AI search6 min read
What is AI search and does my café need to care?
AI search is people asking ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI where to eat, stay or who to call, and getting an answer instead of a list of links. In 2026 nearly half of consumers in one US survey had tried it for a local recommendation. The answers are built from the same things Google rewards: a complete Business Profile, consistent facts, and pages that answer real questions.
Written by Rebecca Peake
Published Updated
What is AI search, in plain terms?
It is a search that answers instead of listing. Somebody asks ChatGPT where to eat in Bude tonight with a dog, or reads the summary Google now writes above the blue links, and gets a short paragraph naming three places. No ten results, no scrolling, and often no click at all unless one of those three names is worth a look.
For a small business the change is not that people search differently. It is that being on page one is no longer the finish line. Being named in the paragraph is.
Are people really asking ChatGPT where to eat?
More than they were, and the jump in a single year is the part worth noticing. The survey below is American, so treat it as a weather forecast for Cornwall rather than a reading taken here.
of consumers used ChatGPT or another generative AI tool for a local business recommendation in the last twelve months, up from 6% a year earlier. US survey of 1,002 consumers, February 2026.
Before anybody panics: the same engines are extremely stingy about who they name. Most local businesses are simply not in the answer, whatever they do.
of local business locations are recommended by ChatGPT, against 35.9% appearing in Google's local map pack. Analysis of more than 350,000 business locations across 2,751 brands, 2026. SOCi's sample is US-weighted.
The bit that is already affecting you is not ChatGPT at all. It is the AI summary Google now writes at the top of its own results, which turns up far more often for local questions than the map does.
of local business searches showed an AI Overview, against 39% that showed a local map pack. Study of 540 queries across three US cities, second quarter of 2025.
What do the answer engines actually read?
Nothing exotic. They read the same public facts Google has always read, which is good news, because it means the work is work you would want done anyway.
of all citations in AI answers about local businesses pointed at Google, mostly Business Profiles, and around 93% of the individual domains cited were businesses' own websites. Analysis of 1.9 million citations across UK, US and Australian locations, August 2026.
| Where it looks | What it takes | What you can do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Your Google Business Profile | Name, category, hours, service area, photographs, reviews | Claim it, complete every field, keep the hours right |
| Your own website | Prices, what you sell, parking, dogs, the answers to real questions | Answer each question in text, in the first paragraph, not in a picture of a menu |
| Review sites and social pages | Ratings, recent comments, whether anybody replies | Ask for reviews, reply to them, keep the Facebook page's facts identical |
| Directories and listings | Your name, address and phone number | Make all three match, character for character, everywhere they appear |
| Other people's pages | Mentions of you in local guides and round-ups | Be worth writing about, and tell the people who write about the area that you exist |
Scroll the table sideways →
Does this replace Google?
Not this year, and not for a café in North Cornwall.
of UK mobile searches went through Google in July 2026.
So the sensible position is neither to rebuild your marketing around ChatGPT nor to ignore the whole thing. Do the work that pays off in both, because it is the same work. A complete profile, facts that agree with each other, and pages that answer real questions in real sentences.
What gets a small café named?
In order of what actually moves the needle.
- A complete, current Google Business Profile, because it is the single most cited source in local answers. Ours is the Google Business Profile and local SEO work, with the profile set up and verified for £90, and there is a whole article on showing up on Google Maps in Bude.
- Reviews that are recent and answered, because the engines read the replies as well as the ratings.
- A page on your own site for each real question. Do you take dogs. Is there parking. What time is the kitchen open on a Sunday. Answer in the first forty words, in text — which is most of what we do on a café, pub or restaurant site.
- The same business name, the same address and the same phone number everywhere, so nothing has to guess which version is right.
One warning worth having. These engines are confident and sometimes wrong. An answer can tell a visitor you have no parking, or that you close at four, from a listing you have not looked at since 2021. The fix is not clever writing. It is going and correcting the source.
What to do about it
- Ask ChatGPT, Google and one other engine where to eat or stay in your town, and see who gets named and what is said about you.
- Correct anything wrong at the source: the profile first, then your own pages, then the directories.
- Write down the ten questions you answer on the phone every week, and put each answer on your site in plain sentences.
- Check the facts on your website, your profile and your social pages agree with each other.
If you would like somebody to look at all of that from the outside, send us your web address for a free website check. We answer with a real reply from a real person, not a report generated by a machine.
Quick questions about AI search
Can anyone guarantee ChatGPT will name my business?
No. The answers change from one question to the next, and the engines are stingy about who they name. What you can do is make your facts easy to find and consistent: a complete Business Profile, a website that answers real questions in plain text, and reviews that are recent and answered. Anyone promising a guaranteed mention is guessing.
How much does AI search setup cost?
It starts with a free check: we ask the AI tools about your business and show you what they say. The setup is then priced from what that check finds, in writing before anything starts. It covers the audit, pages rewritten so the tools can quote them, schema, an llms.txt file and access for AI crawlers.
Does my café need an llms.txt file?
It does no harm, but it is not where to start. An llms.txt file is a plain-text summary of your site written for AI tools, and not every engine reads it. Your Business Profile, your own pages and your reviews do far more of the work. We add one as part of AI search setup, once those are right.