Do customers use ChatGPT to find local businesses?

If you've heard that customers now ask ChatGPT for a plumber or a dentist instead of Googling, and you're wondering whether that's real or just something marketing companies say to sell you a new service, the honest answer is: yes, a meaningful share of people do it now, but almost all of them still check Google, reviews and your website before they call.

How many people actually use ChatGPT to find a local business?

Close to half of US consumers have tried it at least once in the past year, and the number jumped in a single year. It is now a real channel, but not yet the main one for most searches.

• BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found 45% of consumers used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past 12 months, up from 6% in 2025. ChatGPT led at 31%, followed by Google's AI Mode at 23%.
• That made AI the third most used source for local recommendations, behind only Google and Facebook, and ahead of Yelp and Tripadvisor.
• Use depends on age. Adults 30 to 44 led at 64%, while only 24% of people over 60 had asked AI for a local business recommendation.

Chatbots in general are now normal. Pew Research Center's 2026 survey found 44% of US adults use ChatGPT, up from 34% in 2025, and 42% use AI chatbots to search for information.

Keep the 45% in perspective. It means "used AI for this at least once in a year", not "uses AI for every search". Most people still use Google and Maps most of the time, and the BrightLocal survey had 1,002 respondents.

Is it different for a plumber than for a dentist?

Yes. The more urgent the problem, the less likely someone is to chat with an AI first. The more research a decision needs, the more likely AI is part of it.

This is a judgment based on how the searches are worded, not a measured split. The pattern holds across trades: emergencies go to whoever answers first, planned purchases get researched, and research is where AI shows up.

Do people trust what ChatGPT recommends?

Many do, but most verify before they book. That is the most useful finding for a local business, because it means your reviews and website still close the sale.

• In the same BrightLocal 2026 research, 63% of AI users said they trust AI tools' business recommendations.
• But 88% of AI users fact-check, by checking whether a review is legitimate or looking at the source, and 97% sometimes double-check AI recommendations against real reviews.
• Google is still the leading review site, though its share slipped from 83% in 2025 to 71% in 2026, while Apple Maps nearly doubled from 14% to 27%, according to BrightLocal's main 2026 survey.

So the path often looks like this: ask ChatGPT for three names, look up each one on Google, read recent reviews, open the website, call one. If you aren't in the AI answer, you don't make the shortlist. If your reviews and site are weak, you lose at the verification step.

Is AI also changing how people use Google?

Yes. Google's own AI Overviews now answer many questions at the top of the page, and people click fewer links when they appear.

In a 2025 Pew Research Center study of 900 adults' real browsing, users who saw an AI summary clicked a regular search result in 8% of visits, against 15% when there was no summary. They clicked a link inside the summary itself in just 1% of visits.

For a local business, that means the summary, the map pack and your Business Profile do more of the work, and your website gets fewer casual visits. The visits you do get are closer to a decision.

What could showing up in ChatGPT be worth to my business?

It depends on how many people in your area look for your service and how valuable a customer is. Here is a worked example. Every number is an assumption for illustration, not a measured rate and not a client result.

Change the assumptions to your own numbers. The point is that AI visibility today is a modest but growing slice on top of Google, not a replacement for it. If you aren't getting calls from Google Maps yet, fix that first.

How does ChatGPT decide which local businesses to name?

When it searches the web, ChatGPT pulls from what it can find publicly: business websites, directories, review sites, local articles and forums. It names businesses that several sources describe clearly and consistently for the thing being asked.

• Location: OpenAI's help center says ChatGPT can use an approximate location from your IP address, or your device location if you share it, and works best when people include a city or ZIP code.
• Words that match the question: if someone asks for "a dentist who sees kids and takes Delta PPO", the answer favors practices whose pages and listings say exactly that.
• Reviews beyond Google: BrightLocal's 2026 research notes that AI tools draw on reviews, directories, websites and social media, depending on the tool. A reputation that exists only inside Google is harder for some of them to see.
• Consistency: the same name, address, phone number and services everywhere makes it easier to match you to the question.

What should a plumber or dentist do about it this week?

Mostly the same things that win on Google, done more completely. You don't need a separate "AI SEO" package to start.

1. Ask ChatGPT yourself. Type the questions your customers would ask, with your city: "best emergency plumber in Huntington Beach", "family dentist in Tustin that takes PPO". Note who gets named and which sources are cited.
2. Fill out your Google Business Profile completely: categories, services, hours, insurance or service area, photos. Our Google Business Profile optimization page lists what matters most.
3. Write the answers on your website. One page per main service that says plainly what you do, where, for whom, what it costs or how pricing works, and which insurance you take. AI answers quote clear, specific pages.
4. Get reviews on more than one site. Keep Google first, then add Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps and your industry's sites. Our comparison of Yelp vs Google vs Nextdoor covers where to focus.
5. Fix your listings. Search your business name and correct any old phone numbers, addresses or business names on directories.
6. Check again in a month. Ask the same questions and see whether anything changed.

Be skeptical of anyone selling a guaranteed ChatGPT placement. No one controls what an AI tool says, and the inputs it uses are the same ones good local SEO already builds.

What does Key Rank Strategies do about it?

We help local service businesses grow and report results in calls, customers and revenue, not just rankings. The work that gets you named by AI tools is the same work that gets you found on Google: a complete profile, clear service pages, steady reviews and consistent listings.

• Our work covers local SEO and Google Business Profile, websites, video ads, and Google and Meta ads management, run as one growth plan.
• One example from our client results: a dental practice in Orlando went from $28,000 to $75,000 in monthly revenue in 9 months (client-reported), while its Google clicks grew from 183 to 1,276 a month.

Ready to see what a full plan includes? Read how our growth plan for local service businesses works.