Predict how Google or ChatGPT’s AI assistants will surface local businesses differently 18 months from now

Summary

---

Voices of Search Podcast

Predict how Google or ChatGPT’s AI Assistants Will Surface Local Businesses Differently 18 Months from Now

Date: December 3, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Helen Pollitt (iStock)

---

Episode Overview

In this forward-thinking episode, Tyson Stockton and guest Helen Pollitt deep-dive into the future of local search, exploring how Google and ChatGPT's AI-driven assistants are poised to transform the way local businesses are discovered and engaged with over the next 18 months. Through their lively discussion, they predict major shifts in consumer habits, the rising importance of AI agents, and what local businesses must do to stay competitive in this new landscape.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rapid Evolution of AI-Assisted Local Search

• Helen Pollitt humorously begins by envisioning a “doomsday hypothesis” where AI reads your mind and takes you to your destination automatically, highlighting the pace and unpredictability of AI advancements.
• She quickly grounds the prediction:

  “The biggest change that we're going to see in the next 18 months is people's use of agents. So, this idea that you can essentially have your own personal assistant in bot form that goes out and does your research, chooses options for you, and in some instances even transacts on your behalf… I think that will become more prevalent.”
  — Helen Pollitt [00:54]

2. The Rise of Personal AI Agents

• Helen foresees a sharp uptick in consumers using AI agents for everyday tasks such as booking restaurants or comparing prices—tasks that were previously manual.
• She predicts adoption will vary by demographic, with some groups embracing these bots faster than others.
• Local businesses must ensure their websites are accessible to these bots. For example, booking systems with CAPTCHAs could prevent AI agents from completing purchases:

  “If all of your booking system has a captcha on it, for example, it might well be that they can't actually do the booking.”
  — Helen Pollitt [01:42]

3. Website Optimization for AI Agents

• Businesses must proactively adapt by:
  • Making transaction systems AI-agent-friendly.
  • Tracking how AI agents evolve and what technical requirements are needed for full functionality (bookings, info retrieval, etc.).
  • Key advice:

  “Just really kind of keeping up with how are AI agents evolving? What are they being used for? What do they need from a website enabled to be able to complete transactions, bookings, etc. And is your website allowing them to do that?”
  — Helen Pollitt [01:59]

4. Local vs. National Search Dynamics Shrinking

• Tyson Stockton notes that this shift isn’t unique to local businesses; it represents a broad change in consumer behavior that applies equally to local and national searches:

  “It's more of like a shift in consumer behavior as far as adapting to using these emerging tools, systems… I feel like we're going to get more of a shared or kind of similar experience across it as well.”
  — Tyson Stockton [04:08]

5. Hyper-Personalization & Brand Challenge

• Helen predicts a surge in hyper-personalization:

  “They'll learn to understand your subtext that you're maybe not explicitly saying … They already know what your size is. They already know the shops that you usually buy at. So they'll be able to recommend the T shirt in the right sizes from the shops that you like to purchase from.”
  — Helen Pollitt [04:45]

• Breaking into that circle of recommendations will hinge on strong brand recognition:

  “That's going to be very brand focused, I think.”
  — Helen Pollitt [05:08]

6. Marketing Roots Revisited

• Tyson reflects that these trends bring classic marketing fundamentals to the forefront:

  “It's that consumer, that more traditional marketing, consumer behavior driven elements that we discuss becoming more and more prevalent.”
  — Tyson Stockton [05:25]

• Helen agrees:

  “Yeah. It's just gone full circle.”
  — Helen Pollitt [05:36]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Helen Pollitt on AI agent usage:

  “More people are using bots to book restaurants or to compare prices and those kind of things that they might have had to manually do themselves in the past. It may well be that they start to become a bit more automated through AI agents.” [01:21]

• Tyson Stockton on the narrowing gap between local and national search:

  “We're going to get more of a shared or kind of similar experience across it as well.” [04:20]

• Helen Pollitt on hyper-personalization:

  “They're going to have to break into that somehow and that's going to be very brand focused, I think.” [05:08]

---

Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:43 — Episode topic introduction: Predicting local business discovery via AI in 18 months
• 00:54–02:35 — Helen explains AI agents and their impact on local business discovery
• 04:08 — Tyson contextualizes the changes as industry-wide, not just local
• 04:45–05:25 — Helen elaborates on hyper-personalization and the pivotal role of brand loyalty
• 05:36 — The discussion comes “full circle” to marketing fundamentals

---

Summary Takeaways

• AI personal assistants (agents) will rapidly change how consumers interact with local businesses, moving much of the search, decision, and even transaction process to automated agents.
• Businesses must adapt websites for AI accessibility—eliminating barriers like CAPTCHAs and ensuring smooth transactional flows for bots.
• Consumer behavior is central to this shift, blurring lines between local and national search strategies.
• Hyper-personalization will define discovery, making brand recognition more critical than ever.
• The future of local search will build upon, not abandon, the foundations of traditional marketing and consumer behavior.

