A customer mentions that they "asked ChatGPT" for a clinic near JLT, and it named your competitor. You look for advice and find agencies promising to "rank you on ChatGPT", most of it written for American businesses and little of it quoting what OpenAI or Google actually publish.
This guide is built on official documentation from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Cloudflare, plus the few industry studies of local AI answers. Everything was checked on 24 October 2026; these products change often.
Which AI assistants do people in the UAE actually use?
ChatGPT, by a wide margin, while Google Search remains where most searching happens. StatCounter's UAE estimates for September 2026 put ChatGPT at 80.99% of AI chatbot market share, and its search engine figures for the same month put Google at 93.47% of search engine market share.
| Where your customer asks | UAE share, September 2026 (StatCounter) |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 80.99% of AI chatbot market share |
| Google Gemini | 13.25% of AI chatbot market share |
| Microsoft Copilot | 2.26% of AI chatbot market share |
| Perplexity | 2.25% of AI chatbot market share |
| Google Search | 93.47% of search engine market share |
| Bing | 3.96% of search engine market share |
Google Search now has AI built in. AI Overviews, the summary at the top of results, launched in the UAE in May 2025 with Arabic among its languages. AI Mode, Google's conversational search, launched in English across the Middle East and North Africa in August 2025, and Google began rolling it out in Modern Standard Arabic on 8 October 2025.
So you are dealing with two systems, ChatGPT and Google's AI, which choose businesses differently.
How does ChatGPT find and choose local businesses?
It searches the web, can add the customer's approximate location to the search, and ranks what it finds. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it uses "multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information" and that "placement is not guaranteed". The same page explains the steps:
- It rewrites the question into search queries. If the IP address suggests a city, it may add the city: OpenAI's example turns "What are some good restaurants near me?" into "top restaurants San Francisco".
- It sometimes uses outside search providers. OpenAI does not name them all; the page points to Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies for how providers handle queries.
- It may share your location with "trusted third-party providers" for things like nearby business listings. Sharing precise device location is optional and off by default.
- It shows restaurant reservation times on eligible consumer plans, from OpenTable (available globally), Resy (US) and Yelp (US and Canada).
Your website gets in through OpenAI's crawler, OAI-SearchBot, which OpenAI says is "used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features". To be eligible, the help page says you must allow OAI-SearchBot and make sure your host or CDN lets through OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses.
Does ChatGPT use Google or Bing?
OpenAI does not say which providers it uses or how much, so nobody outside the company can say for certain. On record: ChatGPT has its own crawler, "sometimes partners with other search providers", and its help page links Microsoft's privacy statement, not Google's.
The best local evidence is BrightLocal's study of about 200,000 local searches across 1,300 business locations, published 16 September 2026. It found that ChatGPT's "relationships with Yelp and Bing" meant it surfaced different businesses, and that Google Business Profile is "hardly used by ChatGPT", while Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode relied heavily on Business Profile. Its examples are US cities, so treat it as a strong hint, not UAE data.
Note: BrightLocal sells the AI tracking tool used in this research, and the author, a content marketer, says he "may come across a little bias" in arguing that websites still matter.
How are Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode different from ChatGPT?
Google's AI features sit on top of Google Search, so the way in is ordinary SEO. Google's guide to generative AI search, updated 10 July 2026, says optimising for it "is still SEO". Its page on AI features and your website says there are "no additional requirements": a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and no special schema.org markup is needed.
The guide adds that Google Business Profile and Merchant Center "can help your products and services to be visible in both AI responses and other Google Search results", and that "no third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems".
For local results, Google's Business Profile help says results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity", that more reviews and positive ratings can help, and that "there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking".
AI Mode also uses query fan-out, "breaking down your question into subtopics and issuing a multitude of queries simultaneously". "Kids' dentist in Mirdif open on Saturday with parking" could become several smaller searches, which is a good reason to answer each of those details on your own pages.
| Compared | ChatGPT search | Google AI Overviews and AI Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Crawler that must reach your site | OAI-SearchBot | Googlebot |
| Leaned on for local businesses (BrightLocal) | Business websites, Yelp and Bing | Business websites, Google Business Profile, Yelp and Facebook |
| Official advice | Allow OAI-SearchBot and OpenAI's IP addresses | "Still SEO" plus an accurate Business Profile |
| Average overlap between repeat searches (BrightLocal) | 23% | 21% (AI Mode), 33% (AI Overviews) |
| Official visibility report | None described by OpenAI | Search Console generative AI reports |
The two also disagree with each other: in BrightLocal's data, the businesses ChatGPT named overlapped only 19 to 20% with those named by either Google feature. Test both.
Is your website letting AI search crawlers in?
You only know by checking, because one line in a file or one security setting can keep you out of ChatGPT without anyone noticing. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links".
GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot, and the other crawlers that matter
| Crawler | What it does | If you block it |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI) | Surfaces websites in ChatGPT search | You are left out of ChatGPT search answers |
| GPTBot (OpenAI) | Collects content that may train OpenAI's models | Training opt-out only; ChatGPT search is unaffected |
| ChatGPT-User (OpenAI) | May visit a page when a user asks ChatGPT a question | OpenAI says robots.txt may not apply; not used to decide search results |
| Googlebot (Google) | Crawls for Google Search and all its features | You drop out of Google Search and its AI answers |
| Google-Extended (Google) | A robots.txt token for Gemini training and grounding in Gemini Apps | No effect on Google Search, but limits Gemini's use of your pages |
Sources: OpenAI's crawler documentation, Google's common crawlers page and its AI features page. With Gemini at 13.25% of UAE AI chatbot market share, think twice before blocking Google-Extended.
A five-minute check
- Open
yourdomain.ae/robots.txtin a browser, with your real domain. - Look for
Disallow: /underUser-agent: OAI-SearchBot,User-agent: GooglebotorUser-agent: *. A crawler with no section of its own follows the*rules. Disallow: /underUser-agent: GPTBotis fine for visibility. It only opts you out of training.- Check your firewall, CDN or security plugin. OpenAI asks owners to confirm their host or CDN allows its published searchbot IP addresses (listed at openai.com/searchbot.json). A firewall can block a bot that robots.txt allows.
- Give it a day. OpenAI says it can take about 24 hours for its search systems to adjust to a robots.txt change.
Does Cloudflare block AI crawlers on your site?
It might, and only your dashboard can tell you. On 1 July 2025, Cloudflare said every new domain would be asked whether to allow AI crawlers, describing itself as blocking them by default; the announcement does not say existing sites were switched.
Its AI bots documentation, updated 1 July 2026, says that from 15 September 2026 new domains get defaults that block Training and Agent bots on pages that display ads, while Search bots "will remain allowed". Agent covers "chat fetch bots and browser-use agents".
- Go to Security Settings in the dashboard and read the AI bot policies. The older "Block AI bots" switch was marked for deprecation on 15 September 2026.
- If your site shows no ads, the ad-page default should not affect it. Check anyway.
- If you block training bots, Cloudflare says crawlers that do both search and training are blocked too.
Why does AI recommend a competitor instead of you?
Usually because the AI can find and confirm more about them, and sometimes by pure chance. The evidence points to three causes.
The AI can find more about them
In BrightLocal's study, business websites made up 42% of citations and Google Business Profile about 28.5%, followed by Yelp (9.53%), Facebook (2.23%) and Tripadvisor (1.79%). A detailed website and a complete profile give an AI more to quote.
Whitespark's 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey (47 experts scoring 187 factors, published 6 November 2025) ranked these top for AI visibility: expert "best of" lists, a dedicated page for each service, prominence on industry websites, and mentions in news, blogs and association sites.
That is expert opinion, but it matches Google's description of prominence (how well-known a business is), which it says is "also based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have".
They are closer, or have a shopfront
In BrightLocal's data, 52.8 to 59.3% of picks were within 5 km of the searcher, and storefronts were mentioned more often than service-area businesses (33.6% against 29.4%). ChatGPT was loosest about distance: 90% of its picks fell within 287 km, against 64 km for AI Mode and under 40 km for AI Overviews.
If you clean homes or run a mobile salon with no public address, pages naming the areas you cover (Dubai Marina, Mirdif, Al Nahda in Sharjah, Khalifa City in Abu Dhabi) give an AI something to match.
The answer simply changed
AI answers are not a fixed ranking. In BrightLocal's repeat searches, a business that appeared once on ChatGPT came back only about half the time, and 71 to 80% of businesses appeared in half of attempts or fewer. One screenshot of a competitor tells you little.
Note: Never answer a competitor with fake reviews. Google's Maps policy bans offering payment, discounts or free services for reviews, discouraging negative reviews and asking only happy customers. Asking every customer for an honest review, with no incentive, is allowed.
What should a Dubai business fix first?
Access first, then listings, then pages, then reputation:
- Crawler access. Run the robots.txt, firewall and Cloudflare checks above. Nothing else matters until OAI-SearchBot and Googlebot can reach you.
- Google Business Profile. Verify it and complete everything: category, address if customers visit, regular and special hours (Ramadan and Eid, for example), attributes, photos. Google says complete, accurate profiles are more likely to show in local results. The full listing checklist is in how to rank higher on Google Maps in Dubai.
- Bing Places for Business. Bing says registering there helps keep your address, hours and contact details current and eligible for inclusion in AI-generated responses. BrightLocal found ChatGPT leaning on Bing.
- One page per service. A dental clinic needs separate pages for whitening, implants and children's dentistry, each naming your areas and answering what callers ask: price, parking, languages, insurance.
- Identical details everywhere. One name, address, phone and WhatsApp number across your website, Google, Bing, Instagram, Facebook and directories, so every source an AI reads agrees.
- Genuine reviews, steadily. Ask every customer and reply to every review. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. Arabic and English request messages that stay within Google's rules are in how to ask for Google reviews on WhatsApp.
- Earned mentions. Real "best of" guides, local press, your industry association, partner websites. Google warns that inauthentic mentions are not as helpful as they seem.
- Measurement. Start the prompt log below.
What you can safely skip
- llms.txt. Google says Google Search does not use it.
- Special "AI schema". Google says no special markup is needed; any structured data should match the visible page.
- Promises of first place on ChatGPT. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed.
- Pages mass-produced to game AI. Google says content made mainly to manipulate AI responses violates its scaled content abuse policy.
Does Arabic content change what AI recommends?
It lets you be found by people who ask in Arabic, but no published study shows Arabic pages make AI recommend you more often. What is documented: AI Overviews support Arabic, and AI Mode began rolling out in Modern Standard Arabic on 8 October 2025, with no mention of Gulf or other dialects.
If many of your customers write to you in Arabic, give them Arabic pages. Google's multilingual guidance is specific:
- Use a separate URL for each language version.
- Google judges a page's language from its visible content, not the
langattribute or the URL. - Link language versions with hreflang.
- Avoid translating only the menus while the main content stays in English, which Google warns can create a bad user experience.
Translate the pages that bring enquiries first, have a fluent speaker check them, and write area names as customers do, for example البرشاء for Al Barsha. Whether your site needs Arabic at all, including the rule for businesses that sell online, is covered in do you need an Arabic website in the UAE?
How can you test whether AI recommends you?
Keep a prompt log: the same questions, asked the same way, every month, with results written down. Because answers vary, you are measuring how often you appear, not where you rank.
- Write 10 to 20 prompts the way customers speak: category and area ("best physiotherapy clinic in Dubai Marina"), needs ("salon in Al Barsha open late for keratin"), comparisons ("alternative to [competitor] in JLT"), your own name ("what do people say about [your business]?") and Arabic versions ("أفضل عيادة أسنان في البرشاء").
- Run each prompt three times per tool: ChatGPT with search, Google AI Mode, an ordinary Google search for AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot.
- Control location and memory. OpenAI says ChatGPT estimates location from your IP address, that a VPN may affect it and that saved memories can influence results. Test from the UAE, VPN off, in a fresh or logged-out session.
- Record whether you appear, who else appears, which sources are cited and any wrong facts (old hours, closed branch, wrong number).
- Fix the sources. If a cited directory has your old number, correct the directory.
- Repeat monthly and compare your appearance rate: appearances divided by runs.
| Date | Tool | Prompt (exact wording) | Language | Runs | Appeared | Competitors named | Sources cited | Wrong facts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct 2026 | ChatGPT search | best kids' dentist in Mirdif | English | 3 | _ of 3 | |||
| 24 Oct 2026 | Google AI Mode | أفضل عيادة أسنان في البرشاء | Arabic | 3 | _ of 3 |
Two official reports help. Google's generative AI performance reports in Search Console, open to all websites since 31 August 2026, show impressions, pages, countries and devices for AI Overviews and AI Mode (no clicks or queries are mentioned). Bing's AI Performance report, launched as a public preview on 10 February 2026, shows how often Copilot and Bing's AI summaries cite your pages. OpenAI describes no equivalent, so for ChatGPT the prompt log is your measure.
What happens after AI recommends you?
The customer checks you, then contacts you or moves on. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, 45% used AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% the year before. Among those AI users, 88% fact-checked what the AI cited (checking whether a review was legitimate, or looking at the source), and 42% always checked reviews on the review platform itself.
AI is not the only door either: in BrightLocal's local study, Google Maps mentioned the tracked businesses in 66% of searches, against 32 to 38% for the AI features. The same work helps on both.
The last step is making contact easy:
- A page that matches what the AI said. If ChatGPT says you offer teeth whitening in Al Barsha, people should land on exactly that page. If your site needs rebuilding, see what a website costs in Dubai. If people already visit but rarely get in touch, start with this self-audit for a site with visitors but no enquiries.
- A WhatsApp number someone answers. For after-hours messages, see what a WhatsApp AI assistant costs and WhatsApp Business API pricing in the UAE.
- Paid visibility while the organic work builds. You cannot pay to be named in the answer itself, but ads can put you in front of people now: see setting an ads budget in Dubai.
Can someone do this work for you?
Partly. Nobody can make ChatGPT or Google's AI recommend you, and that includes us. Hoorax is a web studio in Al Barsha 1, Dubai, that builds the parts of this guide that sit on your own site: a business website with a clear page for each service, the same contact details as your listings and SEO setup on every build, and a WhatsApp AI assistant that answers in Arabic and English when an AI sends someone your way. Your reviews, Bing Places listing and prompt log stay in your hands, and the steps above show how to run them. Hoorax publishes its prices on the services page; to ask about your own site, message us on WhatsApp or send us your question on the contact page.