Something fundamental is shifting in how people find local businesses. For the past two decades, the process was straightforward: a customer searches Google, scans the results, clicks a link. That’s still happening — but increasingly, a new behavior is emerging alongside it.
People are asking AI.
The rise of AI-powered local search
“What’s the best plumber in Lufkin, TX?” “Find me a highly-rated dentist in Nacogdoches that takes my insurance.” “Which HVAC company in East Texas has the best reviews?” These questions are being typed into ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot millions of times per day.
And those AI tools are answering with specific business recommendations.
The businesses that get recommended aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They’re the ones with the strongest online signals — reviews, authoritative content, consistent business data, and structured information that AI models can easily read, understand, and trust.
How AI decides who to recommend
AI language models are trained on vast amounts of internet data. When someone asks for a business recommendation, the model draws on what it’s learned about reputation, authority, and relevance. Key signals include your review volume and rating across multiple platforms, mentions of your business in local news and blogs, the clarity and accuracy of your business information online, and structured data markup on your website.
Businesses with a strong traditional SEO foundation tend to do well in AI search — because the signals that matter to Google largely overlap with the signals that matter to AI models.
What’s different about AI SEO
Traditional SEO is about ranking for keywords. AI SEO is about being recognized as an authoritative entity. The distinction matters. A keyword ranking is positional — you’re at position 3 for “plumber Lufkin TX.” Entity recognition is categorical — you are the trusted plumber in Lufkin in the minds of AI models.
Building that entity recognition requires consistent, accurate business information everywhere online, a strong review profile that demonstrates customer satisfaction, original content that establishes topical authority in your industry and location, and schema markup that helps AI crawlers understand exactly what your business does and where.
What East Texas businesses should do today
Start with the fundamentals: claim and fully optimize every business directory listing, build your review count on Google, Yelp, and Facebook, and make sure your website has complete contact information and schema markup. Then layer in AI-specific optimizations: create FAQ content that mirrors how people ask AI questions, earn mentions from local publications and organizations, and ensure your business data is consistent across the web.
AI search isn’t replacing traditional search — it’s adding to it. The businesses that invest in both will have a significant advantage over those that focus on only one. Get a free audit to see where your East Texas business stands today.