What AI search is, and why it matters now
People ask AI who to hire and get two or three names back. What changed, which assistants matter, and why being named is the new page 1.
For twenty years, finding a plumber meant searching Google and choosing from a page of links. More and more people now ask an AI assistant instead, in a full sentence: “Who's the best plumber near me for an emergency?” The assistant reads the web for them and answers with two or three names.
The assistants that matter
- ChatGPT, the best known, used by people for everything from recipes to finding a roofer.
- Google's AI: the AI Overviews at the top of many Google searches, and AI Mode, a chat inside Google Search.
- Gemini, Google's own assistant, built into Android phones.
- Perplexity, Claude and Microsoft Copilot, smaller but growing.
Engines tracked
Weekly
ChatGPT
64%
Claude
33%
Gemini
39%
Perplexity
71%
Google AI
48%
Copilot
Soon
Grok
Soon
Meta AI
Soon
DeepSeek
Soon
Sample data
Why it matters
On Google, being fourth still gets you some calls. In an AI answer, there is no fourth: you're named or you're not. And assistants show their sources: in our Local AI Index, Perplexity cited almost nine websites per answer on average, so the businesses on those websites get named.
The good news is that it's early. Most of your competitors haven't started working on it, and the things that move it are things you can do yourself.
Do this before the next lesson
- Ask ChatGPT and Google (look for the AI answer at the top) the question your customers ask: “Who's the best [your service] in [your town]?”
- Note whether you're named, who is, and what the answer says about them.
In Groow
Groow asks your customers' questions on every major assistant each week, several times each, and shows how often each one names you.
Put this to work on your business
Groow checks how ChatGPT, Google and Google Maps see your business every week, tells you what to fix first, and drafts the work for your OK.