The way Americans find and evaluate businesses is changing.
A new survey from Hoverboard AI found that 77% of respondents use at least one AI answer engine, including ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Nearly half said they use these tools when researching expensive purchases or major life decisions, while 43.8% said they use AI for shopping and product decisions.
For Miami businesses, the shift matters because AI is moving beyond answering questions and increasingly becoming part of the process consumers use to decide what to buy, who to hire and which businesses to consider.
AI Is Moving Into the Buying Decision
The survey suggests consumers are not simply experimenting with AI for entertainment or general information.
They are increasingly using it as a research layer before making decisions.
Among respondents, 49% said they use AI answer engines to research expensive purchases or major life decisions. Meanwhile, 43.8% said they use them for shopping and product decisions.
That creates a potentially important change for businesses.
A customer researching a Miami restaurant, realtor, law firm, healthcare provider, contractor or financial service may increasingly ask an AI system for recommendations before visiting a company's website or contacting its sales team.
The question then becomes not only whether a business can rank on Google, but whether AI systems know about the business, understand it and recommend it.
Consumers Say They Trust AI More
The survey also found that trust in AI answer engines is increasing.
More than 53% of respondents said they trust AI answer engines more than they did a year ago. Fewer than 16% said their trust had declined.
ChatGPT was the most-used and most-trusted platform in the survey. More than 64% of respondents said they use ChatGPT, compared with 50% for Gemini. Among respondents who trusted at least one AI platform, 59.9% named ChatGPT as their most trusted platform for important life decisions, compared with 20.3% for Gemini.
That doesn't mean consumers are abandoning Google.
The survey found that traditional Google Search remains the most widely used research channel for major decisions. Instead, AI appears to be becoming another layer in the consumer research journey.
And consumers aren't necessarily choosing just one platform.
Respondents reported using an average of 2.3 AI answer engines, suggesting that businesses may need to consider visibility across multiple systems rather than optimizing for a single AI platform.
Miami Businesses Face a New Discovery Problem
This could become particularly relevant in Miami, where many businesses compete for customers in highly competitive categories.
Real estate is an obvious example.
A prospective buyer could ask an AI system which Miami neighborhoods are best for a particular lifestyle, which real estate companies specialize in a particular market or which local professionals they should consider.
The same dynamic could apply to restaurants, hotels, healthcare providers, attorneys, financial advisers and other professional services.
The traditional model is relatively straightforward: get discovered through search, advertising, referrals or social media and then persuade the customer.
AI introduces another step.
The AI itself may become part of the recommendation process.
That means businesses have a new visibility problem to consider: what information do AI systems have about them, where does that information come from, and how does the business appear when someone asks an AI engine for recommendations in its category?
High-Stakes Decisions Raise the Stakes
Perhaps the more significant finding is how far respondents say they are willing to take AI.
The survey found that 56.8% expressed confidence in AI's accuracy for health-related decisions, while 46.3% said they were likely to rely on AI for financial research and advice. Another 46.6% said they would trust AI for accurate legal information.
Those numbers should be treated carefully. They measure what respondents say they would do, rather than independently verified behavior.
But they nevertheless point toward an important change in consumer expectations.
If people increasingly use AI to research healthcare, financial and legal questions, businesses operating in those fields have another reason to care about how their expertise and reputation are represented in AI-generated answers.
A Caveat About the Survey
The findings come from a survey commissioned by Hoverboard AI, an AI-search analytics company, so they should not be treated as independent measurements of nationwide AI usage.
The survey was conducted among 1,097 U.S. adults between April and June 2026, with responses self-reported by participants. Hoverboard AI says the survey has an approximate margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
The results are therefore best viewed as an indication of reported consumer attitudes and behavior rather than an independently audited measurement of how Americans use AI.
That distinction is particularly important because Hoverboard AI itself operates in the AI search analytics and answer-engine optimization market.
What This Means for Miami
The important takeaway isn't necessarily that 77% of Americans now use AI.
It is that AI is becoming another place where consumers form opinions about businesses.
For Miami companies, that creates a new competitive question.
A business can have a strong website, good Google rankings and hundreds of positive reviews, yet still have limited visibility when a potential customer asks an AI system for recommendations.
As AI answer engines become more influential in discovery and decision-making, businesses may increasingly need to understand how their brands, services, expertise and reputation are represented across those systems.
For Miami's highly competitive service economy, being found may no longer be enough. Businesses may also need to be understood by the machines doing the recommending.
Reporting Source: This article builds upon reporting from National Law Review and the survey findings released by Hoverboard AI, and adds analysis of what the development means for Miami and South Florida.
