We ran a test–92% of local businesses don't show up in AI answers

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We ran a test–92% of local businesses don't show up in AI answers

While testing Gemini, ChatGPT, and other LLMs with local, high-intent queries like: • “Where should I advertise my small business in Omaha?” • “Best local advertising companies near me” • “Who helps small businesses with local marketing?” we ran a small experiment: we sampled real, active local businesses (with websites, Google profiles, and years in operation) and checked whether they appeared in AI-generated answers. 92% didn’t show up at all. What stood out was that when businesses did appear consistently, it wasn’t random. The models seemed to have a clearer, more structured understanding of who the business was, what it did, and when it should be recommended. That led us to build Chatalyst — a way for businesses to intentionally define how they’re represented inside AI systems, instead of relying on models to infer it from scattered web signals. It’s not ads, SEO, or a directory. It’s closer to providing AI with a clean, machine-readable source of truth: what a business does, who it’s for, what it should (and shouldn’t) say, and when it’s a good fit. I’m curious how others here think about: • AI as a discovery surface vs traditional search • Whether businesses should have a first-class presence inside LLMs • What defensibility looks like as discovery formats standardize Happy to answer questions or dig into the methodology.