AI tools have become part of how customers discover local businesses. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 45% had used an AI tool for local-business recommendations in the previous 12 months, up from 6% a year earlier. Among the survey’s 455 AI users, 97% said they sometimes checked recommendations against real reviews. AI can influence the shortlist, but it is commonly one stage in a wider decision that also involves websites, reviews and other sources.

No business can control every answer, and there is no guaranteed formula for inclusion. What you can do is remove avoidable ambiguity and make your public information easier to discover, interpret and verify. Here is what that means in practice.

Why AI is becoming another front door to your business

Search typically presents a page of links. AI search products can retrieve information from search indexes, crawlers and other sources, then combine it into a direct answer that may name or cite a small number of businesses. For the customer, that can make research faster. For a business, it adds another layer between the website and the person considering it.

AI-assisted discovery is no longer niche, but it has not replaced search or review checking. In the same BrightLocal study, 63% of active AI users said they trusted AI recommendations, while 97% sometimes checked those recommendations against real reviews. Your reputation and the accuracy of the information elsewhere on the web therefore matter alongside your website.

How to give AI assistants a clearer picture

No provider publishes a complete recommendation formula, and the systems do not all work the same way. Across search and AI-assisted discovery, however, the following practical foundations reduce ambiguity:

  • Easy to access and read. Crawlable, well-structured pages where the important facts are available in page text, not only inside an image or a downloadable document.
  • Unambiguous. A clear statement of what you do, who you do it for, and where you operate, repeated consistently across your own site and everywhere else you appear.
  • Corroborated. The same core details appearing on your website, your Google Business Profile, relevant directories and credible reviews or mentions, giving people and systems supporting information to consult.
  • Current. Facts that match. If your opening hours, services or location disagree between sources, it becomes harder to determine which version is right.

Together, these foundations significantly improve how easily search and AI systems can discover, interpret and verify a business. They materially improve its chances of being surfaced accurately, although they cannot guarantee inclusion in any individual answer.

What actually moves the needle

You do not need a completely separate content strategy for every AI tool. The systems use different crawlers, indexes and external sources, so no change will affect all of them equally. There is still useful overlap in crawlability, clear page content, accurate business information, credible reviews and established SEO fundamentals. The work falls into three layers.

Start with the fundamentals. These are established, and they do most of the work:

  • Say clearly, on every important page, who the page is for and what you offer.
  • Keep your name, address, phone number and core facts consistent across your website and main listings.
  • Keep the important facts in crawlable page text, not available only inside an image or a downloadable document.
  • Earn a credible reputation: a complete Google Business Profile, relevant directories, genuine reviews.
  • Keep it all current. Out-of-date facts are worse than missing ones.

Then add the structured layer. Helpful, though its effect is indirect:

  • Add relevant, accurate Schema.org markup as part of ordinary SEO. It can make information explicit and support eligibility for Google rich results, but Google says it is not required for generative AI search and there is no special AI schema.

Then the emerging, agentic layer. Newer, and worth understanding honestly:

  • Consider an llms.txt file as supplementary infrastructure. The convention is optional across the wider web, but Pellmark includes the file in its Studio Care and Premium Care AI-readiness foundation. It is a proposed convention for presenting selected website information and links in an LLM-friendly format, not an established crawler instruction or ranking signal. Some tools may choose to use it, but Google Search says it ignores the file, so it neither helps nor harms visibility there. It is not a substitute for crawlable pages or sound SEO.

This is not separate from good SEO

If this sounds like search engine optimisation, that is because much of the foundation is the same. Google says its generative Search features are rooted in its core Search ranking and quality systems. That does not mean every assistant works like Google, but it does mean that clear structure, useful content, crawlability and consistent facts remain a sound starting point.

The presentation can differ. A conventional results page may show many links, while an AI-generated answer may surface only a small number of sources or businesses. That makes clarity and accuracy important before the click as well as after it.

A checklist you can act on

  1. Say plainly, on every key page, what you do, who it is for, and where you operate.
  2. Keep your name, address, phone number and opening hours consistent across your site, Google Business Profile and main listings. Make sure your services tell the same underlying story wherever they appear.
  3. Fix anything out of date first.
  4. Keep key facts in crawlable page text, not available only in images or downloadable documents.
  5. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile.
  6. Earn a few genuine reviews and honest mentions elsewhere.
  7. Check that your important public pages can be crawled and indexed, including by the search services in which you want to appear.
  8. Add accurate Schema.org structured data where it genuinely describes the page.
  9. Understand that llms.txt is an optional web convention, although Pellmark includes it as part of its five-part foundation. Do not expect any single file to guarantee a recommendation.

Where to start

Start with the basics before the optional technical layer. Make sure every page says plainly what you do and who you serve, that your business details agree wherever they appear, and that your important public pages are crawlable. Then add accurate structured data and, where useful, an optional machine-readable summary.

Pellmark sites start with clear content, crawlable pages and sound technical foundations. On Studio Care and Premium Care, the five-part AI-readiness foundation includes Schema.org markup, an llms.txt file, structured business profile JSON-LD, Open Graph and Twitter card metadata, and WebMCP-compliant tool definitions on supported primary forms. Together, these significantly improve how easily search and AI systems can find, interpret and verify your business, while WebMCP helps compatible browser agents complete supported actions. Premium Care also includes managed AI presence, available as a £99-per-month add-on on Studio Care. No provider can guarantee inclusion in every individual AI answer, but the foundation places your business in a materially stronger position to be discovered and represented accurately. Read more on our AI-readiness page, or apply for a build and we will handle it for you.

Sources: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026; Google Search Central, optimising for generative AI features; OpenAI, ChatGPT Search; Perplexity crawler documentation; the llms.txt proposal.