A year ago, almost nobody in Busselton was asking ChatGPT where to find a plumber or get their brakes done. In 2026, that's no longer a fringe habit. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found that 45% of consumers have used ChatGPT or another generative AI tool to get a local business recommendation in the past twelve months, up from just 6% the year before. That's roughly a seven fold jump in twelve months, the kind of shift that usually takes an industry years, not one.
It's tempting to read that number and worry about losing customers to a chatbot instead of Google. The reality on the ground is less dramatic, and more useful to know.
People Still Check What the AI Tells Them
The same BrightLocal survey found that 88% of people who got a local business recommendation from AI went and verified it before acting on it, mostly by checking Google, a website, or reviews. Trusting an AI's answer and acting on it without a second look are two different things, and most people still aren't doing the second one. Separate research from Sagapixel on how people use ChatGPT for local services found that 21% switch back to Google specifically to confirm what they were just told. AI might start the search. Google, and what's actually sitting on your Google Business Profile, still usually finishes it.
Getting Recommended by AI Is a Harder Game
Showing up in an AI tool's answer isn't the same contest as ranking in Google's local results, and it's a tougher one to win. SOCi's 2026 Local Visibility Index found that earning visibility in AI generated local recommendations is roughly 30 times harder to achieve than ranking well in Google's own local search results. AI tools tend to pull from a narrower, more established set of signals, so the businesses that show up are usually the ones that already had strong, consistent information across their profile, website and reviews well before AI entered the picture.
The Fundamentals Didn't Change, They Got More Important
This is the part that matters for a business in Dunsborough or Margaret River deciding what to actually do about any of this. AI tools, whether it's ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, or whatever comes next, don't have a separate, secret database of local businesses. They're reading the same signals Google's local search has relied on for years: a complete Google Business Profile, real and recent reviews, consistent business details, and a website that backs up what the profile claims. There's no shortcut that gets you into an AI's answer while skipping those basics. If anything, the bar has gone up, because that information now has to be strong enough to convince both a search algorithm and whatever AI model is reading it on someone's behalf.
What This Means If You Run a Local Business in South West WA
You don't need a new strategy built around AI. You need the same strategy done properly: a Google Business Profile that's fully filled in and kept current, reviews you're actually responding to, and a website that matches what your profile says about your business. Do that well and you're covered whether the person searching typed into Google or asked ChatGPT. Leave it half finished and both are going to skip past you the same way.
If you're not sure where your profile actually stands right now, that's the place to start.
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