How to Compete With Bigger Companies in AI Search Results
Look, I had a conversation last week with someone who runs a plumbing business in Baldock. Proper good at what he does, been going 8 years, gets most of his work through word of mouth and a bit of Google. Then he tried asking ChatGPT for a local plumber recommendation. It gave him three names. His wasn't one of them. Two of them were national chains with local branches, one was a directory site. He was livid.
And I get it. Because the game's changed, and it feels rigged when you're smaller.
But here's what I've learned doing this for the last three years. The AI search thing, the whole AEO landscape. It's not actually rigged towards big companies. It just looks that way because big companies have been accidentally doing some of the right things for years, and small businesses have been accidentally doing the wrong things.
The gap's not as big as you think. Actually, in some ways you've got advantages they don't.
The thing big companies have that you probably don't (yet)
When ChatGPT or Perplexity or SearchGPT goes looking for information to answer a question, it's looking at a few things. One of them is just... volume. Big companies have churned out content for years. They've got 400 blog posts about drain cleaning, half of them useless, but there's mass there. They've got mentions everywhere because they've been around forever or they've paid for them.
They've also got structured data coming out of their ears. Not because they're clever, mostly because whatever website platform they're on just does it by default, or they paid an agency five years ago who set it up once.
And they show up in directories. Lots of directories. Checkatrade, Rated People, TrustATrader, all of them. Again, not strategy, just... they've been around and someone in the office filled out the forms.
So when an AI is trying to answer "who should I call for a blocked drain in Hitchin", it sees these signals and goes "well, this lot seem established."
You're not competing on those terms. You'll lose.
Where you can actually win
Right. This is where it gets interesting.
AI search engines are trying to give helpful answers. Not the most SEO-optimised answers, not the biggest brand, helpful answers. And what makes an answer helpful is specificity and recency and actual expertise.
You've got all three. You just haven't made them visible yet.
You know things they don't
Big national company doing plumbing in Hertfordshire? They've got a branch here, sure. But they don't know that the new builds off Vardon Road in Stevenage all have the same boiler issue because the developer used cheap parts. They don't know that half the houses in Letchworth Garden City have lead pipes still. They don't know the three local plumbers merchants everyone actually uses.
You do.
And that specific knowledge is exactly what AI search is getting better at rewarding. When someone asks "should I replace my boiler in a 1920s house in Letchworth", the AI wants the answer from someone who's actually done it twelve times, not from a content writer in Manchester who's never been here.
Write that stuff down. I'm serious. Not in a blog post called "Top 10 Boiler Tips", just... write what you know. "Why old houses in Letchworth Garden City need different boiler installations" as a page on your site. 600 words. What you'd tell the customer.
That's better signal than anything the big companies have.
You can move faster
It's March 2026. Something changed in AI search in January. You know what big companies are doing about it? Waiting for their agency to schedule a meeting to discuss a strategy to implement over Q2.
You can just... do things.
I'm working with a guy who does landscaping around Royston. We saw that Perplexity started pulling information from Google Business Profile posts more heavily in February. So we started posting three times a week. Just photos of jobs, what was involved, couple of sentences. Took him ten minutes.
He's now showing up in AI results for "landscaper near Royston" ahead of two national companies. Took three weeks.
Big companies can't move like that. They've got process. You've got a phone and five minutes.
The stuff you need to actually do
Alright, so practically. What does competing actually look like?
First, stop trying to outrank them on Google. That's a different game and it's expensive and slow. AI search doesn't care about your domain authority score. It cares whether you're answering the question.
Make your expertise visible
This means having proper content on your site that answers real questions. Not keyword-stuffed rubbish, just the stuff you already know.
"How much does it cost to fix a leaking tap in Hertfordshire" is a question you can answer better than anyone. You know the actual cost because you did it yesterday. Write it down. Include the caveats. "Usually around £80-120 depending on the tap type and whether we need to replace the valve. Old Victorian taps sometimes need parts ordering which adds a day."
That specificity is gold for AI search.
Get your structured data right
This sounds technical. It's not really. It's just making sure your website tells AI engines what you do, where you do it, what your phone number is. Properly. In a way they can read easily.
If you're on WordPress, there's plugins. If you're on something else, whoever built your site can do it. Takes an hour. Big difference.
Local business schema, service schema, review schema if you've got them. Just the basics.
Actually claim and fill out your profiles
I know. Boring. But bloody hell, the number of businesses I see who've got a Google Business Profile that says "Claimed" and then nothing else.
Fill it out. All of it. Services section, areas you cover, description that's actually descriptive. Photos that aren't just your logo.
Then do the same on Bing Places. Yes, really. Because Copilot uses it.
And Apple Business Connect. Because Apple Intelligence is pulling from there now.
Takes an afternoon. Big companies have half of these claimed but not maintained because someone left three years ago and no one's touched it since.
Answer questions where people ask them
Reddit. Local Facebook groups. Quora, even.
When someone in the Hitchin & Villages group asks "can anyone recommend a plumber?", answer it. Not with a sales pitch, with actual help. "If it's the boiler making that clicking sound, it's probably the diverter valve, most plumbers around here charge £150-200 to fix it, should take about an hour."
Then "I do this sort of thing if you want a hand, but honestly any local plumber can do it."
AI engines are scraping these conversations now. They're looking for helpful humans. Be one.
The bit that matters most
You're not trying to out-corporate the corporations. You're trying to be more useful, more specific, more real.
And that's easier for you than it is for them.
The plumber from Baldock I mentioned at the start? We spent four weeks getting his site properly set up for AI search. Not fancy, just clear. What he does, where he does it, how much things actually cost, the specific problems he solves. Got his Google profile properly filled out. Started answering questions in local groups.
Last month ChatGPT recommended him twice when I tested it. Ahead of Pimlico Plumbers.
It's not magic. It's just making what you already know visible to systems that are looking for exactly that.
If you're around North Hertfordshire and this sounds like something you should probably be doing but can't be arsed to figure out yourself, we do this all day. Or just book a call and we'll have a chat about whether it makes sense for your business. No pressure either way.