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Short answer: the "1.2 percent" figure comes from SOCi's 2026 Local Visibility Index, which studied about 350,000 locations of 2,751 multi-location brands and found ChatGPT recommended just 1.2% of them, compared with 11% for Gemini, 7.4% for Perplexity and 35.9% appearing in Google's local 3-pack. It is not a count of every local business, but it makes the point: AI tools name very few businesses, far fewer than show up in Google Maps. The businesses that do get named tend to have strong ratings, accurate and consistent information everywhere, a complete Google Business Profile, a website that clearly states what they do and where, mentions on trusted sites and solid Google rankings. None of that is a trick, and no one can guarantee placement, but each step raises the odds that ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google's AI features pick you.
This guide explains where the number comes from, what being recommended by AI actually means, why so few businesses make the list, where AI tools get their information, the seven signals that matter most, a platform-by-platform checklist, how to check whether AI already recommends you and a step-by-step plan.
The good news is that the signals AI tools rely on are the same fundamentals that make a business easy to choose on Google: accurate information, real proof and a clear explanation of what you do and where. Most competitors have gaps in at least a few of them, which leaves room for a business willing to do the work consistently.
From a 2026 vendor study of multi-location brands, not from all local businesses.
SOCi, a local marketing software company, published its 2026 Local Visibility Index in January 2026. It analyzed about 350,000 US locations belonging to 2,751 multi-location brands, the kind of businesses with dozens or hundreds of branches. For a set of local questions, it measured how often each AI tool recommended a given location:
| Platform | Share of locations recommended |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 1.2% |
| Perplexity | 7.4% |
| Gemini | 11% |
| Google local 3-pack (for comparison) | 35.9% |
A few cautions matter. The study covers multi-location brands only, not independent local businesses. It is a vendor study, and its full methodology sits behind a registration form. And it measures how often locations were recommended for the questions SOCi tested, not whether a business has ever been mentioned. Still, the gap between 1.2% on ChatGPT and 35.9% in the 3-pack is striking, and it matches other research showing AI tools name only a handful of businesses per answer.
Being named as a suggested business in an AI answer, not just cited as a source.
When someone asks ChatGPT "who is a good dentist near me" or Google AI Mode "best roofers in [city] for storm damage," the answer usually names a few businesses, often with a short reason for each. Being one of those names is a recommendation. That is different from being a cited source, such as when an AI answer about roof repair costs links to your blog post without suggesting your company.
Both matter, but recommendations drive calls. The main places this happens are:
Because AI answers are short, generated fresh each time and filtered for confidence.
Consumers are using these tools. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 45% of consumers have used AI tools for local business recommendations, and 63% of active AI users trust those recommendations. OpenAI reported more than 1 billion weekly ChatGPT users in August 2026. Being absent from AI answers is becoming a real cost.
As a shortlist they then check, which is why your whole online presence matters.
Trust in AI recommendations is real but conditional. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 63% of active AI users trust AI tools' business recommendations and 42% of all consumers trust AI platforms as much as reviews. The same survey found 88% of AI users fact-check AI outputs and 97% sometimes double-check AI recommendations against real reviews. A Yext global survey of 3,848 consumers found 28% had tried a new local business because of an AI recommendation in the past six months, and 53% of them then checked Google or Bing.
That verification step is good news for businesses that do the fundamentals well. Being named by AI gets you on the shortlist; a strong Google profile, recent reviews and a clear website win the customer when they check. A business that gets named but looks weak on closer inspection loses the job anyway.
Related, but not the same. Strong Google visibility helps, and it is not enough on its own.
The SOCi numbers show the gap: 35.9% of locations appeared in Google's 3-pack, while only 1.2% were recommended by ChatGPT. Research on the link between rankings and AI citations is mixed. Seer Interactive reported a strong correlation between ranking on Google's first page and ChatGPT brand mentions. Ahrefs found that in March 2026, 37.9% of URLs cited in Google AI Overviews ranked in the top 10, down from about 76% in mid-2025. The takeaway: good Google rankings raise your odds, but AI tools also weigh reviews, listings and mentions across the web, so you need both.
Mostly from sources a business can manage: its website, its listings and its reviews.
Usually a handful of fixable gaps, not one big problem.
It feeds Google's AI features directly and appears across other AI tools too.
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Reviews filter who gets recommended and give AI tools the words they summarize.
SOCi's finding that recommended locations averaged 3.9 to 4.3 stars suggests ratings work as a threshold. Beyond the stars, AI tools increasingly summarize what reviews say. Google added Gemini review summaries to Google Maps in October 2024, and its Places API offers AI-generated summaries based solely on user reviews. BrightLocal found 82% of consumers read AI-generated review summaries.
