06/10/2026
You rank on Google. ChatGPT has never heard of you.
We run this check for business owners most weeks. It still catches us how often both are true at the same time, and neither of them knew.
KPMG surveyed finance leaders this year. Three quarters said their organisation now uses AI internally. In 2024, it was under a third.
So the inside of most businesses moved fast. Budgets approved, tools everywhere.
The outside got skipped completely.
Of the businesses we have audited this year, we can count on one hand the ones who had ever asked: when a customer types who is the best plumber in my suburb into ChatGPT, does my name come up?
That question never shows up on a dashboard. Rankings hold, traffic looks fine, the monthly report arrives with green numbers.
The enquiry goes to whoever the model names instead. You would never know which week it started.
There is a version of this we watched happen once before. Print advertisers who had run the same full-page ad for a decade. The audience moved online. The ad kept running. The phone got quieter slowly, then all at once.
The denial was identical. It is a fad. Our customers do not use it. Print is not dead.
Print was not dead. The centre of gravity just moved, and they were defending the old one.
Quick test. Open ChatGPT now. Type who does what you do, in your suburb.
Thirty seconds. If it names you, carry on. If it does not, at least you know before the dashboard does.
