How AI Chatbots Are Replacing Google for Local Service Searches
Look, people aren't Googling your services anymore
I had a conversation last week with a kitchen fitter in Hitchin. Good business, been around 15 years, decent Google rankings. He's been watching his phone go quieter over the last six months. Not drastically. Just... quieter.
Turns out his daughter (19, doing marketing at uni) hasn't used Google properly in about a year. When she needs a plumber, electrician, whatever, she asks ChatGPT. Or Claude. Or Perplexity. She describes what's wrong, asks for recommendations in Hitchin, gets an answer that actually explains things, then books someone.
His first reaction: "That's just young people being weird."
Except it's not. It's happening across the board now in 2026, and if you're a local service business still optimising purely for Google, you're missing a massive chunk of searches that are happening in AI chatbots instead.
What's actually happening with these searches
Right. So someone in Stevenage needs their boiler serviced. Used to be they'd Google "boiler service Stevenage", scroll past the ads, maybe click a few websites, try to figure out who's legit.
Now they're opening ChatGPT and typing something like "I need my boiler serviced in Stevenage, it's making a weird clicking noise, who should I call and what should I expect to pay?"
The AI doesn't give them ten blue links. It gives them an answer. Names businesses. Explains what the clicking probably means. Gives a price range. Sometimes even explains what questions to ask when they call.
And here's the bit that matters: if your business isn't in the AI's answer, you don't exist for that search.
It's not page two of Google. There is no page two. You're either in the response or you're not.
I'm seeing this in the data now. Businesses that show up in AI responses are getting calls. Businesses that don't... well, they're the kitchen fitter watching their phone go quiet and not quite knowing why.
Why AI search is different for local services
Google wants you to click. That's the model. Show you results, you click one, they show you ads, everyone's happy-ish.
AI chatbots want to answer your question. Completely different goal.
So when someone asks about a local service, the AI is pulling from: - Actual business information it can verify - Reviews and reputation data - Content that directly answers common questions - Information about what makes you different
It's not just looking at your meta title and description. It's trying to figure out if you're a legitimate answer to the question being asked.
This is where most local businesses are getting it wrong. They've got websites built for Google in 2019. Homepage talks about "quality service" and "customer satisfaction" and "covering Hertfordshire". Nothing specific. Nothing that helps an AI understand what you actually do, who you serve, what problems you solve.
I've looked at probably 200 local business websites in the last year. Maybe 15 of them would give an AI enough information to confidently recommend them.
The review thing nobody's talking about
Your Google reviews matter more now than they did six months ago. But not for the reason you think.
AI models are reading reviews to understand: - What you're actually good at - What problems you solve - How you handle issues - What your customers value about you
Had a client in Letchworth, electrician, about 40 Google reviews. All saying "great service" and "would recommend". Lovely. Completely useless for AI search.
We got him asking customers to be specific in reviews. What was the actual job? What problem did it solve? How did it go?
Now his reviews say things like "needed urgent rewiring for our extension, came same day, explained everything clearly, finished in three days exactly as quoted".
Those reviews are teaching AI models what he does and when to recommend him. "Great service" teaches them nothing.
What AEO actually means for local businesses
Answer Engine Optimisation. Horrible acronym, but it's what we're calling it now.
It's not about gaming anything. It's about making sure AI models can find, understand, and confidently recommend your business when people ask relevant questions.
For a local service business, that means:
- Your website needs to answer actual questions people ask. Not "services we offer", but "what should I expect when getting a new boiler installed" or "how long does a bathroom refit take in a typical Baldock semi".
- Your business information needs to be consistent and detailed everywhere it appears. AI models cross-reference. If your opening hours are different on Google than on your website than on Facebook, that's a problem.
- You need content that demonstrates expertise. Not blog posts about "top 10 tips". Actual detailed explanations of things you know because you do this work every day.
The last bit is where I see the biggest gap. Local business owners know so much about their trade. Ask them a question and they'll talk for 20 minutes about the right way to do something. But their website doesn't contain any of that knowledge.
The search behaviour shift
This is the part that's going to annoy people who've spent years getting good at SEO.
Traditional search: "emergency plumber Royston"
AI search: "my stopcock won't turn off and water's leaking under the sink, I'm in Royston, what do I do right now and who can help?"
See the difference? One's keywords. One's a question from a person who needs help.
And the AI response isn't going to be a list of plumbers. It's going to be: 1. Here's how to shut off your water at the meter 2. Here's what's probably happened 3. Call [specific business] because they do emergency callouts and they're good with older properties in Royston
If you're that business in the answer, you get the call. If you're not, you don't even know the search happened.
I'm not saying Google's dead. It's not. But the mix has changed. In 2026, maybe 30-40% of local service searches are happening in AI chatbots instead of search engines. That percentage is only going one direction.
What actually works right now
Forget everything complicated for a second.
The businesses getting AI traffic are doing this: - Answering questions properly on their website. Real questions. In detail. - Keeping their business info updated everywhere. Not just Google Business, everywhere. - Getting specific reviews that describe actual jobs and outcomes. - Creating content that shows they know what they're doing. Case studies, explanations, the problems they solve.
That's it. There's technical stuff underneath, but if you get those four things right, you're ahead of 90% of local businesses.
The technical bits matter too. Structured data, proper schema markup, making sure AI models can parse your information. But honestly, if your website is full of generic service pages that could apply to any business in any town, the technical stuff won't save you.
So what are you supposed to do about this?
If you're running a local service business in North Hertfordshire and you've noticed your phone getting quieter, this is probably why.
You need to be where the searches are happening. And increasingly, that's in AI chatbots, not Google.
You need your business information structured so AI models can understand it, trust it, and recommend you. That's what AEO is. That's what we do.
Look, I'm not going to pretend this is simple. It's not bloody rocket science, but it's not something you can tick off in an afternoon either. It's rethinking how you present your business online. Making sure AI can find you, understand what you do, and recommend you confidently.
We work with local service businesses around Stevenage, Hitchin, Baldock, all over North Hertfordshire really. Getting them showing up in AI search results. Making sure when someone asks ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity for a recommendation, they're in the answer.
If this sounds like something you need to sort out, book a call and we'll talk through where you are and what actually needs doing. Or have a look at what we're doing with AEO in North Hertfordshire specifically.
Your phone doesn't have to keep getting quieter. But you do need to show up where people are actually searching now.