Until recently, when someone was looking for a dental practice near their home, they would open Google, look at the map and ring the first one with good reviews. That scenario still exists, but it’s no longer the only one. Now there are people who open ChatGPT and type: «I need a dentist in Gràcia who’s open on Saturdays and won’t cost me a fortune – which one do you recommend?». And the AI responds with two or three names. The Local SEO with AI It starts right there: the moment a machine decides, on your behalf, which businesses deserve to be mentioned.
At Vandelay, we’ve been hearing this question for months in meetings with clients, almost always accompanied by the same look of concern: «And how do I get listed there?». AI-powered local SEO has made its way onto the agenda of every neighbourhood business. There’s no magic solution, but there is data, and there are specific steps you can take. Let’s look at both.
The figures: AI is now the third most popular way to find local businesses
The most compelling figure was published by BrightLocal in its Local Consumer Review Survey 2026: the proportion of consumers using AI tools to find recommendations for local businesses has risen from 6% in 2025 to 45% in 2026. As a result, AI has become the third-largest channel for local discovery, behind only Google and Facebook, and ahead of long-established platforms such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Within that 45%, ChatGPT leads the way (31% of consumers have used it to ask for business recommendations in the last twelve months), followed by Google AI Mode (23%) and Gemini. And there is a generational divide worth bearing in mind: 64% of people aged between 30 and 44 have asked an AI to recommend a business, compared with just 24% of those aged over 60.
A word of honesty before we continue: that study was carried out on a representative sample of 1,002 adult consumers in the United States, according to its own methodology. This is not data specific to Spain, and we cannot say for certain that the percentage is exactly the same in Barcelona or Seville. What it does show, however, is the direction and pace of change, and experience tells us that such trends tend to reach Spain with a slight delay, not with a 180-degree shift.
As for Google, the figures are also public. On its official blog, the company explained in May 2026 that AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly active users and that search queries have more than doubled every quarter since its launch. In that same analysis, Google highlights something particularly relevant for any local business: the average search query in AI Mode is three times as long than a traditional search, and there has been a particular rise in searches beginning with «where», «where should I» or «ideas for». In other words: people have stopped typing «dentist Barcelona» and have started describing their entire situation.
Why your Google listing is no longer enough
For fifteen years, local SEO could be summed up in a single sentence, and AI-powered local SEO does not overturn that: look after your Google Business Profile listing, get reviews, and ensure your name, address and telephone number are consistent. That is still true and remains the foundation. But there is a structural problem that almost no one is looking at.
Google reviews exist within Google. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude do not have access to that walled garden. When a language model generates a local recommendation, it draws on what it can read: your website, industry directories, the local press, forums, social media and open review aggregators. If your entire digital reputation is concentrated on a single site that AI cannot access, for much of that conversation you simply do not exist.
It is the same line of reasoning that we have already explained when discussing Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and of the search everywhere, but applied to the square metre that actually puts food on your table: your neighbourhood, your city, your 15-kilometre radius.
People trust AI, but they check it
This is where the BrightLocal study gets interesting for business owners. Among those who already use AI to search for businesses, 63% trust its recommendations and only 10% are sceptical. But — and this «but» is worth its weight in gold — the 88% checks the sources or verifies that the reviews cited are genuine before taking action, and the 97% compares the recommendation with actual reviews on native platforms, at least some of the time.
In practical terms: AI-powered local SEO does not replace your reputation, the filter. First, decide whether they’ll mention you. Next, the person will check whether you’re genuine. If the AI recommends you and the customer lands on a profile with three reviews from 2023 and a blurry photo of the venue, you’ve lost on the second screen what you’d gained on the first. Both fronts are at stake at the same time.
Local SEO with AI: five specific things you can do this month
There’s no need to rebuild the website or hire a team. This is the process we follow when preparing a local business for AI-powered search.
1. Take your reviews out of the fenced-off garden
Keep asking for reviews on Google, of course. But spread them out: industry directories, booking platforms, industry aggregators, and your own website with verifiable testimonials. The rule of thumb is simple: if a language model can’t read it, it can’t quote it.
2. Write your answers to the extended questions
If the average query in AI Mode is three times as long as a traditional one, your content needs to be up to the task. «Physiotherapist Barcelona» isn’t a question; «physiotherapist in Barcelona specialising in running injuries who sees patients in the afternoon» certainly is. Create pages and FAQs that respond precisely to those long phrases, using plain language and two- or three-line answers before going into more detail.
3. Set out your objective details in writing and in no uncertain terms
Opening hours, service area, languages spoken, approximate prices, accessibility, whether there is a car park, and whether you deal with emergencies. All of this, in plain text on your website and marked up with structured data (schema from LocalBusiness). An AI cannot infer what is not written, and filling in the gaps with assumptions is exactly what you don’t want it to do with your business.
4. Get people talking about you outside your website
Local press, neighbourhood blogs, trade associations, themed listings, partnerships. Mentions in independent sources are the raw material from which a model builds the idea that you exist and that you are a reasonable option. And yes, this is a slow and unglamorous process: it is also what the competition finds hardest to replicate.
5. Ask the AI for yourself, every week
It’s the step that almost nobody takes and the cheapest of all, and it’s the only AI-powered local SEO audit you can carry out yourself. Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and ask the ten questions your ideal client would ask. Do you come up? Do your competitors come up? Is what they’re saying about you correct? Jot down the results on a sheet of paper and repeat this every week. It’s an imperfect barometer — the answers vary from session to session — but it’s infinitely better than going in blind.
What we still don’t know (and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying)
It’s best to bring your expectations down to earth. There is no control panel where you can see «your ranking in ChatGPT», because there are no rankings: there are generated responses that vary depending on how the question is phrased, the user’s history and the model version. Nor is there a published formula for how an LLM decides whom to mention. Any agency that sells you «guaranteed AI ranking» is selling you a pipe dream in new packaging: local SEO using AI is about probability, not guarantees.
What we do know is what machines need in order to be able to make recommendations to you: information that is accessible, consistent, verifiable and repeated across several credible sources. Coincidentally, this is exactly what a human customer needs to trust you. That’s the good news hidden in all this mess: the same old hard work — a clear website, accurate data, well-written reviews, and a genuine presence in your community — is exactly the kind of work that AI rewards.
Our practical recommendation for getting started with AI-powered local SEO is to start small and measurable: choose the ten questions your customers ask you most often, answer them properly on your website, bring your reviews out of a single silo, and check every week what the AI is saying about you. By doing this, you’ll already be ahead of most of your competitors, who are still waiting to see what happens. If you’d like us to review together what the AI is saying about your business today — and what it would take to change that — at Vandelay We’ll set it up with you, with all the facts on the table and no empty promises. Because any customer who asks ChatGPT about a business like yours is already making enquiries. The only question is whether they’re being given your name.
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