> CAN AI FIND YOUR BUSINESS


Can AI Find Your Business?


AI is changing the path to purchase, narrowing customers’ choices before they ever visit a fl orist’s website. Clear content, detailed reviews and meaningful differentiation can help put your business on the short list.


BY LAURIE HERRERA


positive reviews. Soon, Pink Poppy Designs was a first-page Google result. When cus- tomers needed a wedding florist in Fallbrook, California, they found her. Then earlier this year, something shifted. On Rice’s inquiry form, under “How did


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you find me?” — alongside the usual Google, The Knot, WeddingWire and referrals — a new answer started appearing: ChatGPT. “I get one or two [inquiries] a month through ChatGPT, which is significant,”


she says. Now, like many business owners, Rice is facing a new question: How does she get ChatGPT and other AI models to recommend her business?


The Shopper’s Journey Is Changing Rice’s experience isn’t an outlier; it’s part of a seismic shift happening across e-commerce in general.


hen Rebecca Rice, AIFD, FDI, launched her event florist business five years ago, she did all the right things to ensure customers could find her online. She invested in a website, focused on search engine optimization (SEO), and encouraged satisfied customers to leave


30 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | September/October 2026 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG


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