Will My Business Show Up on ChatGPT? AI Search in 2026
- Jun 18
- 4 min read
What AI search means for small businesses in 2026
There's a question I'm hearing more and more from clients lately, and it usually arrives with a slightly worried look: "If someone asks ChatGPT (or AI) to recommend a builder, plumber etc, will my business even come up?"
It is true, the way people find businesses online has changed rapidly. So I want to talk through what's actually going on, what it means for you as a small business owner or sole trader, and what you can do to still get found.
The shift that's already happened
For years it was simple. Someone wanted a plumber, a physio, a graphic designer, they typed it into Google and found a list of links that were ordered by the strength of each online presence. That still happens. But alongside it, a lot of people now just ask a question and read the answer they're given, without ever clicking through to a website.
Sometimes that's Google's own AI summary sitting at the top of the results. Sometimes it's ChatGPT, or Gemini, etc. The person asks something conversational, like "who's a good branding designer for a small business in the Bay of Plenty," and the tool hands back a tidy answer with a few names in it.
New research from the Pew Research Centre study tracking real browsing data found that when one of these AI summaries appeared, people clicked through to an actual website only 8% of the time, compared with 15% when there was no summary. Roughly half the clicks, gone. And when there was a summary, people clicked one of the source links inside it just 1% of the time.
What that tells us is that being mentioned by name in the answer now matters enormously. If the AI recommends you directly, you're in the conversation. If it doesn't, a lot of people will never scroll far enough to find you the old way.
The big questions is - how do I get chosen by AI?
AI tools aren't pulling names out of thin air. They're reading the same web everyone else is, and they're looking for businesses they can understand and trust.
In practice, they prefer businesses where the information is clear, consistent and easy to make sense of. They want to know exactly what you do, where you do it, and who you do it for. They lean on the things that have always signalled a real, credible business: a clear website, consistent details across the places you appear online, genuine reviews, and a few mentions out in the wider world.
If that sounds a lot like good marketing done properly, that's because it is. The good news is that it's mostly the same foundations that have always made a business look trustworthy, with a few specific things tuned for how AI reads a site.
5x Steps you can take today to connect your business with AI search tools
1. Say plainly what you do.
Replace vague taglines like "trusted experts since 2009" with specifics: what you offer, who it's for, where you're based, and what problems you solve.
2. Answer your customers' real questions.
Add clear answers to the questions that come up in every first conversation (pricing, process, timing, what's included), ideally as a proper FAQ section.
3. Keep your details identical everywhere.
Make sure your business name, address and phone number match exactly across your website, Google Business Profile and any directory listings.
4. Sort the technical foundations.
Get the behind-the-scenes basics right: proper page titles, a sensible heading structure, and schema markup so machines can read your information cleanly.
5. Look after your reputation.
Build up recent, genuine reviews and aim for the odd mention on a local blog or award listing to signal credibility.
A quick test you can do right now
You don't need any tools or money for this one. Open ChatGPT, or Gemini, or Google, and ask it the questions your ideal customer would ask. "Who does branding for small businesses near me." "Best website designer for a Squarespace site in New Zealand." Whatever fits your industry.
See what comes back. Are you in there? Are your competitors? It's a ten-minute exercise, and it tells you a great deal about where you currently stand. It can be a little confronting if you're nowhere to be found, but it's far better to know than to wonder. Wix even has a backend tool now for identifying the questions people are asking in your industry so you can add these to your own FAQ.
Last words from me
What it means is that the bar for a clear, well-structured, trustworthy online presence has quietly risen. The businesses turning up in these AI answers tend to be the ones that already had their house in order, and built their websites around real questions rather than marketing fluff.
That's the work I love helping people with, and it's a natural extension of building a brand and a website that does its job properly. If you've done the test above and you're not thrilled with what you found, that's usually a sign your foundations need a bit of attention rather than cause for alarm.
If you'd like a proper look at how your site is doing on this front, including whether you're showing up in AI and search, that's exactly what a website audit covers. I'm always happy to take a look and tell you honestly where you stand.
Zoe Sizemore is the founder and creative director of Case In Point Design Studio, a branding and website design studio based in Pāpāmoa, Tauranga, working with small businesses across New Zealand and Australia.
