AI search is exposing a problem business websites have had for years

A website can look expensive, move beautifully and still leave you with no real idea what the company actually does.

You can click around for five minutes and learn that the team is passionate, the service is exceptional and every solution is carefully tailored. What you may not learn is what they sell, who it’s for, where they work or what you’re supposed to do next. At Emerging Digital Partners, we regularly find this when reviewing business websites. Important information may be spread across several pages, services named without proper explanations, and claims about experience unsupported by reviews, case studies or real work.

The website looks professional. It just makes the visitor do far too much detective work.

AI search hasn’t created those problems. It has made them harder to ignore.

From someone else’s “top three” to an AI shortlist

The internet has never been short of articles promising to reveal the best three, five or ten businesses in a particular area.

Some are genuinely researched. Some are out of date. Some are written by the business sitting proudly at number one.

Someone looking for an accountant might previously have searched “top accountancy firms in Brighton” and worked through articles, directories, reviews, company websites and, quite possibly, one furious Reddit thread.

Now, they can type “top 3 accountancy firms in Brighton” into ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI Mode and receive a shortlist directly, often with a short explanation of why each firm has been included.

The AI still needs information to build that answer. If one firm clearly explains its services, location and experience while another talks mostly about “supporting your financial journey”, one of them is much easier to understand.

The question is no longer only where a website appears in the search results. It is also whether enough clear and credible information exists online for AI tools to understand the business and describe it accurately.

Try the search yourself

Open ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI Mode. Start with whichever one you already use.

Type a short search that someone might genuinely use when looking for your service. An accountancy firm could try “top 3 accountancy firms in Brighton”. A construction company might use “best builders Hove”. An estate agent could search “best estate agents Brighton” and prepare to disagree with the answer.

That’s it. You’re recreating a normal search, not attempting to demonstrate advanced prompting skills.

Leave your company name out. If someone is already searching for your business specifically, they have found you. The useful test is whether you appear while they’re deciding which businesses to consider.

Look at the answer:

• Is your business included?
• Which competitors appear?
• How is each business described?
• What websites or other sources are being referenced?
• Is anything inaccurate or out of date?

Try one or two variations, or repeat the same search using another AI tool. The answers may differ, so one missing mention is not a reason to declare an emergency meeting.

You’re looking for patterns, not treating one response as a final score. For a wider view, you can also run your website through EDP’s AI Search Visibility audit tool.

If you don’t appear, look at what’s missing

Start with the businesses that did appear. What do their websites explain clearly that yours currently doesn’t?

There are only so many times a website can say “tailored solutions” before someone is entitled to ask: tailored solutions for what?

A construction company explaining that it handles extensions, loft conversions and refurbishments across Brighton and Hove gives people and AI tools something useful to work with. “Bringing your vision to life” could belong to a builder, a wedding planner or, at a push, an optician who loves a bit of wordplay.

The same applies to trust. Describing a business as experienced isn’t as persuasive as showing completed projects, customer reviews, professional credentials or a case study explaining what was delivered.

Improve the information, not one answer

One quick disclaimer: opening ChatGPT and announcing that your business is the best in Brighton will not update AI search for everybody else. It may make the rest of that conversation pleasantly supportive, but that is about as far as it goes.

The goal isn’t to manipulate one answer. It is to improve the information that people, search engines and AI tools can find.

Clearly explain your services. Answer the questions customers ask before getting in touch. Show where you work and support your claims with real evidence. Make sure external profiles, directories, review platforms and partner websites contain accurate information too.

The exercise above is only a starting point. The deeper work connects website structure, content, search data and the wider online picture. This is where EDP joins the dots and makes the technical side understandable, helping businesses improve what matters instead of changing a few pages and hoping for the best.

The result isn’t only better AI visibility. It is a clearer online presence that helps people understand what you do, trust what they see and take the next step.

Businesses don’t need to rewrite their websites for robots. They need to explain themselves properly. As it turns out, the robots and the rest of us are looking for much the same thing.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk