How HVAC companies show up in AI Overviews and ChatGPT

Google has said plainly what it takes to show up in its AI search features. Its page on AI features for site owners says, "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." The same page says the best practices for SEO still apply to these features.

I'm Joel Keith, CEO of ASP. In my work with HVAC companies, owners often ask how to get into AI answers. This article covers what Google and OpenAI say on their own pages, what outside studies found, and where the evidence stops. It treats Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT as three separate products, because they can show different results for the same question.

What does Google say it takes to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode?

Google says a page needs nothing beyond what regular Google Search requires. To be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, Google says "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet." It adds, "There are no additional technical requirements." Google also says that meeting every requirement does not mean it will crawl, index or serve a page: "Indexing and serving isn't guaranteed."

The page lists SEO practices that apply to its AI features. They include:

• allowing crawling in robots.txt and by any CDN or hosting setup;
• making content easy to find through internal links on your site;
• making sure important content is available as text;
• making sure structured data matches the visible text on the page;
• checking that Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up to date.

Google also says, "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features." It adds that there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add. In my opinion, that is the sentence to keep handy when someone pitches you an AI-only file or a special schema package.

The research for this article found no Google guidance written for HVAC or other local service businesses about these features.

Are AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT the same thing?

No. They are separate products, and each can show different businesses for the same question. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode "may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary." It also says AI Overviews show only when its systems decide they add to classic Search, "and as such, often don't trigger." Google says both features may use a "query fan-out" technique. That means running several related searches across subtopics and data sources to build one response.

In a May 19, 2026 post, Google said AI Mode "has surpassed one billion monthly users" one year after its debut. That is Google's own global figure.

ChatGPT search is run by OpenAI, not Google. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search says it "sometimes partners with other search providers." When it does, it rewrites the user's question into one or more targeted queries for those providers. The page links to Microsoft's and Shopify's privacy policies in its list of search providers. It also says ChatGPT may use an approximate location based on your IP address to give local results. The research for this article found no OpenAI page that lists the sources ChatGPT uses for local business recommendations.

The surfaces also disagree with each other. BrightLocal, which sells local SEO and AI-visibility tracking software, published a study in September 2026. It ran 200,085 local prompts for 1,300 business locations in mixed categories, repeated over a 60-day period. HVAC was not reported separately. In that study, AI Mode and AI Overview shared only 29% of businesses. ChatGPT overlapped with either Google surface for just 19% to 20%.

How does ChatGPT search find an HVAC company's website?

OpenAI says ChatGPT search ranks results "using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information." It says, "Placement is not guaranteed." The help page does not list those factors.

To make a site eligible, OpenAI says to let its OAI-SearchBot crawler in. It also says to confirm that your host or content delivery network allows traffic from OpenAI's published searchbot IP addresses. OpenAI's crawler documentation says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links." The same page says GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler, is a separate setting. It also says it can take about 24 hours after a robots.txt change for OpenAI's systems to adjust.

OpenAI's help page includes a warning worth reading: "Search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect."

Why does your Google Business Profile matter in AI answers?

Google's own list for its AI features includes keeping your Business Profile up to date. Google's local ranking help page says, "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results." That page is about local search results, not AI features.

In BrightLocal's September 2026 study, Google Business Profile pages made up about 29% of all citations across ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overview. Yelp made up 9.53%. BrightLocal also wrote that the Business Profile is "hardly used by ChatGPT," without giving a figure. Business websites accounted for 108,000 of the 116,000 domains used as sources. They were also the source of 42% of the 1,967,762 total citations.

Google's local ranking page says prominence is based partly on "how many reviews you have." It says more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking. Google ties that to local ranking, not to AI answers. Our guide to getting more Google reviews within the rules covers how to ask without breaking Google's policies.

Google can also contact businesses for customers. In a July 16, 2025 post, Google said Search "can now call businesses to get pricing and availability information on your behalf." Its examples were pet grooming and dry cleaning. It said "businesses are always in control via their Business Profile settings." In May 2026, Google said that for "select categories like home repair, beauty or pet care," users can ask Google to call businesses. It said those capabilities would roll out to everyone in the U.S. "this summer." Google did not name HVAC, and the research for this article found no Google page confirming HVAC coverage.

Google's Business Profile help page on automated calls says Google may call your business to confirm pricing and availability for a customer. In the U.S., it says the feature is available in all states except Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska.

How often do AI answers about local businesses change?

According to BrightLocal's study, they change often. Repeat searches overlapped only 20% to 33% on average: 23% for ChatGPT, 21% for AI Mode and 33% for AI Overview. A business that appeared once showed up again in about half of later attempts. That was 50% for ChatGPT and AI Mode and 58% for AI Overview.

Google Maps had 99% average agreement across attempts, compared with 91% to 96% for the AI platforms. Maps also mentioned a tracked business in 66% of searches, against 32% to 38% for the AI surfaces.

The answers are also short lists. ChatGPT named an average of 4.1 businesses per response. AI Mode averaged 3.5, and AI Overview averaged 2.5.

People are using these tools more for local choices. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, published in February 2026, used a panel of 1,002 U.S. adults. It reported that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% in its 2025 survey to 45%. That made AI tools the third most popular source of business recommendations in the survey. The survey covered all local business types, not HVAC alone.

Do AI Overviews reduce clicks to HVAC websites?

Pew found people clicked less often when an AI summary appeared. It compared different searches and did not test cause. A 2025 Pew Research Center analysis used March 2025 browsing data from 900 U.S. adults. Users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits. Users who did not see one clicked a result in 15% of visits. Clicks on a link inside the AI summary happened in just 1% of visits to pages with a summary.

In Pew's data, 18% of all Google searches produced an AI summary. Searches that began with question words such as "who," "what," "when" or "why" did so 60% of the time. Pew's study covered all kinds of searches, not local or HVAC searches, and it reflects March 2025.

How can you measure traffic from AI search?

Google says sites that appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted in Search Console's overall search traffic. They are reported in the Performance report under the "Web" search type. Google's page does not describe a separate filter for AI Overviews or AI Mode. If your search traffic shifted this year, our article on Google's 2026 core updates covers how to check Search Console and your call records around an update.

Google also explains the controls. It says robots.txt rules for Googlebot control how your site is crawled for Search. It says nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet or noindex limit what is shown from your pages. Google-Extended covers AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems.

My opinion on checking ChatGPT and AI Mode by hand is simple. Ask the same customer-style questions on a schedule and write down what you see. Because BrightLocal found that answers shift between attempts, one check tells you very little.

What should an HVAC owner do first?

The first steps come straight from Google's and OpenAI's own pages:

1. Confirm your key pages are indexed and can show in Google with a snippet.
2. Make sure robots.txt and your host allow Googlebot and OAI-SearchBot.
3. Put important service and area details on the page as text.
4. Make sure any structured data matches what the page says.
5. Keep your Business Profile complete, accurate and up to date.

At ASP, we call the Google side of this work answer engine optimization and the ChatGPT side generative engine optimization. In my view, the labels matter less than the basics above. Google says indexing and serving isn't guaranteed, and OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. I would be wary of anyone who promises a spot in either one.

For more guides on running the business side of an HVAC company, see the Owner's Desk.