Key Takeaways
- More customers are asking AI about local businesses. BrightLocal found the share using AI for local business recommendations jumped to 45% in its 2026 survey, up from 6% the year before.
- AI tools can give outdated or wrong details about you, including hours, prices, services, and sometimes whether you even exist.
- This happens because they pull from scattered, stale or thin sources, and they sometimes hallucinate.
- The fix is to make the correct information about your business easy for AI to find and trust.
- Treat this as the new reputation management: claim your listings, keep details consistent, publish clear factual pages, and check what AI says about you regularly.
More of your customers now ask an AI assistant before they ask you. BrightLocal found that the share of consumers using AI for local business recommendations rose to 45% in its 2026 survey, up from 6% the year before. That is a fast shift, and it means the answer an AI gives about your business is becoming a first impression you do not directly control.
The problem is that these tools sometimes get it wrong. This guide explains, in plain terms, why AI gives out incorrect business details and what you can do to make sure it gets you right.
How AI gets your business wrong
AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI and Perplexity do not hold a tidy, verified record of your business. They assemble an answer from whatever they find across the web, and then phrase it confidently whether or not it is correct.
There are three common ways this goes wrong.
- Stale sources: an old directory listing or a years-old page still shows your previous hours, prices or address, and the AI repeats it.
- Scattered or conflicting details: your phone number differs across listings, so the AI picks one, sometimes the wrong one.
- Hallucination: the AI invents a plausible detail, such as a service you do not offer, because it has thin information to work from and fills the gap.
The result is a customer who turns up at the wrong time, expects the wrong price, or never contacts you because the AI implied you had closed.
Claim and update your Google Business Profile
Start here, because it has the biggest effect for the least effort. Your Google Business Profile is one of the most widely used sources of local information, and AI and search both lean on it heavily.
Claim it, verify it, and check every field: name, address, phone, opening hours including bank holidays, website link, and the services you offer. Keep it current whenever anything changes. If managing it properly feels like a job in itself, our Google Business Profile management service exists for exactly that.
Keep your name, address and phone consistent everywhere
Machines trust consistency. When your business name, address and phone number match across your website, your Google listing, directories and social profiles, AI has a clear, agreed set of facts to repeat.
When those details disagree, AI has to choose, and it will not always choose correctly. Hunt down old listings, fix the mismatches, and remove duplicates. This is the unglamorous core of local SEO, and it pays off directly in how accurately AI describes you.
Publish clear, factual pages on your own site
Your website is the source AI is most likely to treat as the official word on your own business. If the facts are not on your site, you are leaving the AI to guess from elsewhere.
Give it good material to work with.
- A clear services page: plainly state what you do and what you do not, in language a customer would use.
- Honest pricing or pricing ranges: even a from price or a typical range stops AI inventing numbers.
- A proper FAQ page: answer the real questions people ask, which is exactly the format AI likes to quote.
- Up-to-date contact and location details: the same name, address and phone as everywhere else.
This overlaps heavily with writing for AI answers in general, which we cover in our guide to answer engine optimisation.
Use structured data and earn consistent mentions
Two more steps move you from accurate to genuinely trusted.
- Add structured data: this is code that labels your facts, such as address, hours and prices, so machines read them cleanly. It does not change what visitors see, but it removes ambiguity for search engines and AI.
- Earn consistent mentions: when reputable sites, directories and reviews refer to you with the same details, AI gains confidence that those details are right. Reviews matter here too, and our guide on how to get more Google reviews is a useful companion.
In our AI work with UK businesses, we are often asked why a competitor shows up correctly in AI answers and they do not. The answer is almost always this combination: clear pages, consistent details, and steady, credible mentions.
Check what AI says about you, regularly
You cannot fix what you do not see. Make it a habit to ask the main tools about your business by name and read what they say.
Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI and Perplexity what your business does, where you are, your hours and roughly what you charge. Note anything wrong or missing, then trace it back to the source, whether that is a stale listing, a thin page, or a gap on your own site, and fix it. Doing this monthly turns AI accuracy into something you manage rather than something that happens to you.
If you would rather build a deliberate plan around all of this, our AI strategy consulting work covers exactly that, and our guide to building a brand AI can recommend goes a level deeper.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does AI get my business details wrong? AI tools build answers from whatever they can find online, and that source material is often scattered, out of date, or thin. If your opening hours differ between your website and your Google listing, or a service page is missing, the AI fills the gap with a guess. Sometimes it also hallucinates, which means it states something plausible but simply untrue.
How do I find out what AI says about my business? Ask it directly. Open ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI and Perplexity and ask about your business by name: what do you do, where are you, what are your hours, what do you charge. Note anything wrong or missing. Do this every month or so, because the answers change as the tools update and as your sources change.
What is the single most important thing to fix first? Your Google Business Profile. Claim it, verify it, and keep the name, address, phone, hours and services accurate. It is one of the most widely used sources for local information, so getting it right has an outsized effect on what AI and search tell people about you.
Does my own website still matter if people ask AI? Yes, more than ever. Your website is one of the sources AI reads and tends to trust as the official word on your own business. Clear, factual pages covering your services, pricing and common questions give AI accurate material to quote. A thin or missing site leaves AI to guess from elsewhere.
What is structured data and do I need it? Structured data is a small piece of code that labels your information so machines can read it cleanly, for example marking up your address, opening hours and prices. It does not change what visitors see, but it makes the facts easier for search engines and AI to pick up correctly. For most local businesses it is well worth adding.
The Bottom Line
AI has quietly become a front desk for your business, answering questions about you before you ever speak to the customer. If the information it pulls is stale, scattered or thin, it will get you wrong, and that costs you enquiries. The work is not complicated, but it does need doing: claim and update your listings, keep your details consistent everywhere, publish clear factual pages on your own site, add structured data, earn steady mentions, and check what AI says about you each month. This is reputation management for the AI era.
Want help making sure AI tells customers the right things about your business? Get in touch. We can pair AI strategy consulting with hands-on local SEO so the correct information about you is easy for AI to find and trust.
