Notes 9 October 2026 2 min read

Get your business AI-ready. The two-minute checklist.

AI assistants now look up businesses, answer questions about them, and in the US they even phone them. They only know what you tell them. Here is how to tell them the truth.

AI assistants now look up businesses for people, answer questions about them, and in the US Google's AI even phones them to check prices and availability. They're only as good as what you tell them. If your listing says you're open on Fridays and you aren't, the AI will happily book a table anyway.

Tick the boxes as you go. They stay ticked on this device.

1. Write down the truth, once

Your exact business name, address and phone number, written the same way everywhere.
Your real opening hours, including Fridays, Ramadan and public holidays.
Your menu or price list as plain text, not only as a photo or a PDF. AI reads text far better than pictures of text.

2. Put it everywhere AI looks

Google Business Profile: hours, special hours, address, phone, website, menu and photos.
Apple Business Connect (Apple Maps and Siri) and Bing Places.
Your Instagram bio and WhatsApp Business profile, with the same hours and address.
Your own website, with the hours and address written as text on the page.

Moved, changed hours, or closing for a holiday? Update every one of these the same day. Old information lives on for months, and AI repeats it with total confidence.

3. Answer every call

Check how many calls you miss in a week. Most phones and call apps can show you.
If you miss a lot, have something answer: a person, a call-back promise, or an AI host that books and takes messages.
Decide what always goes to a person: complaints, allergies, anything unusual.

4. Test it like a customer

Ask an AI assistant what time you close on Friday and where you are, using your business name. Check the answer.
If it is wrong, find which listing it learned from and fix it there.

AI can answer your phone. Someone still has to tell it the truth.

If you would rather not do this yourself

We set this up for restaurants, clinics and shops, including AI hosts that answer every call and pass the tricky ones to your team. Send us a message, or find us on Instagram. For where to start with AI more broadly, see the playbook.

Next Where to start with AI. The checklist we use with small businesses.Here are four steps, in order, the same ones we use with restaurants and clinics. None of them is a chatbot nobody talks to.