BrightLocal: 45% of Consumers Now Use AI to Find Local Businesses — Up From 6% Last Year
What happened
BrightLocal's latest research shows that 45% of consumers now use AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity to find local business recommendations — up from just 6% in 2025. That's a seven-fold increase in twelve months.
This confirms what SOCi's Local Visibility Index found earlier this year: AI platforms are becoming a serious discovery channel for local businesses. But while consumer adoption is surging, AI platforms are dramatically more selective than traditional search. SOCi's data showed ChatGPT recommends just 1.2% of local businesses, Gemini recommends 11%, and Perplexity 7.4% — compared to Google's local 3-pack appearing for 35.9% of locations.
The businesses that AI does recommend tend to have higher review scores. ChatGPT-recommended locations averaged 4.3 stars, while Gemini-recommended locations averaged 3.9 stars. AI visibility depends most on on-page content (24%), reviews (16%), and directory listing accuracy (13%).
What this means for tradespeople
Nearly half of your potential customers are now asking AI for recommendations before they even open Google. And AI is far pickier than Google Search — it recommends a fraction of the businesses that appear in traditional results.
What determines whether AI recommends your business? Your reviews play a major role — both the quantity and the quality of what customers write. AI platforms pull from your Google reviews to decide whether to recommend you. A plumber with 40 detailed reviews mentioning "emergency callout," "boiler repair," and "friendly service" is far more likely to be recommended than one with 5 generic reviews saying "good job."
This is a fundamental shift. Your reviews aren't just convincing humans anymore — they're feeding the AI systems that decide which businesses get recommended at all.
What to do about it
Focus on collecting reviews that contain specific detail about the work you did. When customers mention your trade, location, and the type of job, that creates the content that AI platforms use to match you with relevant queries. A review that says "excellent emergency plumber in Leeds, fixed our burst pipe within an hour" is worth ten times more than "great service" for AI visibility.
Make sure your Google Business Profile is complete and accurate — AI platforms weight directory consistency heavily. And keep your review velocity steady, because AI platforms favour businesses with recent, active review profiles.
Source: BrightLocal