How AI Search Is Driving More Phone Calls to Businesses

You're likely to lose potential customers who will never visit your website. Instead, they'll go to ChatGPT and say, "Who's the best plumber close by?" Get a couple of options and then dial the phone number that ChatGPT provides, without even having to scroll through pages of search results.

Therefore, if you're trying to find out how to increase the number of calls to your company in this new world, I'm telling you how you need to be the companies that AI-based assistants recommend. For most companies, that means four things establishing and

• maintaining consistent local signals that AI can rely upon;

• creating content structured so AI can extract a specific answer;

• getting third-party reviews and references that support you;

• and making sure there are no barriers when customers use chatbots to reach you.

In essence, that's how to optimize your business for AI-powered search. This is essentially the process of aligning all four elements, so the consumer picks your company as opposed to skipping past it.

That's the quick summary. Below is the actual information about what the data indicates plus a step-by-step guide on how to implement it.

What 20 Million Calls Reveal About AI and Customer Discovery

It's no longer a prediction; we've seen evidence. A study conducted by CallRail (a leading call tracking tool used by over 225,000 companies) examined almost 20 million incoming leads and determined that AI search has impacted which businesses consumers select to contact when searching online.

The bottom line:

While 0.073% might seem insignificant, keep in mind: multiply that percentage across the billions of calls that companies in local services receive each year and you're talking about millions of high-quality conversations that didn't touch Google, Yelp or any other paid advertisement. What's also important is that this is an initial indicator much like the modest but increasing numbers of searches during the beginning days of traditional search engine marketing.

How AI Search Produces Direct Calls

Before you can begin thinking about earning some of these calls you must understand why AI generates direct phone calls and how these generated calls are unique compared to other forms of customer inquiries.

For 20 years, the typical flow of customers' journeys have been as follows: Research → Browse Multiple Websites → Compare → Contact. However, AI transforms that entire process into: Ask → Answer → Contact. Customers ask a question; the AI identifies a few possible answers and immediately taps the customer's phone number. The comparative research phase entirely disappears.

The reduction in size of the customer journey creates a difference in both the type of lead and the pathway. When a consumer contacts a business via the telephone number an AI recommends, they've essentially qualified you for consideration. Consumers aren't researching multiple options in the background while deciding whether to contact you. The AI did all of that research and placed you at the top of their list. Therefore, these consumers typically possess a greater level of intent regarding their inquiry and proceed to schedule appointments faster.

The caveat: unless the AI clearly understands, consistently presents, supports, and promotes your business, it won't include your name as one of its suggestions. Regardless of how well your business ranks in search engines, you can still be invisible in the space where decisions are made today.

How to Get More Calls for Your Business From AI Search

In order to increase calls from your business via AI Search – you need to be the answer, and not just one of many results. When a user asks a virtual assistant for help, there will typically be one synthesized response along with three or four business names. In order to be the clear and lowest risk choice in AI Search Optimization, you should have a single, cohesive and consistently described explanation of who you serve and what you do. This should include your website, Google Business Profile, directories, social media bio's etc. Any conflicting explanations may cause confusion for the model, therefore confusing models cannot provide recommendations.

Step 1 – Perfect your local signal flow. The top priority for call-specific local signal flow is completing your Google Business Profile completely and accurately. To ensure accuracy within your GMB account, maintain a consistent NAP (Name/Address/Phone Number) throughout all local citations. Ensure you utilize correct categories, identify the service area(s), and verify your business' hours of operation. The inclusion of a functioning click-to-call button on mobile devices is a non-negotiable – it is essentially the end goal for most of these leads.

Step 2 – Structure your content so AI can easily extract information. Virtual Assistants do not browse through your webpage in the same manner that humans do – they lift the cleanest answer possible from the content. As such, place the exact answer to a consumer's question directly within the first two lines of a paragraph, utilize simple header formats, and include a structured FAQ format that contains direct answers to frequently asked questions prior to a customer making contact. Structured websites receive quotes while unstructured websites are ignored.

