Key points
- SOCi says 52% of U.S. consumers use AI tools for local recommendations at least monthly, versus 9% a year earlier.
- Average AI visibility for tracked multi-location brands rose to 36.1%, from 7% in the earlier January report.
- The analysis covers about 3,000 brands in 44 industries, 3 million local queries and 1.4 million unique source URLs.
- Retail and Local Services brands scored highest on AI visibility; Property Management and Food & Beverage scored lowest.
Why it matters for marketers: Local AI answers now surface brands about as often as Google's local results, so multi-location marketers need to track and manage AI visibility alongside traditional local search.
SOCi released part of its analysis ahead of its 2027 Local Visibility Index, focusing on how often AI platforms recommend multi-location brands. The company reports that average AI visibility reached 36.1%, up from 7% in its January 2026 index. That puts AI close to the visibility brands get in Google's local pack (35.9%) and on the first page of Yelp results (37.1%).
The shift tracks consumer behavior. SOCi's Local Discovery Index found 52% of U.S. consumers now use AI tools for local recommendations at least once a month, compared with 9% a year ago. SOCi points to ChatGPT and Gemini, plus AI features inside existing products such as Google AI Overviews and the newer Ask Maps.
To measure visibility, SOCi ran one repeatable prompt asking each platform for 10 businesses of a given type in a given market, for every location in a brand's sample. It tested ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, and used Gemini as a stand-in for Google's AI surfaces. Locations ranked 1 to 5 were counted as likely to be recommended, and those at 6 to 10 as at risk.
For marketers, the takeaway is that local AI presence is no longer a niche concern. Results differed by industry, with Retail and Local Services brands doing best and Property Management and Food & Beverage doing worst. SOCi says these patterns mostly mirror traditional search.
Teams managing many locations should watch for the rest of SOCi's findings on reputation signals and the sources AI tools cite. Because SOCi sells local marketing software and used its own prompt method, treat the figures as one vendor's benchmark rather than a universal standard.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.