Why Google reviews now decide whether AI recommends you

When someone asks an AI assistant for 'the best plumber near me', it doesn't guess. It looks for signals of trust — and reviews are one of the loudest.

Volume, recency and the words customers use all feed into whether you get mentioned. A business with a steady flow of detailed reviews gives AI plenty to work with.

The takeaway: reviews are no longer just social proof for humans. They're training data for the tools your customers increasingly ask first.