The 30 second story
You know how shops pay to get prime spots on the high street where people will see them? A new tool called Surfacd does the same thing for when customers ask AI assistants to recommend businesses. The company has launched an “AI visibility” service that helps businesses show up when people ask chatbots questions like “find me a good accountant near Manchester” instead of typing into Google. The source does not mention pricing or confirm UK availability.
Why it matters
People are starting to ask AI assistants for business recommendations instead of searching websites. When someone asks an AI chatbot to find a plumber or suggest a restaurant, that AI pulls answers from somewhere. If your business does not appear in those recommendations, you miss out on customers who never even knew you existed. This shift means the old rules about getting found online are changing. Traditional website optimisation focused on Google searches, but AI assistants work differently. They scan information from many sources and pick what to recommend. Surfacd automates the process of making sure businesses appear in these AI recommendations by optimising how company information appears across the platforms that feed these AI systems.
What this means for your business
- Customers searching through AI assistants might never discover your business if you only optimise for Google
- A new category of marketing service is emerging to help businesses show up in AI recommendations
- Companies that move early to AI visibility could gain an advantage while competitors focus only on traditional search
- The cost of getting found online may change as businesses need to optimise for both search engines and AI systems