News · AI and search
How ChatGPT recommends a business to a customer
When someone asks ChatGPT for a plumber or electrician near them, the model builds its answer from the business's own website content, its Google Business Profile, and platforms like Yelp. The hard number: SOCi's 2026 index, which analyzed more than 350,000 locations across 2,751 brands, found that only 1.2% of local business locations ever get recommended by AI at all.
Updated 2026-08-22
What the reviews need to look like
Informal testing cited by several SEO agencies puts the floor around 25 reviews at 4.3 stars or higher to start showing up in AI answers for local searches, with businesses at 100+ reviews and 4.5+ stars appearing far more often. Review count, rating, recency, and whether the owner responds carry more weight here than almost anything else.
What else it takes besides reviews
A website with clear content about what the business does, where it works, and what sets it apart gives the AI something concrete to cite. A generic site with vague copy that could describe any business in the same trade gives ChatGPT nothing specific to say, so it doesn't say anything at all.
Source: eseospace.