A growing number of potential customers are skipping Google Search entirely and going straight to an AI platform to find local businesses. They type “best plumber in Nashville” or “top-rated hair salon near me” into ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Grok, or Claude — and they trust what comes back. For local businesses, this is a new and rapidly growing source of customers. And just like Google Search, showing up in those AI recommendations is not random. It is the result of specific, measurable signals that businesses either have or they don’t. Business owners who want professional help building those signals can explore done-for-you Google Business Profile management — but first, it helps to understand exactly what AI platforms are looking at and why.
Try This Right Now
Before reading further, open any AI platform — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Grok, or Claude — and type “best [your type of business] in [your city].” See what comes back. Does the business appear? If not, who does — and why?
This simple test reveals something important: AI platforms are already recommending local businesses to potential customers. The question is whether any given business is showing up in those recommendations or being left out entirely.
What AI Platforms Look at When Recommending Local Businesses
All four major AI platforms — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Grok, and Claude — draw from publicly available information about businesses when generating local recommendations. They look at review platforms, business directories, website content, and the overall online presence of a business to determine which ones are credible, well-established, and genuinely relevant to the search.
To understand what those platforms prioritize, Leah Severson of Severson Digital Marketing asked each of the four AI platforms directly: what is the number one thing a local business can do to increase its chances of being recommended? The answers varied slightly in how they were expressed — but the pattern was unmistakable. “Across the board, about 80% of the work needed for AI endorsements came from work done within a business’s Google Business Profile. Every single AI platform pointed back to the GBP as the primary foundation for local AI visibility. That was eye-opening — and it confirms that the work local businesses are already doing for Google Search is also the work that gets them found on AI platforms.”
The Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) is not just a Google tool. It is the most authoritative, widely referenced source of local business data on the internet — and AI platforms know it.
The Google Business Profile: Foundation of AI Visibility
AI platforms that recommend local businesses need to trust the information they are drawing from. The Google Business Profile is that trusted source. It contains the business name, address, phone number, hours, services, description, photos, and — critically — reviews. All of that information is publicly available, consistently structured, and regularly updated. It is exactly what an AI needs to confidently recommend a business.
A Google Business Profile that is incomplete, vague, or out of date is a profile that AI platforms cannot confidently draw from. A profile with a detailed services section, a keyword-rich business description, accurate location information, and a strong collection of recent reviews is a profile that gives AI platforms everything they need to recommend that business with confidence.
Optimizing the services section of a Google Business Profile is one of the most direct ways to give AI platforms the specific, structured information they use to match a business to local service searches.
Reviews: Volume, Freshness, and Specificity
Reviews are one of the strongest signals AI platforms use when evaluating local businesses. And not just any reviews — the right kind of reviews, in the right quantity, coming in at a consistent pace.
Volume
A business with fewer than 20 reviews does not give AI platforms enough signal to recommend it with confidence. At 50 or more reviews, a business starts carrying real weight. At 100 or more, it becomes a credible first choice in most AI recommendations. The number matters — not because more reviews are always better, but because volume signals that many real customers have had real experiences worth sharing.
Freshness
A business with 150 reviews from three years ago and nothing recent sends a concerning signal. AI platforms — like Google — treat recent activity as evidence that a business is still operating and still earning customer trust. A steady flow of two or three new reviews every month is far more valuable for AI visibility than a large batch of old reviews with nothing following them.
Specificity
Generic reviews — “Great service!” or “Highly recommend!” — provide limited signal. Reviews that mention the specific service, the location, or a concrete detail about the experience give AI platforms much richer data to work with. A review that says “They installed a new water heater at our home in Carmel and finished in under three hours” tells an AI platform the service, the geography, and the outcome. That is the kind of review that strengthens AI visibility. Encouraging customers to be specific — without scripting their words — is a legitimate and effective strategy. Understanding how to earn and protect Google reviews is a foundational part of building the review profile that AI platforms trust.
NAP Consistency Matters for AI Too
AI platforms cross-reference business information across multiple sources. When the name, address, and phone number match consistently across Google, Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, and other directories, AI platforms can confidently confirm that the information they have about a business is accurate. When that information is inconsistent — different phone numbers, old addresses, name variations — AI platforms are less confident about the business and less likely to recommend it.
This is the same principle that drives local search rankings. NAP consistency across the web is not just a Google concern — it is a foundational trust signal for every platform that references business data, including AI.
Website Content Still Matters
While the Google Business Profile carries the most weight, AI platforms also pull from business websites when generating local recommendations. A website with clear service pages, location-specific content, and enough information for an AI to understand what the business does and where it operates is more likely to be recommended than a thin, vague website with little useful content.
This connects directly to the importance of dedicated service pages on a business website. A page built specifically around one service in one geographic area gives both Google and AI platforms a clear, specific signal about what the business offers — which is exactly the kind of signal needed to appear in local AI recommendations.
The One Thing AI Platforms Cannot Be Paid to Do
One of the most important things to understand about AI search recommendations is that they cannot be bought. None of the four major AI platforms — ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Claude — take paid advertising into account when recommending local businesses. There is no way to pay for placement in an AI recommendation. It is entirely earned.
That is actually good news for small local businesses. It means the playing field is level. A well-optimized business with a strong Google Business Profile, a solid review profile, and consistent online information can compete with — and beat — larger businesses that have bigger marketing budgets but weaker local signals.
The businesses that win AI recommendations are the ones doing the work. Not the ones spending the most money.
A Simple AI Visibility Checklist
For local businesses that want to improve their chances of showing up in AI recommendations, here is where to focus:
- Complete and optimize the Google Business Profile — every section, every field
- Write a specific, keyword-rich business description that includes the city and key services
- Fill out the services section with detailed, location-aware descriptions for every service offered
- Build a consistent flow of genuine customer reviews — aim for two to three new reviews per month
- Encourage reviews that mention specific services and locations
- Ensure NAP information matches exactly across all online directories and platforms
- Build a website with dedicated service pages and natural location language throughout
- Post regularly to the Google Business Profile to signal that the business is active
The Bottom Line
AI search is not a separate strategy from local SEO. It is an extension of it. The businesses that show up in AI recommendations are the businesses that have already done the work of building a strong, consistent, well-optimized local online presence. And the foundation of that presence — across every AI platform tested — is the Google Business Profile.
Business owners who want to learn how to build and maintain the kind of Google Business Profile that performs well in both traditional local search and AI recommendations can find step-by-step guidance through Google Business Profile training built specifically for local business owners.
