How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI

"Where's a quiet boutique villa near Galle with a pool?" "Which dental clinic near me has good reviews?" More and more people are asking questions like these to ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode or Gemini, instead of scrolling through ten blue links. The AI gives a short answer and recommends a few businesses. If yours isn't one of them, you may never know the customer existed.

The good news: there's no secret trick to being recommended. The businesses that show up are mostly the ones that have done the basics properly. Here's what matters, and what you can control.

This is already happening

• In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of US consumers, 45% said they had used ChatGPT or another AI tool to get recommendations for local businesses, up from 6% the year before. 40% said they trust AI platforms to recommend businesses.¹
• Pew Research found that 44% of US adults now use ChatGPT, rising to 61% of 18–29-year-olds.²
• Google says its AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly users in 2026.³

BrightLocal is a marketing company and its survey is of US adults, so treat the exact figures with care. But the direction is clear, and it's moving fast.

How Google's AI chooses what to show

Google is unusually direct about this. Its official guidance says there are "no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." To be eligible, a page simply needs to be indexed and able to appear in Google Search with a snippet.⁴

In other words, AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on the same foundations as normal search. If Google can't find, read or trust your website, its AI won't recommend you either.

For local businesses, Google's ranking comes down to three things, according to its Business Profile help pages:⁵

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone is searching for.
• Distance: how close you are to the person searching.
• Prominence: how well known your business is. Google notes that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."

Google also says there's "no way to request or pay for a better local ranking."⁵

How ChatGPT finds businesses

ChatGPT search looks things up on the web in real time, partly using other search providers.⁶ Microsoft announced in 2023 that Bing would power ChatGPT's search; today OpenAI only says it uses third-party search providers.⁷ For local questions, ChatGPT can use the person's approximate location and, on phones, show results on a map.⁶

Two points matter for your website:

• Let OpenAI's search crawler in. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Some website hosts and security settings block it without the owner knowing. You can allow search while still blocking AI training, which uses a separate crawler.⁸
• No one can buy the top spot. OpenAI says "there is no way to guarantee top placement."⁶ Be wary of anyone promising otherwise.

Seven things you can do now

1. Complete your Google Business Profile. Choose the right category, and add accurate hours, services, prices, photos, booking link and a clear description. This is one of the strongest local signals there is.
2. Earn reviews, and reply to them. Ask happy customers for reviews regularly, not in bursts. BrightLocal found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 82% read AI-generated review summaries.¹ What people say about you is exactly what AI summarises.
3. Make your website easy to read. Each service or room should have its own page that clearly says what it is, who it's for, where it is, what it costs and how to book. Write the way your customers ask questions.
4. Answer real questions on your site. Add an FAQ with the questions customers actually ask: parking, check-in times, prices, cancellation rules, nearby attractions. AI tools often answer by pulling these details from businesses that state them clearly.
5. Add structured data. LocalBusiness markup tells search engines your name, address, opening hours and reviews in a format they can read reliably. Google says your structured data should match what's visible on the page, and it doesn't guarantee any special display.⁹⁴
6. Check that crawlers can reach you. Make sure your robots.txt file, website host and security settings allow Googlebot and OAI-SearchBot.⁴⁸
7. Keep your details consistent everywhere. Your name, address, phone number and hours should match across your website, Google, booking sites, social media and directories. Mixed signals make you harder to trust.

The bottom line

Being recommended by AI isn't a separate project from good marketing. It's the result of it: a complete Google profile, plenty of genuine reviews, and a clear, fast website that answers real questions. Get those right, and you're well placed for search today and whatever form it takes next.