Are people really using AI to find local businesses?
More every year. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 45 percent had used ChatGPT or another AI tool to find local business recommendations, up from 6 percent a year earlier. That put AI third among the places people look for local businesses. Trust is still catching up: 40 percent said they trust AI to recommend a business.
Where do AI engines get local answers?
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google says AI Mode draws on its Knowledge Graph and Google Maps, and its guidance for site owners says a Google Business Profile can help your business show up in AI responses as well as regular results. In other words, your Business Profile feeds Google's AI answers directly. More on how that product works in what is Google AI Mode.
ChatGPT
OpenAI says ChatGPT uses your approximate location, based on your IP address, to find local results, and that on phones it may show a map. For restaurants it can check reservation times from OpenTable, Resy or Yelp. Yelp says ChatGPT also shows Yelp reviews, ratings, photos and business details. OpenAI mentions third-party search providers but doesn't publish a full list, so claims you'll read online about exactly which directory powers ChatGPT's local results are guesses.
What gets cited
Yext looked at 6.8 million citations in location-based answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in mid-2025. Business websites made up 44 percent of the sources and listings 42 percent. Reviews and social posts were 8 percent, and forums 2 percent. Yext sells listings management, so keep that in mind, but the pattern is plain enough: your own site and your listings supply most of what AI says about a local business.
Where AI engines' local answers come from
- Business websites 44%
- Listings 42%
- Reviews and social 8%
- Forums 2%
What should a local business do first?
1. Fill in your Google Business Profile completely
Google says local results depend on relevance, distance and prominence. Distance you can't change. Relevance comes from an accurate, complete profile: the right primary category, your services, your service area, hours and photos. Prominence comes partly from reviews and from other sites mentioning you.
2. Keep every listing consistent
Your name, address, phone number and hours should match on Google, Yelp, Bing, Apple Maps and the directories that matter in your trade. AI engines pull from several of these sources, and conflicting details give them a reason to skip you or state something wrong.
3. Earn reviews, and answer them
Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. SOCi's 2026 study of about 350,000 chain locations found the ones ChatGPT recommended averaged 4.3 stars, and SOCi's view is that below roughly 4 stars many AI systems won't consider you. That's chains, not independent shops, but asking happy customers for reviews is worth doing either way.
4. Make your website say what and where
Give each main service its own page, and say which towns or neighborhoods you serve in plain words. Put your name, address and phone number on the site in text, not only in an image. Answer the questions customers ask before they call: rough prices, response times, what's included. LocalBusiness structured data restates those details in a format machines read directly. It won't earn a recommendation on its own, but it removes guesswork.
5. Don't block the AI search crawlers
OpenAI says a site has to allow its OAI-SearchBot crawler to be eligible for ChatGPT search results, and tells site owners to confirm their web host or CDN isn't blocking OpenAI's traffic. Google's AI answers need Googlebot. Our guide to allowing AI crawlers shows how to check.
Why is local AI visibility hard to measure?
"Near me" means something different for every person asking. ChatGPT and Google both factor in location, so a customer across town can get a different list than you do from your office. Answers also shift from one run to the next, as why AI citations keep changing explains.
The engines also disagree with each other. In SOCi's 2026 study, the average brand showed up in Google's local 3-Pack 35.9 percent of the time, but only 1.2 percent of locations were recommended by ChatGPT and 11.0 percent by Gemini. SOCi doesn't publish exactly how it defined a recommendation, so read those as a rough comparison. The takeaway still holds: doing well in Google Maps doesn't mean ChatGPT will name you.
The practical fix is to name the place. Ask "best emergency plumber in Tucson," not "plumber near me," so the question means the same thing every time you ask it. Then ask it more than once, on more than one engine. How to check if AI search mentions your brand walks through the manual version.
Common questions
Do I still need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
Yes. The profile covers the basics, like your name, hours, location and reviews. Your website is where you explain the details an AI answer needs: exactly which services you offer, which neighborhoods you cover, what things cost and how you compare. In Yext's 2025 analysis of location-based AI answers, business websites were the single biggest source of citations, at 44 percent.
Does my Google Business Profile affect what ChatGPT says?
Nobody outside OpenAI can say for sure. OpenAI says ChatGPT uses your approximate location for local results and relies on third-party providers, but it doesn't name them all. What's public is that it can show Yelp reviews and ratings, and book tables through OpenTable, Resy and Yelp. Keeping every listing accurate, not just Google's, is the safe bet.
Do reviews matter for AI recommendations?
They appear to. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking, and its AI features draw on that same data. SOCi's 2026 study of multi-location brands found the locations ChatGPT recommended averaged 4.3 stars. That study measured chains, not independent businesses, so treat the exact number with care.
How do I check whether AI recommends my business?
Name your city in the question instead of saying "near me," because near-me answers depend on where the person asking is. Ask the way a customer would, for example "best emergency plumber in Tucson," on a few different engines, and repeat it a few times. Note who gets named and whether you're one of them.
How Web Cited helps
You write the questions Citation Monitor tracks, so for a local business they should name your city: "best dentist for kids in Boise," "24-hour locksmith in Austin." It asks those every week across six AI engines, 3 times each, and shows who gets named instead of you. It asks the engines directly rather than through a phone in your neighborhood, which is why naming the place in the question matters.
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By the Web Cited Editorial Research Team. Last updated 29 September 2026. Sources: BrightLocal (February 2026); Google (Business Profile Help, Search Central, August 2025); OpenAI Help Center; Yelp (August 2026); Yext (October 2025); SOCi (August 2026).