Every person in that room used AI to shop. Not one used it to actually buy anything.
That gap — between AI-assisted research and human-executed purchase — is the most important thing happening in commerce right now. And it has a direct implication for how you run your business this week.
Here's what's actually going on.
Customers are already using ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar tools to research products, compare prices, and decide where to spend money before they ever land on your website or walk through your door. Visa's own research confirms this is happening at scale. But the moment of actual purchase still requires human trust.
That's your window.
If AI tools are increasingly the first stop in a customer's research process, your business needs to show up in those answers. Not in vague marketing language — in specific, accurate, findable information. What do you do? Where do you do it? Who do you do it for? The kind of detail that an AI model can read and confidently summarize to someone asking "who's the best contractor in Destin for bathroom renovations."
The businesses showing up in those answers aren't doing anything complicated. They just have current, detailed, consistent information online.
Do this today: Open ChatGPT or Perplexity and search for your own business category in your city. See what comes up. If it's your competitor and not you, that's your entire to-do list right there. Start with your Google Business Profile — it's free, it takes 20 minutes to update, and it feeds almost every AI answer engine pulling local results.
The customers are already asking AI where to go. Make sure the answer includes you.
Three quick briefs:
1. Visa is building the payment infrastructure for AI agents — and it favors prepared businesses. Visa announced a partnership with OpenAI this week to let AI agents initiate payments within user-set controls, plus a registry of verified merchants built for AI-driven transactions. The technology isn't live at consumer scale yet, but the direction is clear. Businesses with accurate, structured online listings are going to be more visible to AI shopping agents from day one. The merchants who prepare now have a real head start on the ones who scramble later.
2. Google traffic is less reliable than it was two years ago — build your list now. Google is surfacing AI-generated summaries at the top of results, which means fewer clicks to actual websites even when your site ranks well. Organic click-through rates are dropping on informational queries — AI answers the question, the user moves on. Depending entirely on Google traffic is riskier than it used to be. Building a direct customer list, email or otherwise, is the most practical hedge a small business can make right now. You own that list. No algorithm can take it.
3. ChatGPT has 500 million weekly active users — and your customers are in that number. These aren't just tech enthusiasts. People are searching ChatGPT for things like "find me a reliable HVAC company near me" or "best lunch spots in Destin with outdoor seating." How your business appears in AI-generated answers is becoming as important as how it ranks in traditional search — and right now, most small businesses aren't thinking about it at all. That's an advantage for the ones who are.
Tool spotlight: Whitespark Local Citation Finder
Whitespark scans the web to find every directory, listing site, and platform where your business either appears with wrong information or doesn't appear at all. Inconsistent name, address, and phone data across the internet quietly tanks your visibility in both traditional and AI-driven search — and most business owners have no idea how widespread the problem is until they look.
Pricing starts around $33/month for small business plans. The interface is utilitarian but the information it surfaces is genuinely useful, and the fixes it points you toward are almost all free to make.
One thing to do before you even sign up: check whether your Google Business Profile, your Yelp page, and your website all say exactly the same thing about your hours, address, and phone number. AI tools are reading all three and picking one. Make sure they all agree first.
The customers are already asking AI where to go. The businesses showing up in those answers aren't doing anything complicated — they just made sure their information was accurate and findable before everyone else got around to it.
Want content like this working for your business every week? hawksolutions.tech
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P.S. Next issue: another shift happening right now that operators need to know about — and the one practical move that gets you ahead of it.