People have started asking AI assistants the questions they used to type into Google: "who is a good electrician in Taunton", "find me a dog groomer near Exeter that does hand stripping". If you are a local business wondering how ChatGPT and similar tools decide who to mention, the honest answer is that nobody outside those companies knows the details - and anyone quoting precise figures about AI search share is guessing.
What we do know is where these tools get their information, and what the companies themselves say. That is enough to act on, and it overlaps almost entirely with doing local SEO properly.
Where AI assistants get local information
AI assistants do not know about your business from memory in any reliable way. When they answer local questions, they generally retrieve current information from the web, and then summarise it. The sources vary by product, but broadly:
| Product | What its maker says | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | No special optimisation or extra markup needed; pages must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet | Normal SEO and a strong Business Profile are the route in |
| ChatGPT search | Uses OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot crawler; sites that block it will not be shown in search answers | Do not block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt |
| Other assistants | Typically draw on web search indexes and map data | Be accurate on Google, Bing and Apple Maps |
What Google says about AI Overviews
Google's own documentation is refreshingly direct: there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimisations are necessary. You do not need new machine-readable files, "AI text files" or special markup. To be eligible as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet.
In other words, anyone selling you "AI Overview optimisation" as a separate product is selling you normal SEO with a new label - or something that does not do anything.
What makes a local business citable
An AI answer is only as confident as its sources. If your details are inconsistent, thin or buried, you are less likely to be named. The things that make you easy to cite:
- Consistent facts everywhere: the same business name, phone number, address or service area and hours on your website, Business Profile and directories.
- Clear, specific pages: one page per service, stating what you do, where you work and for whom, in plain sentences an assistant can quote.
- A proper FAQ section: real customer questions with answers whose first sentence makes sense on its own.
- Genuine reviews in volume, with replies. Review text often describes exactly the jobs you do and where.
- Structured data: LocalBusiness markup giving your name, address, phone, opening hours and URL in machine-readable form. Google documents it for search; other systems can read it too.
- Verifiable credentials where they apply - Gas Safe, NICEIC, TrustMark - listed on your site and linked to the register.
Technical basics that are easy to get wrong
- Do not block search and AI crawlers you want to be found by. Some hosting templates and security plugins block unfamiliar bots by default.
- Check that OAI-SearchBot is allowed in robots.txt if you want to appear in ChatGPT search answers. OpenAI says changes can take around a day to take effect.
- Make sure key information is in the page text, not only in images or PDFs.
- Keep your Bing Places and Apple Business Connect listings accurate as well as Google.
What to be sceptical of
AI search is new enough that confident claims outrun evidence. Treat any precise statistic about how many people use ChatGPT to find a local plumber, or any promise to "get you recommended by ChatGPT", with caution. The companies do not publish how their local recommendations are ranked, and results vary between users and from one day to the next.
What is not speculative: a business with accurate details, clear pages and genuine reviews is better described everywhere - in Google, in Maps and in AI answers alike. The work is the same work.
A short checklist
- Business Profile complete and verified.
- Website indexed, with one clear page per service.
- Name, address or area, and phone identical everywhere.
- LocalBusiness structured data in place.
- FAQ page answering real questions.
- Reviews requested after every job.
- No accidental blocking of search crawlers.