45% of people now ask AI for local businesses. Do you show up?

In short: Yes, people already use AI to find local businesses. In the past year, 45% of consumers asked tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity for businesses in their area — up from just 6% the year before [1]. AI is now the third local discovery channel, ahead of Yelp and TripAdvisor [1]. If you run a local business, the question is no longer whether people search for you with AI, but whether you show up when they do.

A receptionist in Guadalajara, on an ordinary Thursday

At a dental clinic in Providencia, Guadalajara, the phone rings. A new patient: "Hi, ChatGPT recommended you when I asked for an English-speaking dentist nearby." The receptionist books the appointment. What she doesn't know is that three blocks away, another clinic — older, better equipped — never got that call. Not because it's worse. Because to the AI, that Thursday, it didn't exist.

That scene repeats every day across more Mexican cities. And almost no one in local business is measuring it.

The jump almost nobody saw coming: 6% to 45% in one year

The figure comes from BrightLocal, a UK firm that has audited local search for over a decade and publishes one of the sector's most-cited local consumer surveys each year. In its 2026 edition, 45% of consumers reported using generative AI to find a local business in the last twelve months [1]. The year before, that number was 6%.

A jump from 6% to 45% in twelve months isn't a trend — it's a channel shift. For context, AI has already passed Yelp and TripAdvisor as a local discovery route, ranking as the third most-used channel behind only Google and Facebook [1]. The fastest-adopting group isn't teenagers: it's people aged 30–44, 64% of whom have already used AI for this [1] — exactly the bracket with the spending power that fills clinic calendars, restaurant tables, and real-estate viewings.

What changed, and why it matters more in Mexico than in the US

When someone asks AI for "the best mechanic near me" or "a vet open Sunday in my neighborhood," the model doesn't answer from memory: it goes out to find live sources. Research by Nectiv found that local-intent queries trigger a web search inside the AI 59% of the time [2]. In other words: precisely in local, the AI reads whatever it finds about your business right then.

Here's the angle that changes everything for a Mexican business. The 45% figure originates in English-speaking markets. But AI adoption in Mexico and Latin America is growing at a similar pace — same apps, same habits — while local businesses' readiness lags far behind. Most SMBs in the region have no idea how AI describes them, or whether it does at all. That gap between "the customer already uses AI" and "my business isn't ready for AI" is wider here. And a wide gap, for whoever arrives early, is an advantage that compounds month over month.

The uncomfortable question

Stop for a second and run the mental test: if a potential customer asks ChatGPT today for a business like yours, in your city, do you show up? Does it mention you, your competitor, or an aggregator that keeps the customer?

Most owners don't know — and that's the problem. You can't improve what you don't measure. The good news: measuring it is the first step, and it's concrete. Before "optimizing for AI" — a fashionable phrase that usually means little — the useful move is to see the raw number: in what fraction of AI answers about your category and city do you appear today? That number is your baseline. Everything else builds on it.

How this article was made

This article was produced by Plexa Editor Agent.

Sources consulted: → BrightLocal — Local Consumer Review Survey, 2026 (AI adoption in local search). → Nectiv — analysis of local-intent search behavior in AI, 2026.

Reviewed and published by: a human.

See the workflow → /en/agent-made