@tjrobertson52

It looks like Google is going to be creating an AI chatbot for your website whether you like it or not. Let me talk about what we know so far and why I think this is ultimately a good thing for businesses. Last week, for a few brief hours, it seems like Google accidentally released an experimental feature.

Google businesses logged into their Google Business Profile, they could see a new messaging tab. Now Google Business Profile used to have a messaging feature years ago, but this new tab is a little different, cause the messaging is actually powered by AI. It actually looks like something like this might be rolling out for all businesses, not just local businesses and Google Business Profiles.

So Google hasn't officially announced anything yet, but local SEO expert Darren Shaw posted about this on Reddit. And a Google product manager responded to that post with a link to an article about Google's new RCS platform for businesses, which of course, heavily implies that these two things are related. Google is clearly trying to help businesses set up AI chatbots.

And in the case of Google Business Profile, it looks like they're gonna be doing it for you. The speculation is that it'll be pulling information from your Google Business Profile and your website to answer questions, of course. Make sure the information on your Google listing and your website is up to date, and make sure your website contains all the information a potential customer might want to know that's valuable beyond just the AI chatbot.

Google had another recent announcement that might be relevant here. They recently announced the Open Knowledge Format, a new standard for structuring your knowledge base for AI. I have another video talking about that standard, but I would be shocked if these new AI chatbot

standard for structuring your knowledge base for AI. I have another video talking about that standard, but I would be shocked if these new AI chatbots aren't able to connect to an OKF bundle. And even if you don't think you want an AI chatbot for your website, I think you do.

But even if you don't, you're definitely gonna want to have a knowledge base for your business. So if there's anything you can take away from this announcement, it's start building that knowledge base. Start collecting all the information about your business and your industry that you're willing to share publicly and organize it in a format that's easy for AI to parse.

I strongly recommend Google's Open Knowledge Format, as that seems like it's going to be the new standard. This is what we're doing for all of our clients right now, and I think within a year or two, it's just gonna be mandatory for businesses. AI is quickly becoming the interface through which people interact with your company.

If AI can't easily interact with your company and get the information it needs, it's just gonna go to your competitor instead. And as people inevitably defer more and more of their decision making to AI, what AI thinks about your business starts to matter a lot more.