Reviews Are One of the Main Things AI Search Reads When It Describes a Local Business

Picture a physio clinic with 140 five-star Google reviews. (The clinic is an example.) Most of them say “lovely staff” or “so helpful”. Hardly any mention sports injuries, back pain or the town. The clinic wants more sports massage bookings at £55 each. Someone asks Google, “where can I get a sports massage near me?” The AI answer names two other clinics whose reviews talk about sports massage. The clinic with 140 reviews doesn’t appear.

Stars get you trusted. Words get you described.

What AI search reads

Google now answers many local searches with an AI summary before the list of businesses. Its AI Mode does the same in a longer conversation. Google Maps adds a short paragraph above your reviews, labelled “Summarized with Gemini”.

Google’s own documentation for that feature says the summaries are “based solely on user reviews”. They pick out what reviewers say about the place and how they feel. Google lists English in the United Kingdom among the supported regions, and says summaries are not guaranteed for every place.

Miriam Ellis, writing Whitespark’s May 2026 guide to AI Mode for local businesses, put it this way: “Reviews have emerged as one of the key sources of information Google AI Mode is returning in response to local search prompts.” That is an expert’s observation from testing. No measured study sits behind it. She also notes that AI Mode results vary from person to person, which makes them hard to track.

Put those together and the pattern is plain. Your star rating tells people whether to trust you. The words in your reviews tell the AI what you do and where.

How many people ask AI first

BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey asked 1,002 US adults how they find local businesses. 45% said they use ChatGPT or other AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6% the year before. A separate GatherUp study from late 2025, cited in the Whitespark guide, put the figure at 48% of more than 1,000 US consumers.

Both are US surveys, self-reported, and run by companies that sell review software. Treat the numbers as a direction for the UK. The direction is clear enough.

The same BrightLocal survey says what people look for when they read reviews. 56% look for a review backed by others with similar sentiment. 74% look for reviews from the last three months. AI tools reward the same thing: several recent reviews saying the same specific thing.

Why your reviews say so little

Most businesses ask for reviews with one line: “We’d love a review!” The customer is happy, busy and on their phone. They write what comes to mind. Lovely, friendly, clean, would recommend.

Those words help your rating. They don’t tell anyone, human or machine, that you treat running injuries or do balayage or take bookings for 20 in a private room.

The customer knows what they came in for. They need a nudge to say it.

A ten-minute self-check

1. Open your Google Business Profile and read your last 20 reviews.
2. Count how many name a service you sell. Count how many name your town or area.
3. If Google Maps shows a “Summarized with Gemini” paragraph on your listing, read it. Does it describe the business you want to be known as?
4. Search Google for “[your main service] in [your town]”. Note whether an AI summary appears and whether it names you.
5. Ask ChatGPT the same question and note the answer.

Write down three services you most want to sell. If fewer than five of your last 20 reviews mention any of them, your reviews aren’t doing that job yet.

What to change

Change the request. Your booking system or follow-up email can send a message after each appointment. Add one line that prompts detail, for example: “If you have a minute, tell others which treatment you had and how you found it.” The words stay theirs.

Ask every customer. Picking the happy ones and ignoring the rest breaks Google’s rules, and so does offering a discount in return. Read Google’s review policy before you change your messages.

Send the request the same day. Recent reviews count for readers and for AI, and memory fades by the weekend.

Reply to reviews with specifics. “Glad the sports massage helped before your half marathon” adds the service to the page in your own words. BrightLocal’s survey found 37% of people weigh whether the owner has replied.

Match your website to your reviews. If reviews mention a service your site doesn’t have a page for, add one. AI tools look for the same facts in more than one place.

What it costs

Changing a review request takes ten minutes in most booking systems. Replying to reviews takes five minutes a day. Neither needs a developer. If your booking system can’t send a follow-up message, that is worth fixing, and most can.

Where to start

Do the count. Twenty reviews, two tallies: services named and town named. Then change one line in your review request and check again in a month.

If you’d like me to look, I’ll read your last 20 reviews, ask AI search about you, and tell you what it picks up, free.

Get in touch →