Hello Lunch Break. Let’s be nostalgic for a minute. Remember when you’d walk into your local store ask for a recommendation about a product and the knowledgeable staff would walk you to your options. Or how you buzz that one friend that has lived in Wilmington forever and ask about a business and get their opinion. This week, I’m talking about how you don’t get to write the opinions about your business but the AI engines will have one.

Alright. Clock's ticking. Back to work.

THE GAME CHANGED

DemandSphere tracks the searches people type when they already know who they're looking for. In September, they highlighted how AI Overviews were shown as much as 90.48 percent of the time.

What this means: Google is now writing the overview above most name searches.

For those that want to nerd out: search your business name on your phone, incognito mode, and take a look at what Google says before anyone scrolls to see your listing.

Sources: AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September, Ray Grieselhuber, DemandSphere, October 1, 2026. Google AI Overviews now appear for most major brands, Cecilia Meis, Semrush, October 6, 2026.

THE WINDOW IS NOW

On September 24 Google started an early preview of a feature called Call for Me on Pixel 11 phones. A customer tells Gemini what they need, and Gemini places the call from the customer's own number, introduces itself as an AI assistant, works the phone menu, waits on hold, and talks to whoever picks up. Most likely, your staff.

Google's own examples are common: reserve a patio table, check whether a hardware store has a part, move a haircut to Thursday. When the call ends, the customer gets a summary and can rate how it went.

Why the window is open right now: almost nobody can use it yet. You’ve got to be in the US, with a Pixel 11, be a paid Gemini subscribers and enrolled in the Phone app's public beta. 

Meta's Muse and Instinct agents can already place calls too, so this isn't just one company's experiment. 

Here’s what you should do about it: Darren Shaw at Whitespark wrote the checklist. Tell staff not to hang up, because it's a real customer on a real number. Keep answers short and confirm the details back. Make sure there's an easy path through your phone menu to a person. Shaw also guesses Google may start judging how businesses handle these calls, the way it already does with Local Services Ads calls. That's his guess, not anything Google has said, and it's a reasonable one I’d say. The task you need to think about is how to train your staff. 

Sources: Google tests letting Gemini call businesses for you, TechCrunch, September 2026. Pixel 11 starts testing Call for Me, 9to5Google, September 24, 2026. Google is testing AI powered Call for Me, Thurrott, citing Google's support page. Checklist: Whitespark Local Update, Darren Shaw, October 5, 2026.

YOUR COMPETITORS ARE ASLEEP

Exploding Topics surveyed 2,338 US adults for Semrush in July, and the finding I’d draw out for a local business is about what happens when a customer already knows your name. Almost half of all consumers, 47.54 percent, at least occasionally ask a chatbot about a company before they buy. Among the people who research companies that way, 87.41 percent would at least occasionally do it before hiring a local business. 

Here’s why it really matters: 74.15 percent of all consumers say they'd be at least somewhat less likely to buy if AI flagged mixed or negative reviews.

Here’s why it really, really matters: You can't buy your way around it. There’s no support team to call to remove a review.

What to do about it: It isn’t enough to be named. You need to be asking what it says about you. Read your last 20 reviews on Google and Yelp for the theme, not the stars. Look for the complaint that shows up three times or more. That’s likely a pattern to create a summary for an engine. Reply to those, then fix the thing they're about.

Source: AI chatbots talked 57.5% of AI users out of buying, Carlos Silva, Semrush, September 7, 2026.

WHAT’S THE PROMPT

It’s time to perform the same type of check a customer would run before calling you. Consider this your background check. It’s also your brand’s perception in AI right now.

Run the prompt

Evaluate your brand’s perception:

Your own site is in the sources and the summary sounds like you. You're telling your own story. Keep the pages it pulled from current.

The summary is right but every source is a third party. Yelp is telling your story for you. Write the page on your own site that says what you do, where, and for whom, in the words a customer would use.

The verdict sends them to a competitor. That's almost never a website problem. It's the theme in point three. Answer it in your review replies, then fix it in the business.

Want a deeper look into your brand’s online reputation? That's what our audit does. Start with the audit.

CITED

Six weeks ago (Issue 22) I asked ChatGPT for the best local home builder in Wilmington five times, and Kent Homes never came first. This week I asked the question this whole issue is about: who has the best reputation as a home builder in Wilmington NC. 

ChatGPT said Kent has the best overall reputation and said why before it said anything else.

Here’s what matters: It was ranking overall reputation, not the highest Google rating. Kent is a 4.8 on the map, and Konrady & Son at 5.0 from 103 reviews and Mark Johnson Custom Homes at 5.0 from 41.

Why you ask? Kent being the answer wasn't from its own website. ChatGPT cited 873 GuildQuality reviews and a Guildmaster award streak. GuildQuality is a third party that surveys a builder's customers directly and publishes what they say, and Kent has been in it long enough to win the award fourteen years running by 2025, per WilmingtonBiz. The published surveys aren't all praise, either. Open the profile and you'll find a customer who isn't sure they'd recommend Kent, and another whose lot lost six oak trees. A record with complaints still has the strongest reputation in town. Marinate on that for a minute.

Next, I asked Gemini the same question, and Kent isn't in the answer. Gemini's top tier leaned on Houzz, citing it for Tongue & Groove, PBC Design + Build, and Konrady. Kent's Houzz profile has no reviews on it. 

Here’s what you need to know: Two engines picked two different sources. Each AI “judge” had different files in their file cabinet and only one of them had Kent's file. 

Here’s what you should remember: You don't get to write your opinion. You do get to choose where your customers are asked for it.

Brand perception matters now more than ever. If you want to know what the different AI engines say about yours and how to improve it, request the AI Visibility Audit.

See you next Thursday.

- Anna

THE POLL