In July 2025, the Pew Research Center published a study that every business owner should read. It analysed the real behaviour of 900 American adults on Google and found that when an AI-generated summary appears at the top of the results, users click on a traditional result in just 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there is no summary. Worse still: in only 1% of visits did anyone click a link within the summary itself. At the same time, Google announced that AI Overviews now reach more than 2 billion users a month, and OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT had passed 800 million weekly users. The way customers find companies has changed, and it has changed quickly.
Customers no longer search, they ask
For twenty years the rule was simple: a customer typed "accountant Porto" into Google, saw ten blue links and picked one. Today, more and more people ask complete questions, such as "which is the best air conditioning company in Matosinhos for a restaurant?", and receive a ready-written answer. It may come from Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode (which, according to Google itself, reached 100 million monthly users in the United States and India within a few months of launch), from ChatGPT or from Perplexity.
This is called "zero-click" search: the customer gets the answer without visiting any website. The phenomenon did not start with AI. A SparkToro study using Datos data showed that in 2024 around 58.5% of Google searches in the United States and 59.7% in the European Union ended without a click, and that for every 1,000 searches only 374 clicks in the US and 360 in the EU reached the open web. AI has accelerated a trend that already existed. Gartner even predicted a 25% drop in traditional search engine volume by 2026 as AI assistants gain ground.
What this means for an SME
As an engineer, I like to look at this as a funnel. If fewer people reach your website, there are fewer opportunities to convert them. But there is an upside that many business owners have not yet spotted: when AI recommends your company by name, the customer arrives already half convinced. They did not compare ten websites, they received a suggestion from a source they trust.
At ActionCOACH we work on the 5 Ways to grow a business: leads, conversion rate, number of transactions, average sale value and margin. This topic touches the first one directly. If AI becomes the shop window where customers look, then being in that answer or not determines how many leads come through the door. And you do not need to be big to appear. AI does not pick the company with the biggest budget, it picks the one with the clearest, most consistent information, confirmed by third parties.
GEO and AEO, explained without jargon
You will start hearing two acronyms. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the work of making your company visible in the answers of generative engines such as ChatGPT or Perplexity. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is the same idea applied to any system that gives direct answers, including Google's summaries and voice assistants. In practice, both rest on the same principle: AI models look for answers that are clear, factual and confirmed by several sources. There are no tricks. There is discipline in your information.
Five steps to get AI to recommend your company
- Answer your customers' real questions. Ask your sales team for the 20 questions they hear most. Answer each one on your website, in plain language, with the answer in the very first sentence.
- Build a proper FAQ page. Lead times, indicative prices, areas you cover, guarantees. The more concrete it is, the easier it is for AI to cite it.
- Look after your reviews. Ask every satisfied customer for a review on your Google Business Profile and reply to all of them, including the negative ones. They are one of the most visible signals of trust.
- Keep your company data consistent. Name, address, phone number, opening hours and services should be identical on your website, on Google, in directories and on social networks. Contradictory information makes AI hesitate.
- Publish case studies with numbers. "We helped a client" says nothing. Something like "we cut delivery time from 15 to 8 days at a 30-person factory" (a hypothetical example) is the kind of fact AI can use.
There is also a sixth step, slower but powerful: being cited by others. Articles in the local press, mentions by business associations, partnerships referenced on clients' websites. When several independent sources say the same thing about you, AI gains the confidence to recommend you.
A hypothetical example
Imagine an industrial maintenance company in Gaia with 18 employees, a hypothetical example. Its website has a generic "Services" page and not a single question answered. When someone asks ChatGPT "who does preventive maintenance on compressors in Greater Porto?", the company simply does not exist in the answer. After publishing clear answers to 15 frequently asked questions, three case studies with measured results and making its data consistent across every platform, it now has material that AI engines can find and cite. There is no guaranteed position, but without that material the chance of being recommended is practically zero.
This week's action
Open ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google and ask the three questions an ideal customer would ask before hiring you. Note who appears in the answers and whether your company is mentioned. Then pick the question where you do not appear and write the best possible answer to it on your website, with facts and figures. Repeat the test in a month's time.
If you would like to look at your company's lead generation in a structured way, the ActionCOACH Porto team can help. We start with a Free Analysis of your business to understand where the biggest opportunities lie across the 5 Ways, with no commitment.