Getting found when someone asks an AI assistant.

A business owner in Snaresbrook told me recently that she had heard ChatGPT could now help people find local businesses. She wanted to know if she was on it. She had never thought to check.

I opened ChatGPT on my phone, typed her business type and area, and read the response. Her business was not there. Two competitors were, described in detail. One of them she had never heard of.

She had more reviews. She had been trading longer. She had a website; the other place did not, as far as either of us could tell. But the AI had found them and not her.

This happens constantly. And most business owners do not know it is happening because they have never thought to check.

When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview for a local recommendation, the tool is doing something more layered than a simple search. It is drawing on two types of information.

The first is its training data: everything the model read during training, which includes a large portion of the public web. Local directories, food guides, community blogs, business websites. If your business has been mentioned in these places, in detail, that information may be part of what the model already knows.

The second is live search data. Perplexity and Google's AI Overview can access current search results. This means they can read your Google Business Profile, your website, and any recent mentions, right now.

The combination means the AI is not working purely from old information, but it is not purely working from the freshest data either. Both sources matter. And both reward the same thing: clarity.

People often assume that AI recommendations follow the same logic as Google search rankings: more reviews, higher stars, more clicks. That is not quite right.

What AI assistants are looking for is the ability to describe your business confidently. They are trying to construct an answer to a human question. To do that, they need information that is clear, specific, and consistent across sources.

A business that has written "we offer a range of quality services" has given the AI nothing it can use. A business that has written "we are an independent florist on Wanstead High Street, open Tuesday through Saturday, specialising in seasonal arrangements for weddings and events" has given the AI a full, usable description.

The AI does not need poetry. It needs facts, clearly stated, in the places it knows to look.

Being recommended by an AI is not a technical problem. It is a writing and consistency problem.

Across the businesses I work with, three things reliably separate those that appear in AI recommendations from those that do not.

Your Google Business Profile description. This is the most widely read source of local business information. If the description is sparse, generic, or missing, the AI has little to work with. If it is specific (describing the type of business, the location, the customers served, the particular thing that makes you worth visiting) the AI can include you in a recommendation with confidence.

Your website's About or Services page. AI assistants read websites. They pay particular attention to pages that explain what a business does and where it operates. An About page that describes your offer in plain, specific English, with your location named clearly, is one of the most useful documents you can have for AI visibility.

Consistency across platforms. If your website, your Google Business Profile, and your directory listings all describe your business differently (different hours, different phone number, different description of what you do) the AI cannot construct a reliable answer. It tends not to recommend businesses it cannot describe confidently.

Search for yourself in ChatGPT or Perplexity. Not on Google, in the AI tools specifically. Type your business name. Then type what a stranger would type to find you. Read what comes back. If you do not appear, or if what appears is thin or inaccurate, that is your starting point.

Read your Google Business Profile description as a stranger would. Does it tell someone what you do, specifically? Does it mention where you are? Would a first-time visitor know whether you are the right place for them, from that description alone?

Check that your information is consistent. Same hours on Google, on your website, and on Apple Maps. Same phone number everywhere. Same description of what you do across all platforms. Inconsistency erodes confidence in both search algorithms and the people using them.

None of this requires technical expertise. It requires time and attention to detail that most business owners simply do not have while they are running a business. That is the work we do.