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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Guardian community team

Independent businesses: have your online sales been affected by the rise of AI?

Has there been any changes in organic traffic to your business website?
Has there been any changes in organic traffic to your business website? Photograph: Images By Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images

We’d like to find out more about how your business has been affected by changes to online searches amid the rise of AI.

Independent businesses have traditionally relied on online advertising for increased visibility and sales, even if they are based on the high street. However, with the introduction of AI mode and AI Overview summaries on Google, and the proliferation of LLMs such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini, people are altering their search habits, which may affect the online visibility of small businesses.

With this in mind, we want to find out if there have been any changes to organic traffic to your business site or online sales in recent months. Are customers still able to discover your company online? Have you found new opportunities or have there been significant challenges? How is your business innovating to get seen online? Are you changing strategy?

We’d also like to hear from customers – have you found it harder to track down independent retailers, or find relevant products online?

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