How do AI assistants choose which businesses to recommend?

The assistant goes through six steps, usually in a few seconds. Getting a business named at the end of them is what AI SEO is for.

We've seen it work. BidScript went from about 10 to about 400 Google AI answers a day in 3 months; the BidScript case study has the detail. Here's what happens when someone asks for, say, a fast web design agency in the East Midlands.

1. 1It checks connected tools and memory first. If the user has connectors installed, it may query those. It also blends in what it already knows about brands.
2. 2It rewrites the prompt into 2 or 3 specific searches, such as "fast web design agency East Midlands" or "web design agency Leicestershire reviews".
3. 3It reads the top 5 to 10 results: service pages, "best agencies in" lists, directory pages, Reddit threads and Google Business Profiles.
4. 4It visits the shortlisted websites to check the facts. It reads the static HTML and pulls out services, turnaround, price signals, location, proof, team and how to start.
5. 5It compares on hard facts: "from" prices, turnaround, location, what's included, minimums and how to order.
6. 6It writes a recommendation with a reason, lifted from whichever text was clearest.

Assistants read a mix of sources, and your own website is only one of them. The rest are the search results, comparison articles, directories and threads that mention you, or don't.

Each assistant searches a different index. ChatGPT and Copilot lean on Bing. Gemini and Google's AI Overviews use Google. Claude uses Brave and others. Perplexity runs its own index plus others. Grok uses web search plus X. So Bing matters as much as Google.

Directories such as Clutch, DesignRush, Sortlist, GoodFirms and The Manifest show up often. So do Reddit threads in places like r/smallbusiness and r/UKBusiness. Assistants also blend in what their model already knows about a brand, which is why consistent mentions across the web build up over time.

They compare hard, checkable facts. Adjectives and backlinks don't come into it.

In one real comparison of UK letter-sending services, the assistant checked price per letter at volume, location, API access, inserts, turnaround and minimum order. It never looked at backlinks.

That's the pattern. The assistant lines up the facts a buyer cares about and picks the business that answers them most clearly. If your price, turnaround or location isn't written down anywhere it can read, you're not in the comparison. Reviews and track record still decide close calls and big purchases.

Often it can reach your site but can't find anything useful on it. Four problems come up again and again.

• JavaScript-only content: many fetchers don't run JavaScript, so text that only appears after scripts load may as well not exist.
• Blocked crawlers: a robots.txt rule, bot protection or a CAPTCHA can stop AI crawlers at the door.
• Missing facts: no prices, no turnaround, no location, no clear list of what's included.
• "Contact us for a quote": it gives an assistant nothing to compare. A "from" price gives it a fact it can use.

Fix whatever stops an assistant comparing you. If it can't read your facts, nothing else you do counts.

Our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT has the full ten-step method. These four come first.

1. 1Put your services, location, turnaround and proof in plain text near the top of each page, readable without JavaScript.
2. 2Give a "from" price wherever you can.
3. 3Check robots.txt and bot protection let search and AI crawlers in.
4. 4Use the same name, address, phone number and description on your site, Google Business Profile and every directory.

Mostly, yes. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode use normal Googlebot, so the first step is making sure Googlebot can crawl your pages.

Then write answer-first. Put a one or two sentence plain answer straight after each heading, so there's a clear sentence to quote. Add structured data so Google can tell what each page is about.

And rank. AI Overviews draw on search results, so being one of the top results for the question still matters. AI SEO builds on SEO; it doesn't replace it.

BidScript is a UK bid management software company. Between June and September 2026, its appearances in Google's AI answers rose from about 10 a day to about 400 a day, a 40x increase in 3 months. Search impressions grew 389% in 6 months, and BidScript was featured in The Times.

Here's what we did.

• Positioning and messaging: what BidScript is, who it's for and why it wins, in buyers' words.
• A content programme answering the specific questions bid teams ask.
• Comparison pages: clear, factual pages comparing BidScript with alternatives.
• Technical and on-page SEO: titles, structure, schema and internal links.
• Facts, FAQs and structured data in plain text, so assistants could check and cite them.
• Digital PR: the story that landed BidScript in The Times.

Being recommended is half of it. Being bookable is the other half.

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the open standard that lets AI assistants connect to a business and take actions. Think of it as a USB port for AI. A connector exposes a few simple actions, such as "get a quote", "book a slot" or "check an order", and the assistant can use them when a customer asks.

Very few businesses are bookable by an assistant yet, so being early counts. Our AI agents & MCP connectors page explains how we build, host and list a connector.