AI and local search
Do customers use ChatGPT to find local businesses?
Yes, and far more than a year ago. The surveys disagree on the exact numbers, but they agree on the direction: a real share of your customers now ask an AI assistant who to call before they ever open a map.
Updated · By AltaSmith, Calgary
What the 2026 surveys show
- BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found about 45% of consumers use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to find local businesses, up from 6% the year before.
- ChatGPT led, used by about 31% of consumers for recommendations. AI became the third most popular way to discover local businesses, behind Google and Facebook.
- Adoption was highest among 30-to-44-year-olds, about 64% of whom had asked an AI for a recommendation.
- A separate 2026 report, SOCi’s Local Discovery Index, put the share who had used AI to find a local business in the past 30 days at about 52%.
What people actually ask
Examples of the kind of question, not survey data, but the shape is consistent. Customers ask in full sentences, with the detail they’d give a friend:
- “Who’s a reliable plumber in NW Calgary who does water heaters?”
- “What’s a fair price for a small business website in Alberta?”
- “Which electricians near me install EV chargers?”
The assistant answers with a short list and a reason for each. Being on that list, with a reason that matches the question, is the goal.
What an assistant relies on
Assistants don’t publish their rules, but the research on what they cite points the same way. They lean on:
- Reviews — how many, how recent, and what they say.
- Listings and citations — your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and other directories, all saying the same thing.
- Your own website — clear service pages and honest answers to the questions people ask.
- Structured data — behind-the-scenes markup that states your business facts plainly so a machine can’t misread them.
- Freshness — pages that were updated recently tend to be cited more than stale ones.
Where the answer comes from varies by assistant. In one analysis of AI citations, Gemini drew about half of its citations from brands’ own websites, while ChatGPT drew about half from third-party sites. That’s why you need both a strong website and strong listings and reviews.
They still check
Customers don’t take an AI’s word for it. BrightLocal found nearly all AI users double-check recommendations at least sometimes, most often by looking at reviews or checking other sources. So an assistant may name you, and then your reviews and your website have to close the deal. That’s why these fundamentals still matter.
What a small business can do today
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile and add a Bing Places listing, which Copilot and Bing draw on.
- Keep your name, address, phone, and hours identical everywhere.
- Ask happy customers for reviews, steadily, and reply to them.
- Give each service its own page, with a short FAQ answering what customers really ask.
- Add structured data so your facts are unambiguous, and keep pages current.
That list is what Business in a Box ($750, added to any website package) sets up: your Google Business Profile and Bing Places, local SEO, and structuring your site so ChatGPT, Google’s AI answers, Perplexity, and Copilot can describe you correctly. See what’s included, or read website vs Google Business Profile. We can’t promise an assistant will name you, but we can make sure nothing you control is getting in the way.
Common questions
For now, yes. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey AI tools were the third most used way to find local businesses, behind Google and Facebook. But AI use grew from a small base to a large one in a year, so it’s no longer something to ignore.
No, and nobody honestly can. Assistants decide for themselves. What we can do is make sure the things they rely on are in order: accurate listings, a clear website, structured data, and a steady stream of real reviews.
Not a special kind. It needs to be clear, current, and structured well: a page for each service, your real business details, answers to common questions, and structured data that states those facts plainly. That’s also what works for ordinary Google search.
Yes. Assistants draw on the same signals a person would check: your profile, reviews, directory listings, and your own website. Keeping them consistent makes it easier for an assistant to describe you correctly.
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