There is no published threshold. Aim to match or exceed the businesses that already appear in AI answers and the map pack for your main searches, with a steady flow of new reviews every month. BrightLocal found 74% of consumers look for reviews written in the last three months.
AI summaries draw on review text, so detailed reviews help. Ask customers to describe their experience honestly, such as what you did and how it went, but never script what they write. Google's policies prohibit incentives for reviews, selectively asking only happy customers and discouraging negative reviews, and the FTC's Consumer Review Rule bans fake reviews, including AI-generated ones.
Reply to every review. Earlier SOCi research from 2024 found high-visibility multi-location brands responded to 80.5% of Google reviews within about 2.1 days, compared with 10.9% within about 12 days for low-visibility brands. That is a correlation, not proof that replies cause visibility, but responsive businesses tend to be the ones customers and platforms trust.
Clear pages, clear facts and nothing blocking the crawlers.
OpenAI says sites must allow its OAI-SearchBot crawler to appear in ChatGPT search answers, and that blocking GPTBot (used for training) is a separate setting. Check your robots.txt, firewall and hosting settings so the crawlers you want are not blocked. Our guide to robots.txt and AI crawlers explains the options.
A dedicated page for each service, explaining what it is, what it costs, how long it takes, where you offer it and why customers choose you, gives AI tools specific facts to match against specific questions. A dedicated page for each service ranked as the top local organic factor in Whitespark's 2026 expert survey.
For each core area, include real projects, local reviews and details specific to that place. Avoid pages that only swap the town name.
LocalBusiness structured data labels your name, address, phone, hours and profiles in a format machines read easily. Google's structured data guide recommends JSON-LD. Keep expectations realistic: Google says structured data is not required for its AI features, and Microsoft's Bing has said schema helps its language models understand content. Use a sameAs list to connect your website to your official profiles. Do not add review stars for your own reviews, which Google stopped showing for local businesses in 2019, and do not rely on FAQ markup for rich results, which Google stopped showing in May 2026.
Fast, mobile-friendly pages help people who click through from AI answers, and Google's Core Web Vitals guidance sets the benchmarks.
When sources agree, AI tools can recommend you with confidence.
SOCi linked ChatGPT and Perplexity's lower accuracy to inconsistent listings across third-party directories. Small differences add up: an old phone number on one site, "Suite 200" on another and a former business name on a third.
Our guide to entity SEO for local businesses covers this in detail.
Being talked about by others appears to matter more than links alone.
Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands found branded web mentions had the strongest correlation with appearing in Google AI Overviews, ahead of backlinks. In Whitespark's 2026 expert survey, presence on expert-curated "best of" lists was the top AI visibility factor. A Wix Studio study found that in professional services, 80.9% of cited list articles were third-party lists rather than businesses' own lists.
AI answers appear most on question-style searches, so answer those questions on your site.
Whitespark's study of local searches found AI Overviews on 92% of informational searches and 97% of hybrid searches that mix a question with local intent, but only 15% of pure "service plus city" searches. Questions like "how much does a roof repair cost in [city]" or "is it worth repairing a 15-year-old water heater" are where AI answers appear.
Because many AI tools search the web before answering, pages that rank well are more likely to be retrieved. BrightEdge found AI Overview citations overlapped with organic rankings at rates as high as 75.3% in health care, though as low as 19.2% for restaurants. Traditional local SEO remains a foundation for AI visibility.
The sources AI tools lean on vary by type of business, which changes where you should focus first.
These are vendor studies with different methods, so use them to set priorities rather than as precise targets.
Voice assistants and maps apps draw on listings you can claim and control.
Claiming and completing Apple Business, Yelp and Bing Places covers a large share of the assistants your customers use, beyond ChatGPT and Google.
AI tools are moving from recommending businesses to calling and booking them, using the data you publish.
Agents can only act on what you publish. Accurate hours, services and prices, an online booking option where it fits and a phone that gets answered make your business easier for both people and agents to choose.
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| Platform | What it relies on | Priority actions |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews and AI Mode | Google index, Business Profile | Complete profile, strong service pages, Google rankings |
| Gemini and Ask Maps | Google Maps data, reviews, websites | Accurate profile, detailed reviews, clear website facts |
| ChatGPT | Partner search providers, listings such as Yelp, websites | Allow OAI-SearchBot, complete Yelp and directory listings |
| Perplexity | Web sources and directories | Consistent listings, well-structured pages |
| Copilot | Bing's index and results | Bing Places listing, site indexed in Bing |
Sources shift quickly, so treat this as a current snapshot. Being strong across all of them is safer than optimizing for one.
