AI already changed how customers find local service businesses.
Every figure on this page comes from published research, and each card links to the study it came from. PromoteYou.ai would rather you verify them than take our word for them — we'd rather you verify than take our word for it.
Consumers now ask AI for local business recommendations
Up from 6% a year earlier. AI is already the third most-used discovery tool — behind only Google and Facebook, ahead of Yelp and Tripadvisor. Among 30–44 year olds it's 64%, and 63% of AI users trust what it tells them.
Clicks nearly halve when an AI summary appears on Google
Pew tracked 900 U.S. adults across 68,879 real Google searches. With an AI summary present, users clicked a traditional result in just 8% of visits — and ended their session entirely 26% of the time.
Lower click-through for the #1 result under an AI Overview
Across 300,000 keywords, the top organic position loses roughly a third of its clicks the moment Google shows an AI Overview above it. Ranking first no longer means being seen first.
An AI-search visitor is worth 4.4 times an organic visitor
Visitors arriving from AI tools convert at 4.4 times the rate of traditional organic search traffic. They arrive pre-sold — the assistant already made the recommendation.
All figures from published research, linked above. We update this page when the underlying studies do.
Ranking first in search no longer means being the business AI names.
You can hold the top organic position in Phoenix for "emergency electrician" and still never be seen — because the customer asked ChatGPT, and ChatGPT gave them one name. Not a ranking you climb; a recommendation you either earn or don't. Nothing in a standard SEO report tells you which side of it you're on.