25/08/2026
Somewhere right now, your next customer is building a shortlist. You’re not in the room.
They haven’t Googled you. They haven’t visited your website.
They’ve opened an AI tool and asked:
“Which provider is right for a business like mine?”
“What should I compare before choosing?”
“Who offers this near me?”
By the time they reach a website, some of the discovery and comparison work may already be done. The shortlist exists. The question is whether your business was considered.
This is no longer fringe behaviour. Google says AI Overviews now has more than 2.5 billion monthly users, while AI Mode has passed one billion. OpenAI is building product discovery directly into ChatGPT.
For years, the job of your online presence was to rank for the search, earn the click and then explain the business.
That is still important. But now there is another consideration: is there enough clear, reliable information online for an AI system to understand what you do and when you might be relevant?
That does not mean publishing mountains of content.
It means making the useful information about your business easy to find and verify:
• What you actually do
• Who it is designed for
• What problems it solves
• How it differs from the alternatives
• What evidence supports your claims
• What customers want to know before choosing
• Whether that information is consistent across your website and the wider web
Vague marketing language was never particularly helpful.
“Quality solutions tailored to your needs” tells a potential customer almost nothing. It gives an AI system very little to work with either.
Most of this was good marketing practice before AI search came along. The difference is that unclear information may now count against you before someone ever reaches your website.
This is not really about writing for robots.
It is about explaining your business clearly enough that customers can understand where you fit, regardless of how they discover you.
Try this yourself. Ask an AI tool to recommend providers in your category. Did your business appear, and was its description accurate?