For 25 years, search worked the same way. You typed words into Google, got a list of blue links, and clicked the one that looked best. That model is breaking apart. AI tools don't give you links to choose from. They give you answers and recommendations. This is the biggest shift in how people find businesses since Google itself launched.
From links to recommendations
The old model: you search "plumber Leeds", Google shows you 10 websites, and you click through 2 or 3 to compare. You do the work of evaluating which one to call.
The new model: you ask ChatGPT "who's a good plumber in Leeds?", and it recommends 2 or 3 specific businesses by name with reasons why. No clicking through websites. No comparison shopping. The AI has already done the evaluation for you.
This is a fundamentally different relationship between search and business. In the old model, you competed for attention. In the new model, you compete for trust — specifically, the AI's trust that you're worth recommending.
Where we are right now
We're in a transition period. 64% of consumers now use AI tools to discover businesses, but most still use Google too. The split varies by age and task — younger users lean heavily toward AI, while older users still default to Google. Complex purchase decisions often start with AI research and end with a Google verification search.
Google itself is adapting. AI Overviews now appear at the top of many search results, summarising answers before showing traditional links. This means even on Google, the experience is becoming more AI driven. The link based model is being compressed from both directions.
Businesses that are visible on both Google and AI tools are capturing the full market. Businesses that are only visible on Google are already missing a growing share of potential customers.
How AI decides who to recommend
Google's algorithm is based on links, keywords, and technical signals from your website. AI recommendations are based on something closer to reputation. AI tools pull from reviews, directories, news coverage, press releases, and website content — and they look for agreement across these sources.
68% of AI citations come from third party sources rather than the business's own website. The AI trusts what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself. This flips the SEO model on its head. In SEO, your website is the centre of everything. In AI search, your website is just one voice among many.
The businesses that AI recommends with confidence are the ones with a consistent, positive presence across multiple independent sources. Volume of reviews, press mentions, directory listings, and specific service details all contribute to whether the AI feels confident naming your business.
What this means for small businesses
For small businesses, this shift is actually a potential advantage. SEO has been increasingly dominated by big companies with big budgets who can invest in content teams, link building campaigns, and technical SEO. The top spots on Google for many searches are held by aggregators and national chains.
AI search levels the playing field somewhat. When someone asks ChatGPT for a plumber recommendation, it doesn't just recommend the business with the most backlinks. It recommends the business with the best reviews, the most third party mentions, and the clearest information about their services and location. A solo tradesperson with 200 great reviews and a Checkatrade listing can absolutely outperform a national chain in AI recommendations.
The window to establish your AI presence is open now. Most small businesses haven't started thinking about this yet. The ones who move first will have a significant head start.
Voice search accelerates the shift
Voice assistants — Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant — are increasingly powered by the same AI models as ChatGPT and Claude. When someone asks their smart speaker "who can fix my boiler?", the answer comes from AI, not from a Google search results page.
Voice search is inherently a recommendation model. There are no blue links to click on a speaker. The AI gives you one or two options, and you either call them or you don't. Being the business that gets named in that single recommendation is enormously valuable.
The signals that get you recommended by voice assistants are the same ones that get you recommended by ChatGPT: reviews, third party mentions, structured data, and a consistent online presence. Optimising for one optimises for all of them.
The social search factor
There's a third channel emerging alongside Google and AI: social search. Younger consumers increasingly use TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to find local businesses. They search for "best coffee shop Leeds" directly on social platforms rather than Google.
AI tools also train on social media content. If people are recommending your business in Facebook groups and local Reddit threads, that feeds into AI training data. Organic social mentions are some of the most authentic signals an AI can find.
What smart businesses are doing now
The businesses that are ahead of this curve are doing three things. First, they're maintaining their Google presence — it still drives the majority of search traffic and it's not going away. Second, they're actively building their AI visibility through reviews, press coverage, directory listings, and structured website content. Third, they're monitoring their AI presence by regularly searching for themselves on ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
This dual approach is called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and it's the new frontier of digital marketing. GEO doesn't replace SEO — it extends it to cover the channels where your customers are increasingly looking.
The question isn't whether AI will change how your customers find you. It already has. The question is whether you'll be the business they find, or the one they never hear about.
Get ahead of the shift
We've written a practical guide on how to rank on both Google and ChatGPT simultaneously if you want to start doing this yourself. Or if you'd rather have experts handle it, get in touch — our GEO packages start at £150 and cover both your AI visibility and your core SEO foundations.