You’re obsessing over the wrong thing with AI.

It fascinates me that marketers and business owners are still so caught up in asking ChatGPT to write their next social post or email newsletter.

There are multiple online discussions about headcount and how AI automation is going to change various industries.

They’re entirely forgetting something much bigger happening in AI and marketing.

AI is Changing How Customers Discover Your Business

We’re already seeing referral data in our clients’ analytics that shows tools like ChatGPT are actively sending traffic (and conversions) to clients’ websites.

While ChatGPT doesn’t function like a traditional search engine and isn’t designed to directly send users to websites in the same way Google does, there is growing evidence that some AI-assisted search tools, like Bing Chat and ChatGPT’s web browsing mode, are beginning to generate referral traffic.

And studies now show that businesses with strong online visibility are more likely to see AI-driven clicks to their website.

However, in many cases, ChatGPT answers questions within the chat itself, reducing the need for users to click on external links.

But it goes without saying that consumers are asking ChatGPT for recommendations, and it’s deciding whether your business is worth mentioning.

And remember, this is happening right now.

We’re also seeing this with Google’s advancements in search, as Google Gemini becomes increasingly integrated into consumers’ everyday search habits.

And this isn’t just another digital marketing ‘trend’. It’s a complete shift in how business discovery works.

And it’s not being talked about enough.

While you’re using AI to streamline your workflow or assist with your content, your competitors might already be positioning themselves as the businesses ChatGPT recommends.

But then the question becomes – how do tools like ChatGPT even know your business exists?

Is it luck?

Is it a strategy?

Is it the length of time you’ve been in business?

Well, let’s look at it and first take a step back. You need to connect the dots and at least have a basic understanding of how this AI beast works.

Understanding ChatGPT: The Basics

Don’t start to glaze over just yet.

I’m not an AI scientist who’ll bore you with knowledge you don’t need to understand right now.

Instead, I want to give a high-level look at how AI is actually working so that we can better understand how to ensure that we’ve got a better shot at appearing in a ChatGPT search together.

How Does ChatGPT Work?

Think of ChatGPT as your phone’s autocomplete but supercharged.

When you type on your phone, it predicts your next word based on typical usage.

At a fundamental level, ChatGPT is doing something similar.

The only difference is that it’s being trained on huge amounts of text from across the internet (think websites, articles, social media, etc.). 

However, it’s crucial to understand that ChatGPT does not “search” the internet in real-time (unless you’re using one of the new models and select the ‘Search’ option)

Instead, it has trained on a dataset that includes publicly available and licensed texts up to a certain cutoff date.

Most models don’t retrieve live data from websites like Google does but instead it generates responses based on patterns it learned during training. This has been confirmed by Open AI in 2024.

When someone types a question or prompt, ChatGPT reviews its “knowledge” of text patterns and tries to figure out the most likely sequence of words that form a helpful, coherent answer.

Still with me?

Good, but here’s what makes this interesting: ChatGPT isn’t storing entire web pages or articles that it’s memorised. 

Instead, it extracts patterns – like which topics tend to appear together, what phrases people usually use, and how language is even structured. 

While it can provide highly relevant and seemingly accurate responses, this is also the reason that we can sometime see it “hallucinate”, generating plausible-sounding but incorrect or outdated information. 

So, really, it has a feel for language rather than just storing a massive database of different facts.

The result is an AI agent that sounds human-like when we chat with it.

As an example…

Let’s imagine that you’re a super avid reader.

You’ve scanned thousands of business books, articles, and online blog posts.

You’d then be great at summarising or writing in an ‘average’ or ‘common’ way, as you’d have a great deal of broad knowledge.

But if specific facts are out-of-date or missing, you may then create plausible-sounding answers or opinions that are actually inaccurate.

So, if you were a gym owner and you asked ChatGPT for social media strategy ideas for a local gym, a tool like ChatGPT would recall typical patterns from the millions of words of relevant text it’s seen people use in relation to marketing a Gym, focusing on SEO, membership drives, partnerships with other businesses, etc., and piece together an answer.

Why Some Businesses Get AI Attention (While Others Don’t)

Now that we’ve got a basic overview of how ChatGPT and other LLMs work, we need to combine this insight with how businesses get visibility via ChatGPT and AI search.

This breaks down to a few crucial factors, which are always changing and adapting – but what I see right now is:

• ChatGPT “knows” about a business if that business appears frequently or prominently in the text it reads during training. If your business is rarely mentioned on authoritative websites, AI may not recognise it. [BrightLocal, 2024]
• ChatGPT is trained on data up to a certain point in time. So, if your business or brand grew after that cutoff, it might not appear in responses. However, newer versions (such as GPT-4o) can fetch live data through Bing search integration. 
• Businesses featured in well-known publications like Forbes, The Australian Financial Review, or Wikipedia etc are more likely to be included in AI-generated answers. AI models prioritise widely cited sources, much like Google’s authority ranking. [Rand Fishkin, 2024]
• Contextual Relevance: This is where your marketing strategy matters most. If your brand is consistently associated with key topics in widely referenced media, AI will recognise those connections. For example, if a bakery is repeatedly featured in articles about “gluten-free pastries,” ChatGPT is more likely to mention it in relevant queries. [Semrush, 2024]

How to Increase Your Chances of Being Mentioned in AI Answers

Now, how do we put this into practice?

• Use Consistent Branding + Keywords. If appearing in ChatGPT is important, ensure your brand is consistently described in the right context. If you want to be known for “luxury desserts,” use that phrasing across all channels. For example, your website, social media, and guest articles.
• Create High-Quality Content for Authoritative Platforms. It’s not enough to just create content for your website. It’s far more valuable to be featured in trusted industry sources. AI tools prioritise information from established publishers. This is similar to traditional SEO, except instead of backlinks, AI learns from repeated mentions in trusted sources.
• Build a Long-Term Digital Footprint. AI models rely on cumulative mentions over time. A consulting firm with years of high-profile interviews and published thought leadership is more likely to surface in ChatGPT answers than a brand-new firm with little online presence.

The Big Picture for Businesses

The way AI models like ChatGPT are changing business discovery isn’t just about content generation; it’s about positioning your brand for AI-driven search.

Shallow, keyword-stuffed content won’t work.

Instead, businesses need a sustained and reputable online presence across multiple channels.

So let’s make a deal.

Let’s stop thinking of AI as just a content tool.

It’s changing how customers find and interact with your business, and it’s happening now.