earning mentions on sources assistants cite, and running the monthly prompt audit.
Our guides to local SEO for small businesses and GEO vs SEO cover each side in depth, and our AI search optimization service handles both together. For the Google side specifically, read how to get cited in AI Overviews, and for OpenAI's, how to rank in ChatGPT.
AI search for local business FAQs
How do I get ChatGPT to suggest my business?
Allow OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt, keep your business details consistent across your site and listings, write service pages that answer customer questions, and earn reviews and mentions on sites ChatGPT draws on. Then test real customer prompts monthly to track progress.
How do I get AI to recommend my business?
Give assistants accurate, consistent information to work with: a complete Google Business Profile, recent detailed reviews on several platforms, clear service and location pages, and mentions on trusted local sites. Make sure crawlers can reach your website, then check results with a monthly prompt audit.
Do I need special optimization to appear in Google AI Overviews?
No. Nothing extra is required. Google's documentation says no special optimizations or additional requirements apply to AI Overviews or AI Mode. Google asks only that pages are indexed and can show a snippet, and it suggests keeping Business Profile details current.
Do reviews affect whether AI assistants recommend my business?
Reviews give assistants first-hand detail about your service, speed and pricing, and many people read AI-generated review summaries before deciding. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 82% of consumers read those summaries. Recent, detailed reviews on several platforms give assistants more to work with.
What will local SEO look like with AI search?
The foundations stay the same: an accurate profile, steady reviews, consistent listings and helpful pages. What's new is that customers also ask AI assistants, so businesses benefit from checking crawler access, earning mentions on trusted sites and tracking AI answers monthly.
Sources
- BrightLocal, "Local Consumer Review Survey 2026," February 11, 2026: https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
- Google Search Central, "AI features and your website," updated December 10, 2025: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
- OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI crawlers": https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots
- Google Business Profile Help, "Tips to improve your local ranking on Google": https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091
- Google Search Central, "Local business (LocalBusiness) structured data," updated September 8, 2026: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business
- Whitespark, "Local Search Ranking Factors," published November 6, 2025: <https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors/>