So, if you listened to last week’s podcast, or you’ve been following along on my Instagram, then you know that lately I’ve been talking about the new changes AI has brought to how clients find our businesses. With the old model, if someone was looking for a photographer, they would type something like “Newborn Photography Seattle” into the search bar, and then Google would send them a list of high ranking photography websites to choose from.
People would scroll, click through the choices, and find a photographer.
Well, it’s not really working like that anymore.
Now when you go into Google to search, instead of giving you a list of businesses, Google’s AI answers at the top of the page and makes a recommendation.
Now, if you are on my email list you know I’ve been sending emails all week about these big changes. I’ve been educating my community about how AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT are becoming part of how people find things online — and why photographers need to start paying attention to this right now.
And then a client walked into my studio who brought all of this home in a big way.
I always ask my clients how they found me.
This is something I’ve done for years and it helps me with my marketing. I usually hear things like Google or Instagram — but this client said: “ChatGPT.”
Literally the first person to ever tell me that. But I think it’s going to quickly become the new norm.
So I asked her to tell me more.
And this is what she said: She was up at three in the morning, feeding her baby. The baby in her arms — it was all very sweet — but suddenly she had a moment of panic. Her baby was already growing so fast, and she realized she hadn’t booked a newborn photographer yet. Before the baby was born, she wasn’t sure she wanted newborn photography. But suddenly, in that moment, she realized she did. And she wanted to handle it right then, in the middle of the night, so she could stop thinking about it.
She picked up her phone, logged into ChatGPT, and typed: “Find me a Seattle newborn photographer with an online booking calendar. I want someone who makes it easy to schedule a photo session.”
ChatGPT sent her to one of my blog posts — where I talked about how to book a session using my online booking calendar.
She read it. I had answered all her questions. My website was clear and easy to understand. She found the booking calendar.
She booked. All at 3am. While I was asleep.
Now, I of course love this story. I teach photographers how to build client-centered marketing as part of my certification program — so hearing that a good piece of content did its job and booked me a client while I slept was music to my ears.
But what I thought was so interesting was this: she wasn’t scrolling Instagram. She wasn’t Googling. She asked an AI to find her someone. And the AI found me.
Not because I was running ads. Not because I posted that day. Because I had written a clear, helpful blog post that answered the questions a new mom asks when she’s searching for a photographer.
And here’s why that matters so much — and why I want you to really hear this.
According to SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index — which analyzed over 350,000 local businesses — ChatGPT recommends just 1.2% of them.
1.2%.
That means 98.8% of local businesses — photographers included — simply don’t exist in AI search. When a new mom opens ChatGPT at 3am and asks for a newborn photographer in her city, those businesses aren’t even in the running.
And here’s the part that really stopped me: there’s only a 45% overlap between businesses that rank well on traditional Google search and businesses that show up in AI recommendations. Which means more than half of the photographers who think they’re doing okay on Google? They’re completely invisible in AI search.
I was in that 1.2%. Not because I’m the most talented photographer in Seattle. Not because I have the biggest following. Because I had written a blog post that answered a real question in plain language that AI could find, understand, and recommend.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
Here’s what I want you to take from this.
AI search is the new norm. And if you want your business to show up in AI search — if you want to be referred by the bots — you need to be strategic about your content. The words you use on your website and in your blog posts.
Because AI doesn’t recommend people.
And it doesn’t necessarily recommend style.
It recommends content.
It finds photographers who have answered the questions their clients are actually asking, in plain language, on their website.
If your website doesn’t have that kind of content, AI doesn’t know what to do with you.
This is happening right now.
Not someday. Now.
The photographers who win in the next few years are not going to be the ones with the biggest Instagram following.
They’re going to be the ones who built an online presence that answers real questions in a way that Google and AI can find and recommend.
That is exactly what I’m teaching in my new six-week visibility sprint — Searchlight.
Searchlight is a course built specifically for photographers — showing you how to create the kind of online presence that ranks higher on Google AND shows up in AI answers like ChatGPT.
Were calling it a sprint, because it is very targeted… when you enroll, you’ll get One lesson per week. And One assignment per week. For six weeks straight, All designed to shine a light on your search results and take you from invisible to found.
Enrollment is opening next week! So follow the link in my shownotes and join the waitlist so that you are the first to know when the doors open.
