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How to get AI assistants to name your business

AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini name a business when they have read enough about it, mostly on other people's websites. To get named, say plainly what you do and for whom on your own site, earn mentions elsewhere, keep your public profiles active, and check what the assistants say about you.

By Loomis · Updated

A café owner in an apron frowns at her laptop, surrounded by rose-pink chat bubbles and a search icon.
If AI hasn't read about you, it can't recommend you.

Why does it matter whether AI assistants know your business?

AI assistants matter because buyers now ask them first. BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults found 45% had used ChatGPT or another AI tool to get a local business recommendation in the past year, up from 6% the year before.

Google is changing the same way. In a 2026 experiment by researchers at the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University, searches that showed Google's AI answer at the top led to 38% fewer clicks through to websites. The AI answer is becoming the shop window: if it names you, buyers see you, and if it doesn't, fewer of them scroll down to find you.

Source: BrightLocal, “Local Consumer Review Survey 2026”, February 2026 (US data)

Source: Agarwal and Sen, Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University, field experiment with 1,065 US users, January–February 2026 (working paper)

45% of US consumers used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past year, up from 6%.BrightLocal, 1,002 US adults, February 2026.

How do AI assistants decide which businesses to recommend?

AI assistants lean on what other people write about a business. Ahrefs compared 75,000 brands across ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews in December 2025 and found the strongest links were with mentions of the brand on YouTube and on other websites, well ahead of the size or authority of the brand's own site. Your own website helps an assistant describe you; mentions elsewhere decide whether it thinks of you at all.

Source: Ahrefs, “Top Brand Visibility Factors in ChatGPT, AI Mode, and AI Overviews (75k Brands Studied)”, December 2025

What an assistant reads about you
Your websiteWhat you sell, for whom, where, and at what price.
Other people's pagesReviews, directories, local news, podcasts and YouTube.
Your public profilesActive accounts that say the same thing about you.
Mentions on other people's pages carried the most weight.

What can a small business do to get named by AI assistants?

A small business gets named by AI assistants by being easy to describe and often mentioned. Start with your own site: one plain sentence near the top saying what you sell, who it's for and where you work, your prices on the page, and answers to the questions customers actually ask, in their words.

Then work outside your site. List the business in the directories your customers use, ask happy customers for reviews, offer a comment to local press or a podcast in your field, and keep your public social profiles current. Each mention is another page an assistant can learn from.

How do you check whether AI assistants recommend your business?

Checking whether AI assistants recommend your business means asking them the questions your buyers ask, without using your name, such as “best coffee roaster in Durban”. Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini the same questions and note who gets named. The free Loomis findability check does this for you from your website address, with no sign-up.

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