---

This episode offers both a timely warning and practical guidance for marketers and local business owners—adjust your strategies now, or risk disappearing from tomorrow’s AI-driven searches.

Transcript

[Tyson Stockton]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast. A member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Tyson Stockton.

Next one is looking out into the future. Predict how Google and ChatGPT's AI assistance will surface local businesses differently 18 months from now.

[Helen Pollitt]

Oh, wow. I mean, so much will change within 18 months. They probably will be able to just read your mind by that point and just have automate your body to go to wherever, wherever the local business is itself without you having to even consider it is my terrifying doomsday hypothesis there. But more realistically, I think probably the biggest change that we're going to see in the next 18 months is people's use of agents. So this idea that you can essentially have your own personal assistant in bot form that goes out and does your research, chooses options for you, and in some instances even transacts on your behalf, I think that will become more prevalent. The uptake of that, though, and the, the demographics that are willing to give that much control over to bots, I think will differ. So when we're looking at how that might affect local businesses, it could be, for example, that more people are using bots to book restaurants or to compare prices and those kind of things that they might have had to sort of manually do themselves in the past. It may well be that they start to become a bit more automated through AI agents. And I think the best response to that will be for local businesses to really consider are their websites usable by bots in that way? If all of your booking system has a captcha on it, for example, it might well be that they can't actually do the booking. So just really kind of keeping up with how are AI agents evolving? What are they being used for? What do they need from a website enabled to be able to complete transactions, bookings, etc. And is your website allowing them to do that? And that's all such an unknown at the moment, because really, who knows what 18 months will bring. But that's, that's what I think is probably going to be the number one thing that you need to be conscious.

[Sponsor/Pre Visible Announcer]

Of time for a one minute break to hear from our sponsor, Pre Visible. So you're looking for SEO help and you got a couple of options. You could start replying to spam from agencies that claim they can get you to rank number one on Google. You can pay an hourly rate for a consultant who will inevitably nickel and dime you with hourly charges. Or you can work with a cookie cutter agency to quickly launch a strategy less project with low success rate. None of those sound very good now do they? Well, that's where Pre Visible's integrated consulting model comes in. Pre Visible draws From a collective 40 years of SEO and digital marketing experience to unlock your organic growth opportunities. They build custom solutions that combine strategy, technical expertise, content and reporting to effectively operationalize SEO for your business. Pre Physical's four stage approach ensures that your SEO programs thrive by starting off with a strategy first approach. Then they support you in your efforts to create quality content, help you identify technical issues, and most importantly, they'll work with your cross functional teams to integrate your SEO strategies to make sure that your SEO budget actually drives results, not just your agency's bottom line. So join brands like Yelp, eBay, Canva, Atlassian Square, all who rely on on the SEO consultants at Pre Visible. For more information go to Pre Visible IO that's Pre Visible P R E V I S I B L E I O.

[Tyson Stockton]

And I feel like a lot of what you're describing too is agnostic of local national. It's more of like a shift in consumer behavior as far as adapting to using these emerging tools, systems, what have you. So in that sense it's probably less on like a variance or I would say it's like moving forward there'd probably be less variance in that like local versus national. As you know the training ground of these systems expands further and further. Like I feel like we're going to get more of a shared or kind of similar experience across it as well.

[Helen Pollitt]

Yeah, I agree. And I think we're probably going to see much more hyper personalization. So especially with the LLMs and potentially AI agents, they will learn learn to understand what it is you're looking for. They'll learn to understand your your subtext that you're maybe not explicitly saying when you're asking them to find you, I don't know a T shirt to buy. They already know what your size is. They already know the shops that you usually buy at. So they'll be able to recommend the T shirt in the right sizes from the shops that you like to purchase from. So there's going to be a lot more of that hyper personalization happening and that is going to be really tricky because you're going to have to break into that somehow and that's going to be very brand focused, I think.

[Tyson Stockton]

Absolutely. And it's like it's that consumer, that more traditional marketing, consumer behavior driven elements that we discuss becoming more and more prevalent.

[Helen Pollitt]

Yeah. It's just gone full circle.

[Tyson Stockton]

Well, with that, that's going to wrap up this episode of the Voice of Search podcast. Thanks again to Helen Pollitt from iStock for joining us. If you'd like to contact Helen, you can find a link to her LinkedIn profile in the show notes or be sure to check out her company's [e-mail] if you haven't subscribed yet and want a daily stream of SEO and content marketing knowledge in your podcast feed, hit that subscribe button on your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed soon. So with that, that's all for today. Look forward to seeing you in the next episode.