Free report
The AI Visibility Report 2026: How AI chooses local businesses
We analysed 10,000 US businesses across ChatGPT and Perplexity to uncover exactly which signals drive AI discovery, recommendation and reputation, and what that means for the agencies and teams selling to them.
- 10,000 businesses analysed
- ChatGPT + Perplexity
- Free PDF, instant download
Some of the SEO you've done for years still decides whether AI recommends a business. Much of it no longer moves the needle at all. We analysed 10,000 US businesses to draw the line between the two.
What still matters
The old-world signals AI still rewards
AI-visible businesses averaged 133 Google reviews. Invisible ones averaged 11 - a 12× gap. The fundamentals you already know - reviews, local presence, a complete profile and a site that clearly says what a business does - are still what decide whether AI puts it in front of a customer.
Google review volume - a 12× gap between visible and invisible
Local Pack presence - 3.5× more recommendations
A complete Google Business Profile
Your own website - cited in 72% of AI answers
Directory listings - present in 35–39% of answers
What's stopped working
The effort AI quietly ignores
Core Web Vitals & page speed
Pass rates were near-identical whether AI surfaced a business or not (1.9% vs 1.1%). AI doesn't browse like a human, so speed scores don't sway it.
Heading structure (H1s)
Clean H1 hierarchies are tidy housekeeping, but they showed no meaningful link to whether AI mentions a business.
Open Graph tags
They shape how a link looks when it's shared, and had no measurable effect on AI discovery or recommendation.
Schema markup
Still useful for traditional search, but in our data it barely moved the needle on AI visibility.
llms.txt
Despite the buzz, adoption gave only a marginal lift. A lot of effort is pointed somewhere AI isn't really looking.
93%
Awareness - does AI know you?
AI can identify 93% of businesses, but of those it knows, only 55% have accurate details, and it will confidently hallucinate the rest.
80%
Reputation - what does AI think?
80% of the time AI responds positively when asked directly about an SMB's products or services. Review data is what backs it up.
41%
Recommendation - does AI pick you?
41% of businesses aren't recommended for unbranded prompts even when AI knows exactly who they are.
