Someone in your town just asked ChatGPT “who’s the best [what you do] near me?” and got a confident answer. If your business wasn’t in it, you didn’t lose a ranking. You lost the whole conversation.

That’s the uncomfortable shift happening right now. People aren’t just Googling and scrolling ten blue links anymore. They’re asking an AI a question and taking the shortlist it hands back. For NZ business owners, the question has changed from “how do I rank on Google?” to “how do I get named when a machine answers for me?”

Good news: this is learnable, and most of your competitors haven’t started. Here’s exactly how AI search picks businesses, and what to do about it this month.

What is AI search, and why should NZ business owners care?

AI search is any tool that answers a question directly instead of just listing links. That’s Google’s AI Overviews (the summary box at the top of results), ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. You ask, it answers, and it names a few sources or businesses.

This isn’t a fringe habit anymore. Google’s AI Overviews now show up on roughly 48% of tracked searches, up from about 31% a year earlier. So nearly half the time someone searches, they may never see the old list of links at all.

And when that summary appears, clicks dry up. A Pew Research Center study found people clicked a normal search link in just 8% of visits when an AI summary was present, compared to 15% when it wasn’t. They clicked the sources inside the AI answer only 1% of the time. Traffic you used to earn from page one is quietly disappearing into the answer box.

Here’s the flip side, and it’s the whole reason to bother: the businesses that do get named win big. Brands cited in AI Overviews earn around 120% more clicks per impression than businesses that aren’t, on the same searches. Being in the answer is the new page one. If you’re still fuzzy on the wider picture of AI for your business, start with our NZ Business Owner’s AI Starter Guide and come back to this.

How do ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews decide who to mention?

They don’t work the same way, so you can’t treat them as one thing. Here’s the short version of each.

Google AI Overviews

Overviews are built on top of normal Google search. So the businesses that surface are usually the ones already doing the basics well. Google’s own guidance on AI search is refreshingly plain: create genuinely useful content, make your site fast on a phone, and keep your business information accurate. For anything local, your Google Business Profile does heavy lifting. Overviews pull from it constantly, so a complete, well-reviewed profile is one of the strongest signals you have.

ChatGPT and other assistants

ChatGPT leans on a mix of what it learned during training and what it reads live on the web. A big chunk of its recommendations, around 14%, come from third-party sources: review sites, industry write-ups, Reddit threads, news pieces, and roundups. In plain terms, ChatGPT trusts what other credible people say about you more than what you say about yourself. A solid review profile can now matter more for AI visibility than a fancy backlink.

One warning worth knowing: the engines rarely agree. Only about 11% of websites get cited by both ChatGPT and Perplexity. Each one has its own logic, so the goal isn’t to game a single tool. It’s to become the obvious, well-documented answer that any of them can pick up.

How do I get my NZ business found in AI search?

You don’t need a big budget or a tech team. You need to make your business easy for a machine to understand, trust, and quote. Work through these in order.

1. Answer the real question in the first sentence. AI pulls the bit of text that directly answers the query. So on every key page, lead with a plain one or two sentence answer, then explain underneath. Skip the “In today’s world” warm-up.
2. Write pages around actual questions. Use the exact wording customers use (“how much does a plumber cost in Wellington?”), make it a heading, and answer it. This is the single highest-leverage habit for AI visibility.
3. Fix your Google Business Profile. Complete every field, correct your hours and location, add real photos, and choose the right categories. This is your biggest lever for local AI answers, and it’s free.
4. Earn reviews and third-party mentions. Ask happy customers for Google reviews, and get listed or written about on trusted NZ sites and directories. AI weighs what others say about you heavily.
5. Add schema markup. Organization, FAQPage, and LocalBusiness schema are labels that tell AI exactly what your page is. Most website builders have a plugin or setting for this, or your web person can add it in an hour.
6. Keep facts consistent everywhere. Your business name, address, phone, and services should match across your site, Google, Facebook, and every directory. Contradictions make AI unsure, and unsure means unmentioned.
7. Test it, then repeat. Once a month, ask ChatGPT and Google the questions your customers ask. See who gets named. If it’s not you, that’s your to-do list.

Notice how much of this is just good marketing done clearly. If you already publish helpful content, you’re closer than you think. Our guide to AI marketing for NZ small business pairs well with this list.

What if my business is mostly local?

Then you’ve got an advantage. Local and “near me” searches, plus transactional ones like “book,” “buy,” and “get a quote,” are far less affected by the AI click drop-off, because people still need to actually contact a business to get the job done. That’s where most Kiwi small businesses make their money anyway.

So for a cafe, a clinic, a trades business, or a salon, the play is simple. Own your Google Business Profile, pile up genuine reviews, and make sure your site clearly states what you do, where, and for whom. Do that and you’ll show up when someone asks an AI for a recommendation in your area, which is exactly the moment a ready-to-buy customer is deciding.

My honest take: don’t panic, but don’t wait

It’s easy to read the click-drop numbers and feel like the sky is falling. It isn’t. What’s actually happening is that the reward is concentrating. The old game handed a little traffic to lots of pages. The new game hands a lot of attention to the few businesses AI trusts enough to name.

That’s a gift for small, focused businesses that are willing to be clear and useful. You don’t have to out-spend anyone. You have to be the most obvious, best-documented answer to the questions your customers ask. Most of your competitors are still arguing about whether AI search is even real, which is exactly why moving now is worth so much. Pick two things off the list above and do them this week. Momentum beats perfection here.

Frequently asked questions

Is AI search replacing Google SEO?
No, it’s stacking on top of it. Google AI Overviews are built from regular search results, so strong SEO still feeds your AI visibility. The smart move is to keep doing SEO and add AI-friendly habits like question-led pages and schema, not to drop one for the other.

How do I know if AI is already recommending my business?
Ask it. Open ChatGPT and Google, type the questions your customers would ask, like “best [your service] in [your town],” and see who gets named. Do this monthly. If you’re missing, you know exactly what to work on.

Do I need to pay to appear in ChatGPT or AI Overviews?
No. These are organic results, not ads. You appear by being useful, trusted, and easy to understand, not by paying the AI. Your money is better spent on good content, reviews, and a fast website.

What’s the fastest thing I can do today?
Fix and complete your Google Business Profile, then ask three recent happy customers for a review. For local businesses, that combination moves the needle faster than almost anything else, and it costs nothing but an afternoon.

How long until I see results?
Google Business Profile changes and reviews can influence local AI answers within weeks. Content and schema improvements usually take a month or two to be picked up. It’s steady, compounding work, not an overnight switch.

Does the same approach work for ChatGPT and Google?
The foundations do: clear content, accurate information, and third-party trust help everywhere. But the engines cite different sources, so don’t chase just one. Build a business that any AI can confidently recommend, and check a few tools regularly.

Want help getting found in AI search?

Getting named by AI comes down to clear content, clean data, and real trust signals working together. If you’d rather have someone set that up properly instead of piecing it together between jobs, we can help.

See how Overcomers AI can get your NZ business found in AI search.