Quick Summary
Are businesses really getting clients from AI search? Jeff’s construction company is. After a year of focused marketing, Callaway Construction grew from four inbound inquiries to seventeen. Most still came from Google, but a surprising slice came from ChatGPT. This post explores how getting clients from AI search is starting to happen for early adopters and why the trend is likely to grow as consumer behaviour shifts. AI tools are still much smaller than Google, but they are scaling quickly. For companies willing to adapt early, the opportunity is already appearing.
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Let me tell you about Jeff.
He owns Callaway Construction and specializes in building childcare centers and playgrounds.
When I met his team, they had 4 inbound inquiries in 2024.
After working together for a full year, they had 17 inbound inquiries in 2025.
Here’s where they came from:
- 82% Google
- 11.8% ChatGPT
- 5.9% Yelp
A growing slice of new leads is coming from AI search. This is the highest percentage we’ve seen from any client so far.
And it won’t be the last.
Can Businesses Really Get Clients from AI Search?
Yes.
More and more people are searching on Google for construction companies. If you look at Google Trends, the line has been going up and to the right since 2015.
So it’s no surprise that people are starting to behave similarly with AI search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity.
In 2025:
- Google (founded in 1998) handled ~14 billion.
- ChatGPT (founded in 2015) handled ~37–66 million search-equivalent prompts per day.
Google is still roughly 210x bigger. But AI search is scaling faster than anything we’ve seen in the last decade.
Riding the Wave
All that to say that the people using ChatGPT today to find local businesses (including architects and contractors) are early adopters.
As consumer behaviour shifts, we’ll see more people use AI search. And more businesses like Callaway Construction will see that percentage grow.
In other words, Jeff and his team are riding the wave early.
In next week’s workshop, Get Clients Using Google and AI SEO, I’ll teach you the exact step-by-step strategy we used for Jeff.
See you next week,
Daniela
