Yext 2026: Nearly Half of Consumers Now Use AI to Find Local Tradespeople
What happened
Yext's 2026 Consumer Search Behaviors Report — surveying 3,848 consumers globally and 1,120 US adults — found that 47% of US consumers used an AI tool to find a local business in the past month. Globally, the figure is 43%.
Among daily searchers, AI adoption hits 59%. And for higher-income households (£150k+), AI has reportedly overtaken Google as the starting point for local searches.
The data aligns with BrightLocal's 2026 survey, which found 45% of US consumers used AI for a local business recommendation in the past year — up from just 6% the year before.
But here's the critical finding: only 5% of consumers act on an AI recommendation without checking anything else first. After getting an AI answer, 53% search Google to verify, 49% visit the business's website, and 42% click through to the sources the AI cited.
In other words, AI is now the discovery layer — but reviews are still the trust layer.
What this means for tradespeople
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT or Google AI "best plumber near me," the AI pulls its answer from your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and your website. If those are thin, outdated, or nonexistent, you won't appear in the AI's answer — and you won't get the verification click either.
This is a two-stage funnel now. Stage one: the AI recommends you (based on reviews, recency, profile completeness). Stage two: the homeowner checks your Google reviews before calling. If you're missing from either stage, you lose the job.
The tradespeople who'll benefit most from this shift are the ones already collecting fresh, genuine Google reviews — because that's exactly what both AI tools and the humans using them are looking for.
What to do about it
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current. AI tools pull from it directly. Every field matters — services, hours, photos, and description.
- Collect reviews consistently. A steady flow of recent reviews matters more than a large total from years ago. Both BrightLocal and Yext's data confirm this.
- Reply to every review. 97% of AI users still check reviews before acting — and seeing owner replies builds the trust that converts a click into a call.
Source: Yext 2026 Consumer Search Behaviors Report