Step 3 – Build third-party credibility. While AI systems are naturally skeptical towards self promotion, they rely upon validation and/or endorsement from third parties. The more reviews a company receives from credible sources (i.e., Google Review, Yelp, Local Press), the greater the likelihood that the AI system will consider them when recommending companies to users. Additionally, having consistent online listings across reputable directories further validates your existence and provides additional credibility to both the AI system and potential customers.

Step 4 – Create ease for a caller by removing friction. After sending a lead to you via AI – eliminate every barrier for calling your business. Examples of friction reduction include clearly displaying a phone number on your website, providing functional click-to-call options on mobile devices, and ensuring that your mobile website loads quickly. Finally, measure performance so you understand whether it is effective.

Which AI Platforms and Industries : Are Driving Calls

There will be many different ways to communicate with an assistant. Knowing this breakdown will help you determine your focus areas.

According to the data provided by CallRail, nearly all (9 out of 10) of the calls that have been influenced by AI have been due to the use of ChatGPT. The two top industries that were able to make decisions quickly using AI were automotive and health care. When looking to find quick and reliable answers, people turn to AI in these decision-making processes.

Perplexity performs significantly better than expected when dealing with high-consideration purchases such as travel, hospitality, and manufacturing. Perplexity generates close to 1 in 10 AI leads in the three mentioned industry verticals; a much larger proportion than anywhere else.

Gemini and Claude are currently underrepresented in terms of generating AI-driven leads, however they represent another trend. There appears to be a growing interest in using multiple AI assistants as opposed to relying on one assistant exclusively.

In practice: prioritize optimizing for ChatGPT, as it represents the majority of volume generated. However do not treat AI search as one channel. If you are operating within a research-based industry, consider giving Perplexity visibility deliberate consideration.

How to Measure Your AI-Driven Calls (and Be Able to Attribute Success)

As stated earlier, you cannot measure or improve something if you do not know it exists. Most organizations are flying blind regarding their ability to track their AI-driven calls and therefore missing an opportunity.

AI Assistant sessions are still small in volume — but note the engagement rate. These are high-intent visitors.

Here are the three key steps:

• Implement call tracking for your organization. This allows you to assign incoming calls to their specific origin (i.e., AI platform), versus attributing them as unknown.

• Create a custom AI channel group in Google Analytics 4. This enables you to segregate referrals coming from AI assistants (e.g., ChatGPT and Perplexity) so that your session and conversion metrics related to AI are displayed alongside your other channel metrics for comparison purposes.

• Add a line at the beginning of each caller's interaction asking how they heard about your company. In addition to capturing missed opportunities through this method, this will also capture calls that your analytics solution does not yet recognize as being generated by an AI assistant.

Final Thoughts

The winners of the next couple of years will likely not be those who rank number one on Google they will be those whom AI assistants have sufficient trust to recommend by name. This trust is developed through an intentional process of transparency, consistency in local marketing signals, extraction of data, validation via independent parties, and making certain that there is a viable phone path. The competition window has opened wide due to the fact that many of your competitors have not even begun to participate in this new landscape.

Do you want to know if your competitor's business is being recommended over yours via AI? Begin by getting a complimentary AI search visibility audit. We will provide you with a full report showing how well (or poorly) your business appears in all three platforms' (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Answers) AI recommendations, as well as identify specific areas to address in order to convert AI visibility into actual ringing phones.

FAQs

How do I get more calls for my business using AI search?

Become the business that AI assistants recommend; this is done by having one single definition of your business throughout all of its online locations. Complete and fully maximize your Google Business Profile. Structure your content in such a manner that AI can clearly extract a response to questions asked about your category. Obtain legitimate reviews and credible references to your business. Make click-to-dial easy on mobile devices.

What is AI Search Optimization?

Is AI generating phone calls today, or is this merely hype?

Which AI platform generates the greatest volume of business-related calls?

How will I know if my calls are originating from AI Search?