People haven’t stopped using Google, but a growing chunk of discovery now happens inside chatbots and AI-assisted search. In fact, according to the Reuters Institute (2025), across 48 countries, 61% people say they have used a standalone generative AI tool (such as ChatGPT), and 34% say they use them weekly - often to summarise information, translate it, get recommendations, and ask questions in a chat-style format.
What’s changed isn’t just where people search. It’s how they decide.
With AI, discovery has become a guided decision process. People start by describing their context, ask for a shortlist, and expect comparisons with clear trade-offs. Then they verify the final options by checking websites, reviews, and proof—rather than doing all the research upfront.
That’s why the funnel is shifting from: search → click to ask → shortlist → verify
Think of this funnel as the new customer journey when someone uses AI to find, compare, and choose a business. It doesn’t replace search; it compresses it: fewer clicks, faster shortlists, and quicker decisions.
Your goal isn’t to “game” AI. It’s to make your business easy to understand, easy to trust, and easy to verify, so when an assistant is asked for recommendations, you’re a safe, obvious option to include.
This is the moment the customer realizes they have a need, before they’ve chosen a solution or even decided what type of provider they need.
What it looks like in real life
Instead of starting with “best [service]”, people often start with the problem and ask AI to help define the solution:
Create content that meets people at this stage:
A salon owner asks AI: “Why are my ads bringing messages but no bookings?”
If you have a clear article like “7 reasons ads don’t turn into appointments (and how to fix each)”, you become a credible source before they even start choosing who to hire.
At the trigger stage, you’re not selling yet; you’re helping the buyer name the problem and understand what good help looks like. That’s how you earn the right to be on the shortlist later.
This is the moment the customer turns their situation into a question, often with context like budget, preferences, location, urgency, and “what I’ve already tried.”
People don’t just ask what exists, they ask for what fits:
Make it painfully easy for AI (and humans) to understand your fit:
A founder asks: “Recommend a marketing freelancer for a SaaS with a small budget.”
If your site clearly says who you help, what you offer, and typical outcomes, you’re easier to recommend than someone with generic “growth expert” copy.
At the ask stage, customers reward clarity. If your niche and offer are fuzzy, you won’t match the question, even if you’re great.
This is when the customer (or the AI) narrows the options to a few candidates worth considering.
Instead of browsing 20 websites, buyers often begin with a shortlist and work backwards: less browsing, fewer calls, and faster elimination.
Create pages that “earn” shortlist inclusion:
Someone asks: “Best event planners in my area for small, intimate weddings.”
Planners with clear packages, galleries, and reviews get shortlisted fastest because the buyer can quickly see if it fits.
Shortlists are built on “obvious fit.” Your content should make it easy to say: Yes, that’s exactly what they need.
This is where the customer wants reasons, why you’re recommended, why you’re different, and why you’re safe to choose.
If AI recommends you, it will often pull a “because…” from what it can find, so your proof needs to be specific, not fluffy.
Feed the “because”:
A client asks: “Who can help us build a sales process that actually works?”
If you have a case study like “Took close rate from 12% to 22% in 8 weeks”, you find it easy to justify.
At this stage, you win with proof, not promises.
This is when the customer checks if reality matches the recommendation.
AI gets you considered, verification gets you chosen.
Reduce friction and doubt:
If AI recommends a clinic but the website has no credentials, no pricing guidance, and outdated info, the customer bounces, even if the service is good.
Verification is where trust is built (or broken). Make it easy to confirm you’re the right choice.
This is the moment the customer decides: “Okay, I’m doing this.”
Because the shortlist is smaller, each click matters more. Any friction can push the customer to the next option.
Make action effortless:
If your site says “Book a consultation” but doesn’t show availability, pricing range, or what they’ll get, people hesitate. If you clarify those, conversions rise.
The best marketing is a smooth next step.
This is what keeps you showing up over time.
Your “recommendability” improves when your proof stays fresh and consistent across the web.
A service with steady recent reviews is easier to trust than one with great reviews from 3 years ago and silence since.
AI recommendations compound. The more consistent proof you publish, the easier it becomes to get shortlisted again and again.
The businesses that get recommended most consistently tend to do three things well: clarity, proof, and consistency.
On your homepage (and at least one core service page), clearly state:
“I help [audience] achieve [result] through [service] in [location/region].”
AI (and humans) trust specifics. Add proof that can be repeated without guessing:
If your business details conflict across platforms, trust drops. Make sure these match everywhere:
Build pages that map to the prompts people actually ask:
Once you’re shortlisted, friction kills deals. Add:
You don’t need to chase every platform. You need to be easy to summarise (clarity), easy to justify (proof), and easy to confirm (consistency).
Run a simple “AI audit” using real customer-style questions:
Look for three things:
If it’s wrong or missing, that’s your to-do list.
Most of the time, it comes down to:
If you want to win, don’t just say you’re “the best”- make it easy to verify.
No. PR helps, but you can be recommended without it if you have:
In many niches, “clear + credible” beats “popular but vague.”
Not really. What’s happening is that search is becoming AI-assisted. People still verify with websites, reviews, and trusted sources, but AI is increasingly the first filter that decides what gets considered.
So the goal is: SEO + AI clarity: write for humans, structure for machines, and prove your claims.
Start here (fastest wins):
These three changes alone can dramatically improve how accurately you’re described and your chances of making the shortlist.
Common causes:
Fix it by tightening your positioning and updating the pages AI is most likely to read: homepage, services, about, FAQs.
Content that answers real decisions:
This content gives AI language it can safely reuse.
There’s no magic number, but aim for:
Specificity matters more than volume.
Local clarity + trust:
Local buyers verify hard, make it easy.
Write like a human, but structure like a guide. Here is how to write if you want AI to recommend your business:
You’ll sound more confident, not robotic.
If you want to track visibility over time (instead of guessing), tools like LLMrefs can help monitor how often your brand appears in AI answers across different assistants.
If you’d rather keep it simple, you can still do a monthly manual test with 10 real customer-style prompts and note whether you appear and whether the description is accurate.
I’m Faith Sayo, a writer and communications specialist who helps businesses turn what they do into messaging that people (and now AI tools) can actually understand.
This blog was born from a simple pattern I kept seeing: great businesses with vague websites. Not “bad” websites, just pages full of safe phrases like quality service, tailored solutions, we’re passionate, and we do it all. Humans skim past it, AI can’t confidently summarise it, and the business gets left out of the shortlist.
My work sits at the intersection of clarity, credibility, and conversion:
If you’re trying to show up when someone asks AI, “Who should I hire?” or “What’s the best option for my situation?” this is the kind of writing that makes the difference.
AI hasn’t replaced search. It has changed the front door. More people begin with a question, expect a shortlist, and then verify what they’ve been told. The businesses that win aren’t necessarily the biggest; they’re the ones that are easiest to understand, easiest to trust, and easiest to confirm.
If you take one thing from this post, let it be this: AI recommendations don’t reward hype. They reward clarity + proof + consistency.
That’s exactly what Write2Rank is built for: helping you write in a way that’s not only persuasive for humans, but also easy for AI to summarise and recommend. Whether you need better service pages, FAQs that match real buyer questions, or proof-led case studies, Write2Rank gives you the structure and language to earn a spot on the shortlist and convert once people verify.
Talk to Write2Rank here: