Last week Google started giving more businesses a free AI agent that answers customer texts from Search and Maps. I help businesses get found by AI for a living, so I opened my own agency's Business Profile to turn it on first.

I checked the dashboard in Google Search. Then the menu. Then the Business tab in the Google Maps app on my phone. Edit profile, Reviews, Hours, Services, Offers, Events. No Messages.

So I asked Gemini why. It said the feature is invite-only for now, which matches what I'd read. But it didn't cite Google. It cited a small third-party blog. That's this whole newsletter in one answer: AI picks its own sources, and they aren't always the official ones.

AUDAZ doesn't have it yet. Odds are you don't either. But checking my own profile showed me what I need to fix before it arrives, and that's what this issue is about.

What Google launched

A customer finds you on Google Search or Maps and taps to message you. The text goes through their phone's normal messaging app. A Google AI agent answers routine questions for free, like today's specials or open booking times. (Search Engine Roundtable)

  • It hands off. Questions the AI can't answer go to you. You can take over any conversation, and every message shows up in your Business Profile.
  • It doesn't work on every phone. The AI only answers customers whose phone and carrier support RCS (modern texting). Everyone else's texts go straight to your phone, and normal text rates may apply.
  • It's early access. Google is rolling it out slowly. If you have it, you'll see a red dot on Messages in your profile.

One thing Google hasn't said: whether the AI answers in Spanish. For a lot of South Florida businesses, that's the whole question. It's the first thing I'll test when I get access.

Why it matters: the bot only knows what you tell Google

The AI answers from your Business Profile. If your hours are wrong, it gives the wrong hours. If your services are missing, it can't say you offer them. It speaks for you, in your name.

And people are already asking AI who to hire. In a BrightLocal survey of 1,002 US adults published earlier this year, 45% said they'd used AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before.

The same survey found 97% of those AI users sometimes double-check what AI tells them against real reviews. So the AI gets them to your door, and your profile and reviews close the deal.

What I found on my own profile

Google says my profile looks good. But when I read it the way an AI would, I found two things I want to tighten up before a bot starts answering from it.

  1. I thought I'd already cleaned up my service area. I hadn't. It still said “Florida, USA, United States,” plus a postal code in Spain from a side project. Real work, wrong place. Your service area is where local customers can hire you, not every place you've ever worked. Google’s guidelines say not to list states or countries, and to stay within about 2 hours' drive of your base. So last week I replaced it with the specific cities I actually serve.
  2. Reviews are an ongoing job. AI tools lean on fresh, detailed reviews, and so do the 97% of people who double-check. I'm making the ask part of how every project wraps up.

The lesson for me: “looks good” to Google isn't the same as ready for AI.

Do this week: 15 minutes, before the AI starts talking for you

Whether you have the feature or not, do this now. When it arrives, you're ready.

  • Look for the red dot. Open your Business Profile on Google Search, and the Business tab in the Google Maps app. If you see a red dot on Messages, follow the welcome screen to turn it on.
  • Set your Thanksgiving hours. Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov 26. Add holiday hours now so no one shows up to a locked door.
  • Fix your service area. List the actual cities or ZIP codes you serve: up to 20, within about 2 hours' drive. Google's rules say no states or countries. Changes can take up to 48 hours to show.
  • Write your services the way customers say them. “AC repair,” not “HVAC solutions.” If you serve Spanish-speaking customers, add Spanish too: “reparación de aire acondicionado.”
  • Add your booking link so the AI can send people somewhere.
  • Make sure your listed number can get texts. Customers whose phones don't support the AI's texting system skip the bot, and their messages go straight to the number on your profile. If that's a landline or office line, those texts silently go nowhere. List a number that can receive texts, or forward it to one.
  • Ask 3 happy customers for a review. Ask them to mention what you did and where: “Fixed our AC in Homestead the same day.”
  • If you have the feature, test it. Text your business from a friend's phone. Ask a simple question, a price question, and one in Spanish. See what it says.

Tool I'm Using: HubSpot's AI Search Grader

Want to know what AI says about you right now? HubSpot’s AI Search Grader is free and takes under two minutes. So I ran it on AUDAZ.

Type in your business name, location, what you do (in your customers' words) and your industry. It checks how ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini describe you and gives you a score out of 100. You can run it on a competitor too.

Here's my starting line:

AI platformOverall (of 100)Brand recognition (of 20)Presence quality (of 20)Sentiment (of 40)Share of voice (of 10)Market (of 10)
Perplexity48262776
Gemini39252606
ChatGPT32232016

Source: HubSpot AI Search Grader, run October 30, 2026.

What it told me:

  • AI doesn't know us well yet. Brand recognition was 2 out of 20 on all three. AUDAZ is a new business, so that's expected. It's also the same gap I help clients close.
  • When AI does talk about us, it's positive. Sentiment was our strongest score on every platform.
  • Perplexity found us most. HubSpot labels it the “real-time” option. It scored us 48 and gave us 7 out of 10 for share of voice. ChatGPT and Gemini gave us 1 and 0.

I'll run it again in 90 days, after the profile fixes, and share what changed.

One caution: it's a snapshot of what these AI models already know, not a live search. Use it as a starting point, not a final grade.

One more thing

When Google turns this on for AUDAZ, I'll test it with real questions in English and Spanish and show you exactly what it got right and wrong. Tell me if you got the red dot. I want to know who has it.

We don't do quiet.

Sources