How AI has already found your customer (and you haven't yet)

Your customer is no longer active As last year

Two years ago, a customer typed “hire painter Tilburg” into Google and scrolled through ten blue links. They clicked on three, compared websites, and made a phone call. That's over. The same customer now opens ChatGPT, Perplexity, or just Google, types in their question, and immediately gets an answer: “For a painter in Tilburg, you'd best call Company X; they're well-known for their neat finishing and are readily available.”

This AI-driven response represents a new trend. And it’s growing at breakneck speed. Whilst around 61% of local searches were conducted via an AI tool in 2024, this figure will rise to 451% by 2026. Almost half of all local searches now pass through an AI filter before the customer decides who to call. Not eventually, not in the future. Right now, today.

The problem is that AI doesn't just spit out random names. AI bases its recommendations on information it encounters: reviews, answers to frequently asked questions, company descriptions, mentions on other websites. If you have little of that, you won't show up. Then your competitor, who has their act together, is the one who gets recommended, even if you do the work better.

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Of all the local businesses that could potentially qualify for an AI recommendation, only 1.21% are actually actively recommended. That is a small minority. The rest simply do not exist in the world as the AI perceives it. They are not wrong; they are simply invisible.

That might sound abstract, but it's very concrete. AI tools, whether it's Google AI Overview, ChatGPT or Perplexity, systematically scan available sources. They look at your Google Business Profile, the reviews customers write, and the questions and answers on your profile. If all of that is empty or meagre, you won't be seen. Full stop.

The companies that are recommended have a few things in common. They have a fully completed Google Business Profile. They have recent reviews and they respond to them. They have questions and answers that align with what customers actually ask. That's not a huge investment. It's work that needs to be done, and that most tradespeople haven't done yet.

Google Bedrijfsprofiel is nu je Business card for AI

Your Google Business Profile, also known as Google My Business, was already important for local searches. However, with the rise of AI search, it has become even more crucial. AI tools use your profile as one of their primary sources of information. If your profile is incomplete, AI has too little to work with and will opt for a competitor who has theirs in order.

What does “complete” mean in practice? Your name, address, and phone number are correct. Your opening hours are up-to-date, including for public holidays. Your category is specific enough: not just “contractor” but also “roofer” or “tiler” if that applies to your work. Your description plainly states what you do, for whom, and in what area. You have photos of your work, preferably recent. And you have a linked website that functions at a basic level at least.

That sounds like a checklist, and it is one. But most tradespeople have a gap somewhere on that list. Opening hours that haven't been updated for two years. A four-word description. Not a single work photo. AI sees all those gaps and draws its conclusions: this company is less reliable or less relevant than the competitor who has everything in order. It's as simple as that.

Would you like to know more about exactly how AI reads your profile and which sections carry the most weight? Read our article on the Google Business Profile as an AI business card. This goes deeper into what AI picks up on and why some fields have more impact than you might expect.

Reviews are the language that AI understands

When you ask an AI tool, “which painting company is good in Tilburg,” the AI system doesn't just pick a name. It also looks for evidence. Reviews are the most concrete evidence available. And then it’s not about the number of stars, but about the content of what customers write.

A review that says “neat finish, finished on time, and no surprises afterwards” gives AI a lot of information. Neat finish stands for quality. On time for reliability. No surprises for transparency and good communication. AI distils these kinds of signals and weighs them in its recommendation. The more informative reviews you have, the stronger the picture AI forms of you.

The reverse is also true. Few reviews, or reviews with vague text like “good company, job done quickly”, give AI little ability to differentiate. The system will then lean towards a competitor with more specific, substantive reviews. Not because you are worse. Only because the information about you is weaker.

What you need to do in concrete terms: actively ask for reviews after a job. Not aggressively, not with a script that sounds like a call centre. Simply say after completion: “If you’re happy, I’d appreciate it if you could write that down on Google; it would help me enormously.” Most customers will do it if you ask, and if the job was good.

Responding to reviews is also a factor that AI takes into account. A company that responds to positive reviews with a brief thank you, and to negative reviews with a constructive response, scores higher in the AI perception than a company that ignores everything. Also read our article on Google AI Overviews en lokale SEO voor vakmensen if you want to understand how AI deals with reviews in search queries.

Q&A: The question that your customer already asks

The Q&A section of your Google Business Profile is the most underestimated part of local visibility. Almost no one fills it in. This is a missed opportunity, as AI tools regularly quote Q&A answers directly in their responses. Literally, sometimes.

If someone asks ChatGPT, “Does plumber Henk in Eindhoven offer a call-out service?”, and your Q&A states, “Yes, we are available for urgent jobs within the hour, including weekends. Call us on [number],” then AI can use that in its answer. Without that Q&A, the system has no basis for its answer and will opt for a competitor who has provided the answer.

Completing the Q&A will take an hour, two hours at most. Start with the questions you get most often from customers. Consider: what is your hourly rate, are you insured, do you work in my area, how quickly can you come, do you have references, do you take on small jobs. Write an honest, concrete answer to each question and put it in the Q&A section of your profile yourself. No subscription, no specialist, no big budget. Just take the time.

Would you like to know how other local artisans are dealing with the changes Google is making? Then read our article on the Google core update of May 2026 and what that means for local crafts.

Frequently asked questions about AI search and local businesses