AI answers are now part of how some people explore local services, but the size of that audience for a specific business is not visible from a general industry statistic. A useful 2026 plan starts with what the platforms currently document and what the business can measure itself.
Google still points to SEO fundamentals
Google's AI features guide says the usual Search basics apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode: allow appropriate crawling, make important text available, use helpful content, link to important pages, and keep structured data consistent with visible text. It says there is no extra schema or machine-readable file required. Meeting those conditions does not guarantee crawling, indexing, or display.
Google includes AI feature traffic in the overall Search Console Web performance reports. Those reports can help a site owner observe search traffic, but they do not by themselves produce a complete, separate “AI recommendation rate” for a local business.
ChatGPT search has its own crawler control
OpenAI's crawler guide distinguishes OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search from GPTBot for potential training. A publisher can set different robots.txt preferences for them. Allowing a search crawler removes a possible access barrier; it is not a placement guarantee.
What a local business can measure
Start with a list of core service pages and customer questions. Record Search Console property, country, search type, dates, clicks, impressions, and index status. Track completed page work separately from qualified inquiries and signed customers. Remove duplicate leads before calculating a funnel rate.
If AI mentions are important, use a defined query set for each engine and record date, region, repeat count, and raw responses. A website-readiness score can suggest a repair, but it is not an observed answer or customer result. Report the sample size and limitations rather than converting unrelated research percentages into a prediction for your business.
The Free Report Preview and standalone tools can establish website findings. The next step is to verify the issue, make a scoped change, and observe the appropriate platform and business measures over time.