The things you're already doing — reputation, reviews, word of mouth — are what AI search actually rewards

Here is a hard truth about AI search that most agencies won’t tell you.

The people who actually drive results when an AI recommends a business are not search-engine specialists. They are the people who build brands. The people who handle customer experience. The people who pitch stories to the press.

Tom Critchlow, a longtime search strategist, said it plainly in a new Search Engine Journal interview: “The people that drive search engine outcomes are not search-engine professionals, by and large.”

For a small business owner without a dedicated marketing department, that sentence sounds like bad news. It is actually the best news you have heard all year.

What Critchlow actually means

Critchlow is not saying the old rules are dead. He is saying the old rules are only the starting point — the technical basics that make sure your website can be found and read. What sits on top of that foundation is where AI recommendations to customers come from. And that layer is not technical. It is your reputation.

Think about what happens when someone asks ChatGPT: “Who is the best dentist in [your city]?”

The AI does not scan your website and compare page descriptions. It spreads across review sites, forum threads, local news mentions, community pages. It looks for who people are talking about and what they are saying.

This is not a technical problem. It is a reputation problem.

The career risk is real — but it belongs to the specialists, not you

Critchlow described this as a “career risk” for search-engine specialists. A specialist can optimize your website pages, but can they build your reputation? Can they get customers talking about you in online communities? Can they get a local news article written about your business?

In most organizations, the answer is no. Those things belong to other roles.

That career risk is real if you are a specialist trying to sell AI search optimization as “the same thing with a new label.” It does not apply to a local business that never had a specialist on staff to begin with.

You do not need a search-engine expert to win in AI search. You need a business worth recommending.

The small business advantage

Large companies with entire marketing departments struggle with the same problem. They have content teams, search teams, PR teams, brand teams — and those teams often do not talk to each other. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

A small business owner has none of that fragmentation. You talk to customers every day. You know what they ask. You know what they care about. You know why they choose you.

The question is whether that knowledge is visible to AI systems.

What this changes about your approach

If AI search were just “the old rules, upgraded,” the answer would be the same playbook: keywords, backlinks, packed pages. You would need an expert and a budget.

If it is actually your reputation on top of a basic foundation, the answer is different. It is simpler. More human. And more in your control.

You do not need to write 5,000-word guides. You do not need a technical audit to find every possible search term.

You need:

• An AI system that can find your business and confirm the basics — name, address, phone, hours — are accurate everywhere
• Reviews that tell an AI (and a human) what makes you different
• Mentions in places AI tools actually look — local news, community pages, industry directories
• A Google Business Profile that is complete and current

That is not a search-engine project. That is a business project. And you already own most of the inputs.

What the research backs up

This fits with the data we covered last week. A separate study found that 96% of AI citations come from third-party pages — not a business’s own website. If AI search results were driven by page optimization, the breakdown would look very different. But the research shows AI tools pull from reputation signals — reviews, directory listings, forum mentions, news articles.

The foundation is technical. Everything above it is about what people say about you.

The practical takeaway

If you run a local business, stop worrying about whether you have a sophisticated search strategy. Start worrying about whether AI tools can find a complete, accurate, and consistent version of your business across the platforms where they search.

That is work any business owner can do.

• Claim every directory listing that matters in your industry
• Ask your best customers to leave reviews on Google and industry-specific sites
• Answer questions in local community forums
• Get your name in local news coverage when you can
• Keep your business hours and contact information accurate everywhere

This matches how AI search actually works — by scanning for signals that your business is real, active, and worth recommending.

The search-engine specialists are having their career crisis moment. You do not need to share it.