April 21, 2026
How to Show Up in AI Search Results: What Business Owners Need to Know Right Now
The way customers find your business is changing. Here’s how to make sure AI recommends you — not your competitors.
If you’ve been wondering how to show up in AI search results, you’re asking exactly the right question at exactly the right time. This week brought several major developments that make one thing crystal clear: AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s own AI features are increasingly deciding which businesses get recommended — and which ones customers never even see.
I want to walk you through what’s actually happening and, more importantly, what you can do about it. This isn’t about chasing every algorithm change. It’s about understanding a fundamental shift in how customers discover businesses like yours.
AI “Agents” Are Starting to Shop for Your Customers
Here’s something that might feel like science fiction but is happening right now: AI agents are beginning to browse the web, evaluate businesses, and make purchasing decisions on behalf of users. A customer might tell their AI assistant “find me a reliable accountant who specializes in small businesses” — and the AI will research, compare, and recommend options without that person ever typing a search query or visiting your website.
A comprehensive new analysis from Backlinko explains this “agentic search” phenomenon and why it matters so much for businesses. The key insight? These AI agents need to trust your business enough to recommend it — and they’re making that determination based on how clearly and credibly your website communicates what you do.
What This Means for Your Business: Your website is no longer just a brochure for human visitors. It’s becoming a reference document that AI systems use to decide whether to recommend you. If an AI agent can’t quickly determine what you do, who you serve, and why you’re credible, it will simply recommend a competitor whose site makes those things clear.
What to Do: Audit your website with fresh eyes. Can someone (or something) landing on your homepage immediately understand what services you offer, which types of customers you serve best, and what makes you trustworthy? Look for credentials, years in business, notable clients, and clear service descriptions. If this information is buried or vague, bring it forward and make it explicit.
New Data Reveals What AI Crawlers Actually Look For
Until recently, figuring out how to show up in AI search results felt like guesswork. That changed this week with new research from Search Engine Journal analyzing 68 million visits from AI crawlers. This is the clearest picture we’ve had of what content ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI tools are actually looking at when they build their knowledge bases.
The findings confirm what many suspected: AI crawlers favor pages that load quickly, present information in clear and structured ways, and contain factual, authoritative content. They’re less interested in pages loaded with marketing fluff and more interested in pages that directly answer questions.
What This Means for Your Business: The content that performs well with AI isn’t necessarily the content that’s most persuasive to humans. AI systems want clear facts they can extract and cite. If your service pages are heavy on emotional appeals but light on specifics, AI tools may skip right over you when someone asks a relevant question.
What to Do: First, check whether AI crawlers can even access your important pages — your robots.txt file might be blocking them. Then look at your key pages with AI in mind. Do they contain clear, factual statements that answer common customer questions? Are they organized with descriptive headings? Do they load quickly? These technical basics matter more than ever.
The Hard Question: Can AI Simply Replace What You Offer?
This one requires some honest self-reflection. Rand Fishkin at SparkToro published a provocative analysis this week arguing that some businesses are fundamentally vulnerable to AI — not because of bad SEO, but because of what they offer.
His point is sharp: if your business primarily provides information that AI can summarize, you’re in trouble no matter how well you optimize. But if you offer things AI can’t replicate — local expertise, proprietary data, human relationships, hands-on services, or products people need to trust before buying — you have strategic advantages worth protecting and emphasizing.
What This Means for Your Business: This isn’t about SEO tactics — it’s about business strategy. The businesses that will thrive are those offering something AI makes people want more of, not less. Think: the local contractor you can actually trust, the consultant who knows your specific industry, the shop with products you want to see and touch before buying.
What to Do: Ask yourself honestly: what does my business offer that AI can’t replicate or easily summarize? Local presence? Proprietary data or research? Human judgment in complex situations? Relationships and trust? Whatever that is, make it central to how you present your business — both to human visitors and to the AI systems evaluating you.
Don’t Overthink It: Focus on What Actually Matters
With all this change happening, it’s tempting to chase every new optimization trick. But Google itself reminded us this week that you can spend a lot of time on SEO details that don’t actually move the needle — and still do fine if you get the fundamentals right.
The fundamentals haven’t changed as much as the headlines suggest. Great content that genuinely helps your customers. A website that loads quickly and works well on phones. Clear, accurate information about your business. Trust signals that both humans and AI can verify. These basics matter whether we’re talking about traditional search, AI search, or whatever comes next.
What This Means for Your Business: You don’t need to become an AI expert or hire a “GEO specialist” tomorrow. But you do need to make sure your digital foundation is solid — because both traditional search engines and AI systems reward the same underlying qualities: clarity, credibility, and usefulness.
What to Do: Before worrying about AI-specific optimizations, fix the basics. Is your site slow? Fix it. Is your content thin or outdated? Improve it. Does your mobile experience frustrate visitors? Address it. These improvements help you with both human visitors and AI systems — and they’re within your control today.
The shift to AI-powered discovery is real, but it’s not a reason to panic. It’s a reason to get your house in order and think strategically about what makes your business genuinely valuable to customers. The businesses that do this well won’t just survive the transition — they’ll be the ones AI recommends with confidence.
Have you tested how your business appears when you ask ChatGPT or Perplexity about your industry? I’d love to hear what you’re finding — and what questions you still have about showing up in AI search results. Drop a comment below or reach out directly.
