Short answer
AI tools name businesses they can verify from several independent sources. That means a consistent name, address and phone number everywhere, a complete Google Business Profile, real reviews, and pages that answer questions directly. Most of it is the same work as local SEO.
A growing number of people now ask an AI tool for a recommendation rather than searching. Not a majority yet, but enough to be worth understanding, and it changes what being findable means.
How these tools decide who to name
They are trying to answer confidently without being wrong, so they favour businesses they can verify from several independent places.
If your business name, address and phone number are identical across your website, your Google Business Profile and a handful of other listings, you are easy to verify. If your name appears three different ways and two phone numbers are in circulation, you are a risk, and the tool names somebody else.
That is most of it. Consistency and corroboration.
What actually helps
Identical details everywhere. Same business name, same phone number, same address format. Boring, free, and the highest leverage thing on this list.
A complete Google Business Profile. It is a primary source about local businesses. An unfinished one gives these tools very little to go on. Getting it right serves this and everything else.
Real reviews on real profiles. Independent corroboration that you exist and do decent work. Testimonials typed onto your own website do nothing here, because anybody can write those.
Pages that answer questions directly. Put the answer in the first two sentences, then explain. Writing that way is easier to quote, and it is also better for humans skimming on a phone.
Being specific about where you work. Vague coverage claims are hard to verify. Named suburbs are easy.
What does not help
Anyone guaranteeing you a position. There is no placement to buy for a local trade recommendation, and nobody can promise one.
Stuffing your site with AI related words. These tools are not counting keywords, they are looking for corroborated facts.
Paying a premium for this as a separate service while your profile is still half finished. That is the part worth being blunt about, because it is being sold hard at the moment.
The reassuring bit
Nearly all of this is the same work as ordinary local SEO. Consistent details, a complete profile, genuine reviews, clear pages that answer real questions.
If you are doing that properly you are already most of the way there, which is why being cited in AI answers is included in the SEO work here rather than sold as a separate line item. The one genuine addition is writing in a way that is easy to lift: lead with the answer, keep sentences clean, and be specific about places and services.
Worth doing. Not worth panicking about, and definitely not worth paying extra for before the free things are finished.