AI Is Recommending Businesses. Your reviews decide whether it's you.
Last week I wrote about how many people now ask AI who to hire. Since then, one question keeps coming up from business owners: "So does that mean reviews matter less?"
It is the opposite. Reviews matter more than they ever have.
AI does not replace reviews. It puts them in front of more people, and it makes the customer's decision happen faster.
Customers still check before they call
In 2026, BrightLocal surveyed 1,002 US adults about local businesses. Among the people who use AI for recommendations, 97% said they sometimes double-check what the AI told them against real reviews. And 42% said they always do.
So the AI gets you in the door. Your reviews decide whether the customer walks through it.
The same survey found that 97% of all consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 41% always read them, up from 29% a year earlier. That is a big jump in one year.
AI trusts reviews, and so do people
Half of consumers, and 71% of AI users, trust AI tools to summarize real reviews accurately. And 64% of AI users trust tools like ChatGPT as much as they trust reviews.
That means a customer may read your reviews as a summary written by a machine. If your reviews are thin, old or vague, that summary will be thin, old or vague too. If they are specific and recent, the summary can sound like a reason to call you.
The bar keeps going up
Here is where it gets hard for businesses that have not paid attention. In one year:
The share of people who will only use a business rated 4 stars or higher went from 55% to 68%.
The share who want 4.5 stars or higher went from 17% to 31%.
47% will not use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
74% look for reviews from the last three months, and 32% look for reviews from the last two weeks, up from 20%.
An old five star review from 2022 does not carry the weight it used to. People want to know what customers are saying this month.
Answering matters, too
89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews. 80% say they are likely to use a business that replies to all of them, and 42% are unlikely to use one that never replies. Half are put off by generic, copy and paste replies.
The waiting time is shrinking as well. 19% now expect a reply the same day, up from 6%. If you are the person who handles your own reviews, that is one more thing on a busy week.
What this means for you
If you are in a networking group, you already know how referrals work. Someone says your name, and the other person checks you out before calling. Reviews are the same thing, written down and left where anyone can find them, including AI.
Three things to do this week:
Count your reviews and note the date of the most recent one. If it is older than three months, that is your first problem.
Ask your last five happy customers for a review. Ask them to say what they hired you for and what changed. A story beats five stars with no words.
Answer every review you have, good and bad, in your own voice. Keep it short and specific.
Reviews are step 3 of the ten steps I walk through in my workshop on Tuesday, November 10 at 2:00 PM Central, and we draft the request you can send that week. Details and registration are at metronetworkingevents.com/workshop.
If asking for reviews is the part you keep putting off, that is what my company does. We call your customers and ask them for reviews, so you do not have to.
Lisa Kempton
Booked & Staffed
Sources: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, "Star Ratings Keep Rising, Old Reviews Don't Cut It" (brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey); BrightLocal 2026 AI and trust findings (brightlocal.com/research/lcrs-ai-trust)
