Ask someone how they found their last plumber, hotel or lunch spot, and “I Googled it” is quietly being joined by “I asked ChatGPT.” Search hasn't died. It's splitting. Some of it still happens on Google's familiar blue links. A fast-growing share now happens inside an AI that reads the web for you and hands back a single answer.
For a business, that shifts the question. It used to be “do we rank on Google?” Now there's a second one sitting next to it: when an AI answers on our behalf, does it mention us at all? That second question is what we mean by AI visibility, and it's the thing most local businesses haven't looked at yet.
Watch: is your business showing up in AI search? (60 seconds)
The short version, in under a minute: people are starting more of their searches inside AI, and the businesses those tools recommend are the ones that are easy for a machine to read and trust. The rest of this guide is the longer, sourced version, with the numbers and the practical steps.
Prefer to skip the reading? Check how visible your business is to AI and see where you stand today.
The shift, in numbers
This isn't a prediction about some far-off future. It's already the size of a mid-sized country's worth of people, every week.
900M
people use ChatGPT every week[1]
2.5B
see Google's AI Overviews each month[3]
+1,200%
jump in retail traffic coming from AI tools[5]
39%
of shoppers now use AI to help them buy[6]
ChatGPT passed 900 million weekly users in early 2026[1] and its app was closing on a billion people a month by the middle of the year[2]. Google didn't stand still: its AI Overviews, the answer box that now sits above the blue links, reached about 2.5 billion people a month[3] and show up on roughly half of all searches[4].
The behaviour is following the tools. Adobe found that traffic to US retail sites coming from AI assistants rose by more than 1,200% in a year[5], that 39% of shoppers now use AI to help them buy, and that those AI-referred visitors convert about 31% more than other traffic[6]. People aren't just playing with these tools. They're making decisions and spending money on the back of them.
It's not just Google, and it's not just big brands
Here's the part that catches local owners off guard. When you ask an AI “who's the best web designer in Chester?” or “where should I eat in the city centre tonight?”, it doesn't make the answer up out of nowhere. It reads the web the way a very fast researcher would, then names a handful of businesses. In that moment the AI is doing the job the Yellow Pages and the top of Google used to do: it's deciding who gets mentioned and who doesn't.
So how does it pick? From the things it can actually read and cross-check: your reviews and star ratings, your Google Business Profile, your website and the way it's structured, and what trusted third parties — directories, local press, “best of” lists — say about you. A business that's well reviewed, consistent across the web and clearly described gets named. A business that's thin, inconsistent or hard to parse gets skipped, even if it's genuinely excellent.
Local is earlier than retail. BrightLocal's early-2025 survey found only 6% of people had used AI to check a local business's reviews, actually down slightly on the year before[7] — back when the tools couldn't search the live web well. That number is climbing quickly now that ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity all read current data. The point isn't that every customer already asks AI. It's that more do every month, and fixing your visibility is cheap while you're early.
SEO gets you ranked. GEO gets you quoted.
Traditional SEO is about earning a high spot on the results page so people click through. The newer job — people call it GEO (generative engine optimisation) or AEO (answer engine optimisation) — is about being the source an AI quotes when it writes the answer. They overlap, but they aren't the same, and the gap is widening: one analysis found the pages Google ranks and the sources AI tools actually cite now overlap by under 20%, down from about 70%[9].
| Traditional SEO | GEO / AEO (AI visibility) | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank high, earn the click | Get named and quoted in the AI's answer |
| The “result” | A list of ten blue links | One synthesised answer, a few sources cited |
| Wins by | Keywords, links, page speed | Clear answers, structured data, trust signals |
| You measure | Rankings, clicks, traffic | How often AI mentions you vs competitors |
The good news for owners: the two reinforce each other. A site that's well built for Google — fast, clear, well reviewed — is already halfway to being AI-friendly. If you want the groundwork, our guide on what SEO is and how to get on Google covers it.
How to make your business visible to AI
None of this needs a rebuild. It's mostly the same fundamentals a good website should have anyway, pointed at a machine reader as well as a human one. The formats AI tools quote most readily are direct answers, clear tables and question-and-answer sections[8]. Here's the practical list.
- Answer the real questions, plainly. Put a direct, one-paragraph answer near the top of each page. AI pulls short, self-contained answers far more easily than it lifts a point buried three scrolls down.
- Add FAQ and structured data. A proper FAQ section with FAQ schema (the machine-readable version) turns each question into a citable answer[8]. It's one of the highest-impact things you can do.
- Use tables and clear headings. Prices, comparisons and options in a real table are easy for AI to read and repeat accurately, and harder to get wrong than a wall of text.
- Get your Google Business Profile and reviews right. For local queries this is where AI (and Google) look first. Keep your name, address and phone number identical everywhere, and keep real reviews coming.
- Earn mentions on sources AI trusts. Local directories, press, partner sites and genuine “best of” lists all feed the picture an AI builds of you. Being talked about elsewhere matters as much as what you say about yourself.
- Keep it current. AI tools prefer sources that are maintained. A visible “last updated” date and content that's actually kept fresh both help.
If that list looks familiar, it should: it's exactly how this site is built. Every guide here leads with a short answer, carries an FAQ with schema behind it, and gets dated when we update it. That's not a coincidence, it's the point.
Find out what AI says about your business
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Sources
- TechCrunch — "ChatGPT reaches 900M weekly active users" (Feb 2026)
- Reuters / Sensor Tower, via Yahoo Finance — ChatGPT nears 1 billion monthly app users (2026)
- Dataconomy — Google AI Overviews reach 2.5 billion monthly users (Google I/O 2026)
- Thestacc — AI Overviews now appear on roughly half of Google searches (2026)
- Adobe Analytics — traffic to US retail sites from generative-AI sources up ~1,200% (Mar 2025)
- Adobe — 39% of shoppers use AI to shop; AI referrals convert ~31% more (2025)
- BrightLocal — Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 (AI used to find local reviews: 6%, down from 9%)
- Frase — Generative Engine Optimization: FAQ schema, tables and direct answers are the most cite-able formats
- TechTimes / Brandlight — overlap between top Google links and AI-cited sources fell from ~70% to under 20%
Figures reflect the most recent public data available at the time of writing (July 2026). User counts and adoption rates for AI tools are moving quickly; treat them as a snapshot, not a fixed point.
