Showing Up Where It Matters With AI : An Artificial Analysis

Times are changing. Big time.

As a marketing professional, paying attention to trends is part of my job. More often than not, this now involves AI to some extent, and my newest observation concludes this. Last week, Google searches for "artificial intelligence" in the U.S. jumped 20% from the week before. And looking over the last 12 months, there's been a considerable increase in Google searches regarding AI throughout the course of the year so far. What's interesting though, is that Google Trends shows the data lines dipping right back down around early August. Compared to the same week last year, search volume on the topic is now exactly the same.

At first, this statistic doesn't make much sense. There's always something being said about AI, and to me, it seems as though its usage rate is ever-increasing. And then it hit me - people are still searching for artificial intelligence, but they aren't using just Google or other search engines anymore. They're increasingly going straight to the source and asking AI instead. Even on Google Chrome, Google's browser that's been widely used for over a decade, there's now an "ask Gemini" button in the top right corner. It isn't a coincidence. Google holds roughly 91% of the worldwide search market, and even they're pushing consumers to use their version of AI when they have a chokehold on their market.

That got me thinking: if people are using AI to learn about AI, how many other queries have they shifted away from asking Google and started to rely on AI for? And how does this affect the way that small businesses show up to those who are looking for them? We're beginning to live in a time where AI engines are slowly replacing search, and the results are staggering. In 2025, just 6% of U.S. consumers used AI tools to find local businesses. In 2026, that number jumped to 45%, according to Brightlocal.

This is major. I promise.

When people search for businesses in Google, there are often dozens of results and numerous pages. Consumers have the ability to browse, compare and evaluate options depending on what they need. With AI, this changes entirely - somebody looking for a contractor asks for a recommendation and gets three names back with supporting information about them. People do tend to check what they're told — the same BrightLocal research found that 88% of AI users verify what they see. That means the question isn't only whether AI names your business, but what someone finds when they go looking to confirm it. Your business is either one of those names showing up or it isn't, and many small businesses haven't looked into this. That means the ones who do will stand out in a very powerful way.

So how do businesses make this happen?

The key to understanding AI is that no tool can automatically link your business to an agent or interface — it all starts with laying the foundation for AI to find you. Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and every other AI engine are constantly being reworked, and none of them publish a formula for showing up. That isn't only secrecy: the widely used versions of these tools generate a fresh answer each time from whatever they retrieve in the moment, so there's no fixed ranking to hand out. What we do know is the layer underneath. Google's AI answers and Copilot run on data from their parent companies' search engines. That means to a certain extent, there's sometimes a relationship between SEO and AI visibility. Additionally, each AI tool reads the open web to answer a question about a local business whether their parent company has a search engine or not.

Check that you're not blocking AI from finding your website.

If AI works by reading the open web, the first question is whether it can read yours. This is the one item on the list that's a hard on or off switch, and checking it takes about thirty seconds.

Type your website address into a browser followed by /robots.txt. Every website has this file, and all it does is tell automated visitors which parts of the site they're allowed to look at. What you're looking for is any line mentioning GPTBot, PerplexityBot or ClaudeBot followed by Disallow: /. If that's there, those tools are being prevented from drawing your business into their results. They genuinely cannot read your site at all.

I've found this on more sites than I expected to, and it's almost never done on purpose. Examples of this could be a security plugin added to a website during setup, a developer having added it before AI even existed, or sometimes the site sits behind a service like Cloudflare that has an AI blocking switch turned on by default. Now, don't get it wrong - I'm not telling you to disarm your website - but this is definitely worth looking into because at the end of the day, not being visible in AI search is a missed opportunity.

Where YBMK can make an impact

Everything past that first check takes strategic digital marketing. First, fill in every possible gap in your business's Google Business Profile - and get reviews. Reputation is extremely important, because AI does sentiment analysis. When people recommend a business, AI engines identify a pattern, and they treat certain businesses as trustworthy based on reviews. Being described somewhere other than your own website counts too. The more places your business is mentioned positively, the better. Then make sure your website answers every possible question that customers are asking. Assume the AI is a customer, and you're the expert - tell them everything that might capture their interest or help them make a purchase.

If that's confusing or difficult for you, I'm here to help. I can show you how your business is showing up on Google and in AI tools, and if we need to fix it, we will. YBMK is your thought partner for all things AI in Southern Maine, and together, we'll transform your business's digital presence.