AI Visibility: Decision Stage Invisibility for Local Service Providers
There is a moment in every buyer's journey where a decision gets made. Not the research stage, not the awareness stage — the final stage, where someone types a question and acts on the answer. For local service providers, that moment is increasingly handled by an AI assistant. And for most of them, it passes without their name ever coming up. I measure what AI assistants say when somebody is looking for a service. Last week, I ran it on an established independent mortgage brokerage in Phoenix. Own brand, own website, years in business, real reviews. Thirty-four questions a borrower would actually type, put to five major assistants. One hundred and seventy live answers. They were named six times. Rocket Mortgage was named thirty-three. Known by name, absent at decision time The audit also runs six control questions that include the company name. Is this brokerage legitimate? What are their reviews like? How do they compare to the big lenders? Six out of six. Every assistant knew the...