AI tools are changing how customers discover small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and most SMBs know they need to respond. Over a third of SMB marketers report meaningful new traffic from AI tools in the past year, and three-quarters now consider appearing in AI-generated search results a top priority, according to a recent survey by EMARKETER and Semify.

"The bigger risk for SMBs is waiting for a single AI visibility metric before getting started," said EMARKETER analyst Kelsey Voss. "There is no accepted standard yet, but the search and business outcomes they already track can show whether incremental changes improve leads, calls, and bookings."

SMBs' awareness has outpaced their execution. They understand AI visibility matters, but most can't yet prove their optimization efforts are working, per the survey. That gap is a challenge for most SMBs and an opening for businesses willing to build a strategy now.

AI tools are already driving customer discovery

The way consumers find businesses has expanded beyond traditional search results pages. AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity now cite businesses by name when answering queries, often without generating a click to a conventional search listing.

SMBs are seeing this shift in their own traffic data. In the past 12 months, 38.7% of SMB marketers report meaningful new traffic from AI tools, and 29.3% have had customers directly tell them they found the business through an AI-generated search response, according to the survey.

SMBs now rate AI visibility about as seriously as they have historically treated organic search ranking. Some 76.0% say appearing as a citation or recommendation in AI-generated search responses is extremely or very important.

Familiarity with AI-powered search features is also widespread. Some 41.3% of SMBs call themselves very familiar with tools like Google's AI Overviews, AI Mode, or ChatGPT search, while another 49.3% say they're somewhat familiar, per the survey.

Measurement challenges create strategic uncertainty

Traditional search marketing relies on established tracking methods: referral data, click-through rates, keyword rankings, and attribution models. AI-generated answers often bypass this entire measurement infrastructure. A consumer can see a business recommended in an AI chat response, act on it, and never generate a trackable signal.

This measurement issue is now the top challenge SMBs face. Some 56.0% of SMBs cite measuring ROI from AI visibility optimization as a challenge, ahead of limited internal time or expertise (42.7%) and budget constraints (38.7%), according to the survey.

Few SMBs feel ready to optimize for AI-powered search. Only 14.7% feel very confident doing so, while 26.7% feel not very confident at all. Measuring ROI across search channels overall ranks lowest of any task tested, with a weighted average confidence score of 2.4 on a four-point scale (where 1 is most confident). Paid search management (2.36), online review management (2.12), and organic SEO (2.05) all scored better.

SMBs are being asked to invest in a channel that doesn't yet provide the measurement infrastructure they're accustomed to. The businesses that document baseline metrics now and track incremental changes will have a clearer picture of what's working as AI search matures.

The competitive landscape remains unsettled

AI-powered search tools have only become part of mainstream consumer behavior in the past couple of years. This early stage means few businesses have developed mature strategies, and no clear winners have emerged yet.

No SMB cohort has pulled ahead in AI search visibility. Some 40.0% of SMBs believe they're on roughly equal footing with competitors when it comes to benefiting from AI search visibility. Nearly equal shares see themselves benefiting more than competitors (20.0%) as see competitors benefiting more than them (21.3%), and another 18.7% don't have enough information to say who's ahead.

"Until there is an accepted benchmark, most SMBs cannot reliably tell whether they are ahead of competitors in AI search," said Voss. "The clearest measure available in six months will be whether their visibility and business results have improved from where they stand today."

SMBs still have time to build a deliberate AI visibility strategy before competitors establish a durable advantage. The businesses that start now, rather than waiting for the competitive picture to clarify, are most likely to be ahead when it does.

Read the full report.