by John Parkins
I own a marketing agency, and I can't remember the last time I typed three keywords into Google and hit enter. When I'm looking for something now, I ask an AI tool a full question, the same way I'd ask a person. Then I ask for the pros and cons. Then I ask it to summarize the reviews so I don't have to read 200 of them myself.
I'm not special. I'm the average Joe doing what millions of other average Joes are doing every day. And here's the part that should get your attention: your customers are doing it too, right now, about businesses like yours.
The short version of this post: AI search is already how a lot of people find local businesses, the AI tools build their answers from your online listings, and if those listings are thin or wrong, you're either invisible or misrepresented. The good news is that fixing it is very doable.
What is AI search, and why should you care?
AI search is when someone asks a tool like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI results a question in plain language and gets a direct answer instead of a page of links. Ask "who does good brake work near me and are they straight with people about pricing" and the tool answers like a knowledgeable friend. It names a few businesses. It explains why. It sums up what reviewers say.
That last part deserves a minute. Nobody reads 200 reviews. I ask the AI for the overall picture, and it writes one. Which means somewhere out there, an AI tool is writing a summary of your business based on your reviews, whether you've looked at them lately or not.
Where do AI tools get their information about your business?
Mostly from your listings. BrightLocal, a local search company whose research I follow, tested the major AI tools to see where they pull their facts when someone searches for a local business. The big sources were Google Business Profile, Yelp, the business's own website, and industry directories.
Google's AI leans hardest on Google Business Profile. In a lot of AI results now, clicking a business name doesn't go to the website at all. It opens the profile right there in the search results. Your hours, your photos, your reviews, your service list. For plenty of customers, your profile is the only "website" they'll ever see.
I made the case a while back that your Google Business Profile matters more than your website. AI search took that argument and turned the volume up.
What should you actually do about it?
The direct answer: make sure every place an AI tool might look for facts about your business is complete, accurate, and telling the same story. Here's the checklist I'd run for any business around here:
- Claim your Google Business Profile if you haven't, and fill in every field. Hours, services, photos, the works. Half-empty profiles get half-confident answers.
- Pick specific categories. "Restaurant" tells Google almost nothing. "Mexican restaurant" gives the AI something to work with.
- Get your reviews in shape. Ask happy customers to leave them, and respond to the ones you have. The AI is going to summarize them either way. Give it good material.
- Check Yelp, even if you've ignored it since 2019. If a third of AI searches pull from Yelp, an outdated Yelp page becomes an outdated answer about your business.
- Make sure your name, address, phone, and hours match everywhere. Website, profile, directories, social. AI tools cross-check sources, and mismatches make you look unreliable to the machine deciding whether to recommend you.
None of this is exotic. It's the local search basics, except the stakes went up. Old Google showed a list of twenty businesses and let the customer scroll. AI recommends a few. You want to be in the few.
The window to get ahead is open right now
Here's my honest read. Most small businesses haven't touched their listings in years. The ones who clean theirs up in 2026 will be the businesses AI tools recommend, while their competitors wonder where the phone calls went. I watched this exact thing happen 20 years ago when Google started eating the Yellow Pages. The businesses that moved online early got the customers. Everybody else kept writing checks for a half-page ad in a book nobody opened anymore.
At BeyondVivid Marketing Co. here in Lima, Ohio, this is exactly the kind of work our Digital Squad handles for small businesses across Allen County and Northwest Ohio: profiles, listings, reviews, and the rest of the plumbing that decides whether AI tools know who you are.
Questions I'm hearing about AI search
Is AI search replacing Google?
Not replacing, blending. Google now puts AI answers at the top of its own results, and tools like ChatGPT handle a growing share of searches. Either way, the answer gets built from your listings.
Do I need a different strategy for ChatGPT than for Google?
No. The tools pull from overlapping sources. Get your profile, website, reviews, and directories accurate and consistent, and you've covered the bases for all of them at once.
Who can help me with AI search and local listings in Lima, Ohio?
That's us. BeyondVivid Marketing Co. works with small businesses in Lima, Allen County, and Northwest Ohio on Google Business Profiles, local listings, and getting found online. If you'd rather talk it through than DIY it, reach out and we'll look at where your business shows up today. No pressure.
