How to check what ChatGPT and Google's AI say about a local business
How to check what ChatGPT and Google's AI say about a local business, a service a one-person AI agency can sell: the questions, the notes and the report.
A florist in a small town rings her web designer. A customer told her that ChatGPT recommended "a lovely florist on the high street" and named the shop two doors down. She wants to know what it says about her, and whether it's saying anything wrong. He opens ChatGPT, types her shop's name, and gets a friendly paragraph. Is that the answer? Not really. Customers don't type her shop's name. They type "florist near me that delivers today".
Checking what AI tools say about a business is a routine you can repeat every month. You write down the questions real customers ask, put them to ChatGPT and Google in a clean window, and record the date, the exact question and the answer. Then you ask the same questions next month and compare. You're not measuring a ranking. You're keeping a dated record of what was said.
How can you see what AI assistants say about a business?
Start from how customers ask, not from the business's name. The point is to learn whether the business turns up when someone doesn't already know it, and whether what the tool says is right.
- Write five to ten customer questions. Use the words customers use, with the town in them: "best florist in Bath for same-day delivery", "where can I get flowers for a funeral in Bath", "florist open on Sunday near Bath Abbey". Ask the owner which questions they hear on the phone. Include one or two with the business's name, to check the facts.
- Pick the tools. For most local businesses that means ChatGPT with web search, Google Search (where an AI Overview may appear) and Google's AI Mode. Add others the owner's customers use.
- Use a clean window. Sign out or use a private window, so your own history and saved preferences don't shape the answer.
- Ask each question twice. AI tools write each answer fresh. Two runs show you what's steady and what changes.
- Record everything. The date, the tool, the exact question, whether the business was named, what was said about it, which sources the tool linked to, and anything wrong.
The first round is your starting point. It isn't good or bad; it's the line you'll compare against.
Why do answers change from one day to the next?
This is the part that surprises owners, so explain it before you show them anything.
Location. OpenAI's help centre says ChatGPT may use an approximate location based on your IP address to give local results, and it may rewrite "florists near me" into a search with your town in it. If you check from another city, you'll get another city's florists. Put the town in the question, and note where you checked from.
Memory. The same help page says that if memory is turned on, ChatGPT may use saved memories when it rewrites a search. That's why a clean, signed-out window matters.
Google shows AI Overviews only sometimes. Google's guidance says AI Overviews appear only when its systems decide they add something to the normal results, so they often don't show at all. AI Mode and AI Overviews can also use different models and show different links. Record "no AI Overview shown" as a result. It is one.
Each answer is written fresh. Even with the same question, place and settings, two runs can name different businesses. That's why you ask twice and compare months, not single answers.
What should you write down?
A simple table is enough. One row per question, per tool, per run. The two rows below are made-up examples to show the format, not real results.
| Date | Tool | Question (exact words) | Business named? | What it said | Sources linked | Anything wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 March | ChatGPT, search on | best florist in Bath for same-day delivery | No | Named three other shops | Two review sites, one directory | Nothing about this shop |
| 5 March | Google, AI Overview | florist open on Sunday near Bath Abbey | Yes | "Open Sundays 10 to 2" | Google listing | Sunday hours changed in January |
The last two columns matter most. "Sources linked" tells you where the tool is reading from. "Anything wrong" is your list of fixes.
What do you do when the answer is wrong?
Don't try to argue with the AI tool. Fix the page it's reading.
If ChatGPT gives the old Sunday hours and links to a directory listing, the directory is the thing to correct. If Google's AI Overview quotes the website's old delivery area, update the website. BrightLocal's 2026 consumer survey gives the same advice: keep the website current, check listings for mistakes, look at the sources AI tools reference and ask for a correction when something is wrong. The survey also found AI tools like ChatGPT rose to third place among the sources US adults use for local recommendations, which is why the check is worth doing every month; what BrightLocal's survey says about how consumers use AI to find local businesses goes through those findings.
Two technical checks are worth doing once:
- Google. Google's guidance on AI features says a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet to appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that there are no extra technical requirements. The usual basics apply, including an up-to-date Business Profile. The local SEO checklist for a new website covers them.
- ChatGPT. OpenAI says a site must let its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, visit it to be eligible for ChatGPT search results. Check the site's robots.txt file and hosting settings don't block it. OpenAI also says plainly that ranking uses many factors and no site is promised a place.
How do you report it to the client?
Keep the report short and dated. The client wants to know what the tools said, what was wrong, and what you fixed. For example, with made-up figures:
- Headline. "On 5 March we asked 8 customer questions in ChatGPT and Google, twice each. The shop was named in 3 of 32 answers."
- What was wrong, and what you did. "Two answers gave old Sunday hours from a directory listing. We corrected the listing on 6 March."
- What to watch next month. "We'll ask the same 8 questions on 5 April."
Leave out anything you can't show. Don't write "you're now visible in AI search", and don't predict next month's numbers. A dated record the owner can read in two minutes does more for trust than a big claim.
Can a one-person AI agency sell this as a service?
Yes, as long as the service is the checking and the fixing, not a promised result. Write it down before you sell it: the questions you'll ask, the tools, how often, what the report contains, which fixes are included and which cost extra. A service recipe is a simple way to write that on one page. The page for marketers selling local services shows how it sits beside search work and care plans.
Set expectations in the first conversation. The owner should hear, before paying anything, that no one controls which businesses an AI tool names, and that what they're buying is a monthly, dated record and the corrections that follow from it.
Where Volant fits
In Volant you save the questions for each client once, record what AI assistants said with the date and the questions asked, and ask the same questions again next month to compare. You report what you see, not rankings. The services page shows it with the other services you can offer after the website.