Do people really use ChatGPT to find local businesses?
Part of the complete guide to AI searchability.
It's a fair question to be sceptical about. For most of us, "finding a business" still means a search engine or a maps app. But a real behavioural shift is underway, and it's happening fastest among exactly the customers a local business wants: the ready-to-act ones.
Here's what's actually going on, without the hype, and why the honest answer is more consequential than a simple yes or no. For what to do about it, see the complete guide to AI search.
Hundreds of millions of people now ask AI first
AI assistants have gone from novelty to daily habit for an enormous number of people in a very short time. A large share of them have started reaching for an assistant the way they used to reach for a search box, including for everyday, practical questions about where to go and who to hire.
You don't need exact figures to feel the direction of travel. Once a tool becomes part of someone's daily routine, they start using it for more and more, and "recommend me a good one near me" is a natural thing to ask something that talks back and gives you a straight answer.
ChatGPT vs Google: how big is the shift, really?
In an analysis published in February 2026, Ahrefs found that ChatGPT now handles about 12 percent of Google's search-like query volume. ChatGPT processes roughly 2.5 billion prompts a day against Google's 13.7 billion searches, but only about two-thirds of those prompts, roughly 1.6 billion a day, look like the kind of thing people used to type into Google. That narrower slice, not the full 2.5 billion, is where the 12 percent comes from.
Be honest about what that means. Google is still far larger, and it sends far more visitors to websites, so this is not the death of search. But 12 percent of Google's volume is an enormous number of real questions, and a growing share of them are the decision-stage, who-should-I-use-near-me questions your next customer asks. Being absent from that slice is not a rounding error; it is a channel you cannot see, quietly sending people to whoever gets named instead.
Why people prefer asking over searching
Asking an assistant is less work than searching. Instead of opening ten tabs, reading listings and weighing options, you get a short, confident answer with reasons attached. For a busy person, that's a genuinely better experience, and better experiences win habits.
It also feels cleaner. There are no ads dressed up as results, no endless scrolling, no sense of being sold to. The assistant reads as a knowledgeable friend giving you a straight answer, and people trust that tone, sometimes more than they should. That trust is exactly why being the named business is so valuable.
The questions people actually ask
The local questions people put to assistants look a lot like the ones they'd ask a well-informed neighbour: the best option in a particular area, who to see for a specific problem, somewhere good for a specific occasion, a trustworthy name for an urgent job. These are decision-stage questions, asked by people ready to act.
That's what makes them valuable. Someone asking an assistant to recommend a business in your category and area isn't browsing; they're close to choosing. Whoever gets named has a real shot at the customer, often before that customer has looked anywhere else at all.
Who's leading the shift
The change isn't spread evenly, and that's easy to misread. It's concentrated among younger customers, people new to an area, and anyone comfortable living inside apps, precisely the customers who represent your future rather than just your present. Judging the trend by your most established, habit-driven clients will make it look smaller than it is.
It also shows up most in unfamiliar moments: someone who's just moved, is travelling, or faces a problem they've never had before. They have no local habit to fall back on, so they ask. For many categories, those newcomers are the single biggest source of growth, which is why their shift to AI matters out of proportion to their numbers.
It's early, and that's the point
This behaviour is still growing, not universal. Plenty of customers have never once asked an assistant for a local recommendation. It would be easy to conclude there's no rush and to revisit it in a year or two.
That's the trap. Trends like this don't announce themselves; they cross from "a few early adopters" to "a lot of your customers" quietly, and by the time it's obvious, the businesses that moved early are already the ones assistants name. The cost of paying attention now is small. The cost of being invisible when it tips is not, because catching up means unwinding a competitor's head start.
What it means for you
You don't have to bet your whole business on AI search to take it seriously. You just have to accept that a growing slice of your future customers will ask an assistant before they ask anyone else, and make sure that when they do, your name comes up rather than a competitor's.
The honest first step is to find out where you stand today. A free Peekl check tells you whether the assistants your customers use actually recommend you, so the question stops being hypothetical and starts being something you can see and act on. If you're not sure whether you'd even show up, read why your business might be invisible to AI.
Common questions
Aren't people still mostly using Google?
Is it worth worrying about this now or later?
My customers are older and traditional, does this still apply?
See where you stand
Reading about AI search is useful; knowing your own place in it is what helps. A free Peekl check asks the assistants the questions your customers ask and shows whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude recommend you today, who they name instead, and how often.