Clear, well-structured pages that match the question, with specific facts.
For a local business, that means service pages with question-style headings, dated price ranges, simple comparison tables where customers choose between options and regular updates.
Both now offer free reports, with limits.
None of these show recommendations inside ChatGPT or Gemini answers that did not lead to a click, which is why a manual or tool-based prompt check is still needed.
It depends on the change and the platform. OpenAI says robots.txt changes for its crawlers take about 24 hours to apply. Google reviews Business Profile edits before they go live. Website changes have to be recrawled before search-based AI tools see them, which can take days or weeks. Reviews, mentions and rankings build over months. Expect quick fixes, such as corrected hours or unblocked crawlers, to show within weeks, and broader visibility gains over several months.
Google's SEO Starter Guide says changes can take from a few hours to several months to show in Search, and AI tools pick up changes on their own schedules. Expect to measure progress in months.
Here is how a hypothetical independent dental practice might work through the seven signals.
The practice has a 4.6-star rating with reviews that slowed to one or two a month, a Google profile with the generic category "Dentist" and no services listed, a website with one "Services" page and an old phone number on two directories. When the owner asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode "best family dentist in [city]" and "emergency dentist open Saturday near [neighborhood]," the practice is named in only a handful of 60 answers, and ChatGPT lists the old phone number.
Over the following months, the share of answers naming the practice rises, ChatGPT shows the correct phone number and the emergency page starts appearing in AI answers about weekend dental care. The practice is still not named in every answer, which is normal. The trend is what matters. These numbers are illustrative; real results depend on the market and competition.
Small, consistent effort beats an occasional big push, because AI tools reward businesses whose information is current and consistent everywhere.
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Study what they have that you do not, then close the gaps you can control.
You do not need to copy them. You need to be the clearer, better-reviewed and more widely confirmed option for the questions you most want to win.
Not in the answer itself. Ads, where they exist, are separate and labeled.
OpenAI announced in January 2026 that it would show ads at the bottom of answers, clearly labeled, and said ads would not influence the answers themselves. Testing began in the US in February 2026 for logged-in adults on free and lower-cost plans, and OpenAI said in August 2026 that ads had expanded to more than 40 countries. That means paid placement may appear near AI answers, but the recommendations inside the answer are still earned through the signals in this guide. Treat any service that promises to place your business inside ChatGPT's answers for a fee with skepticism.
Big brands have advantages, but independents can win on local specificity.
National brands and franchises often have more reviews, more mentions and more consistent data, and one PR firm's 2026 index of HVAC and plumbing AI answers found national brands and franchises dominated, though it did not publish its underlying data. At the same time, SOCi's study shows even large brands are recommended for only a small share of their locations, and SparkToro's research found regional service providers tended to cluster around familiar local names. An independent business with excellent reviews, a precise service and area focus, strong local mentions and consistent details can be the clearest answer for specific local questions, even against bigger names.
SOCi's study looked at multi-location brands, which often struggle with consistency across hundreds of listings. Independent businesses face a different challenge: fewer reviews, less brand recognition and fewer mentions. The good news for independents is that a single location is easier to keep perfectly consistent, and local mentions, partnerships and reviews can be built quickly by an owner who is part of the community. Multi-location businesses should treat each location as its own entity, with its own complete profile, page, reviews and tracking.
Progress usually shows as a rising share of answers that mention you, more accurate information about your business, and growth in AI referral visits and branded searches. Some anonymized results from DM. Digital's monthly client reports between March and September 2026:
Results vary by market, competition and starting point, and no one can guarantee AI placement.
DM. Digital runs SEO and AI visibility as one monthly program, working on the same sources AI tools read.
DM. Digital is an SEO and AI visibility agency that helps local businesses anywhere in the United States get found and get leads on Google Search, Google Maps and AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot.
You keep your domain, Google Business Profile and accounts, leads go to your own business email, there is no minimum commitment and either side can end the engagement with 30 days notice. Engagements start at a budget of $5,000 per month. We do not guarantee rankings, AI placement or lead numbers. See more on our case studies page.
AI tools name very few local businesses. SOCi's data puts ChatGPT at 1.2% of the multi-location brand locations it studied, far below the share that appears in Google's map pack. The businesses that make those short lists are not using secret tactics. They have complete, accurate Google profiles, strong and recent reviews, websites that clearly state what they do, consistent listings everywhere, mentions on trusted sites and solid Google rankings. Work on those signals, measure your mention rate over months and fix wrong information at its source. If you want help becoming one of the businesses AI recommends, contact DM. Digital and Dan will call you back.
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