AI Search Optimisation Was Built for Enterprise. Local Businesses Got Left Behind.

Otterly starts at $189 a month. Profound charges $399. Peec is somewhere in that range. These are the tools that exist right now for tracking your visibility in AI search engines. They're built for marketing teams at companies with budgets.

A plumber in Leeds is not paying $189 a month to find out what ChatGPT says about them. Neither is a painter in Birmingham, a gardener in Manchester, or a tattoo artist in Austin. These businesses are spending their marketing budget on a van wrap and maybe a Google Ads campaign. AI search monitoring isn't on their radar.

But the data says it should be.

We tested 1,000 businesses across 7 cities. 47% of local service businesses in our dataset don't even have a website. Painters: 100% without a website. Gardeners: 100%. Roofers: 90%. Tattoo parlours: 70%. Carpet cleaners and handymen: 60%.

Every one of those businesses is invisible to ChatGPT. We confirmed this: zero businesses without a website appeared in ChatGPT's recommendations. Not low visibility. Zero.

These aren't failing businesses. They have Google reviews, real customers, word-of-mouth referrals. A painter with 200 five-star Google reviews and no website doesn't show up when someone asks ChatGPT "who's the best painter near me?" ChatGPT can't recommend what it can't find on the web.

Meanwhile, the businesses that are visible to AI search tend to be larger companies with dedicated marketing. They have websites, social profiles, directory listings, review platform presence. They're playing a different game with different resources.

The gap is going to widen. The BBC reported that 45% of consumers now use AI chatbots to find local services. That number was 6% a year ago. The businesses that figure out AI visibility early will compound their advantage. The ones that don't will lose an increasing share of customers to competitors who did.

Enterprise tools tracking AI visibility exist. Consultants charging thousands for "GEO audits" exist. But there's nothing for the local plumber at a price point that makes sense. The biggest companies have teams working on this. Your local electrician has never heard of it.

That's backwards. Local service businesses are the ones most affected by this shift. They're the ones with the most to lose and the least access to tools that could help. A marketing team at a national brand will figure this out eventually. A solo plumber running their business off a phone won't -- unless someone shows them the problem in terms they understand and at a price they can afford.

The UK alone has roughly 940,000 service businesses without a website. Every single one is invisible to every AI search engine. That's not a niche problem. That's the majority of local businesses being locked out of where their customers are increasingly looking.