SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The way consumers find local businesses is undergoing one of its fastest changes in decades, as artificial intelligence increasingly moves from a research tool to a trusted source for business recommendations.
That changing consumer landscape took center stage at AZBizCon 2026, presented by the Arizona Small Business Association (ASBA), where LocalFi founder and CEO Isaac Navias presented “The New Age of Answers: How to Ensure AI Recommends Your Business to New Leads.”
AZBizCon brought Arizona entrepreneurs and business leaders together on May 4 at the SRP PERA Club in Tempe for networking, education and expert-led sessions addressing issues affecting small businesses. The annual event is organized by ASBA, bringing together resources, education and business connections for Arizona’s small-business community.
Navias’s message to business owners was straightforward: being easy to find on Google may no longer be enough. Businesses increasingly need to understand what artificial intelligence knows, believes and communicates about their brands.
“In 15 years of online marketing, this is the fastest adoption of a new consumer behavior I have ever witnessed,” Navias told attendees during his AZBizCon presentation.
The shift is measurable. BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 45% of consumers had used artificial intelligence tools for local-business recommendations during the previous year, compared with 6% reported in 2025. The research found AI had become the third-most-used source for local-business recommendations among respondents, behind Google & Facebook and ahead of established platforms including Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Broader consumer research points in the same direction. McKinsey reported that approximately half of consumers surveyed were intentionally using AI-powered search, including tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude and Google’s AI features, to research choices, evaluate brands and discover new ones.
From the Age of Search to the “Age of Answers”
Navias describes this transition as the “Age of Answers.”
Traditional online search generally gave consumers a collection of websites, maps listings, advertisements and reviews and left the customer to decide which company deserved their business.
AI changes that interaction.
A consumer can instead ask a specific question such as which local contractor is best suited for a particular project, which dentist specializes in a certain procedure or which business has the strongest reputation for a particular service and receive a synthesized answer containing a smaller group of recommendations.
That means the marketing challenge is beginning to change from simply asking:
“Does my business rank?”
to:
“Does AI understand my business well enough to recommend it?”
Navias taught AZBizCon attendees that this distinction has major implications for local companies whose marketing strategies have historically depended on search-engine rankings and website traffic.
During the presentation, he introduced LocalFi’s AI Visibility and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) framework, emphasizing a consistent, verifiable digital footprint across websites, local platforms, reviews, third-party sources, and other information AI systems use to understand a company.
“The goal is no longer simply to convince someone to click on your website,” Navias said. “You have to give these systems enough trustworthy information about your company that when someone asks for the best solution to their problem, your business has the evidence necessary to become part of the answer.”
Local Businesses Face a New Visibility Problem
For small and midsize businesses, the change creates both risk and opportunity.
Companies with strong reputations in the physical world or businesses performing well in conventional Google search are not necessarily represented the same way by AI systems.
During his AZBizCon presentation, Navias shared a LocalFi case study of a Mesa flight-training organization that ranked highly in local search but initially failed to appear correctly in AI recommendations. LocalFi identified conflicting information, strengthened the organization’s digital footprint, and improved its visibility across AI platforms.
The example illustrated a broader challenge Navias believes businesses will increasingly encounter: AI can only make recommendations based on the information it can find and interpret about an organization.
Incomplete, inconsistent, outdated or ambiguous information can therefore become more than an SEO problem. It can influence how an artificial intelligence system describes, or fails to recommend, a business.
That issue has become increasingly consequential as AI-generated summaries become part of consumers’ first impressions of companies.
ASBA Helps Arizona Businesses Navigate a Rapidly Changing Economy
AZBizCon’s inclusion of AI visibility alongside sessions covering finance, employment, cybersecurity, technology and business development reflected the expanding range of issues small-business owners must navigate in 2026.
ASBA describes AZBizCon as an opportunity for Arizona businesses to connect with entrepreneurs, resources and industry experts while receiving practical information about issues affecting small businesses. This year’s programming included multiple sessions focused directly on artificial intelligence and its emerging role in business.
For Navias, that educational role is particularly important during periods of rapid technological change.
“Small businesses shouldn’t have to become artificial-intelligence engineers to compete,” Navias said. “But business owners do need to understand that the customer journey is changing. The companies that recognize that shift early have an opportunity to build their authority before the market becomes significantly more competitive.”
About Isaac Navias
Isaac Navias is the founder and CEO of LocalFi, an Arizona-based digital marketing and AI visibility company specializing in local search, SEO and Answer Engine Optimization. Navias has spent more than 15 years studying online consumer discovery and helping organizations improve how they are found and represented across digital platforms.
As a speaker, business consultant and business educator, Navias focuses on translating changes in search technology, artificial intelligence and consumer behavior into practical strategies business owners can implement. His educational work includes presentations and workshops for Arizona business organizations, institutions and entrepreneurial communities.
His AZBizCon 2026 presentation, “The New Age of Answers: How to Ensure AI Recommends Your Business to New Leads,” focused on helping business owners understand how AI systems evaluate companies and what organizations can do now to strengthen their visibility as consumer discovery moves from traditional search toward AI-generated answers.
Email: info@localfiseo.com
Media Contact
Name
LocalFi: SEO Digital Marketing Agency
Contact name
Isaac Navias
Contact phone
(480) 744-2808
Contact address
7272 E Indian School Rd #540
City
Scottsdale
State
AZ
Zip
85251
Country
United States
Url
https://localfiseo.com/
