AEO — Answer Engine Optimization — is about being part of the answer an AI assistant gives, not a link on a results page. For a restaurant, that means the AI having accurate, structured information about you: your cuisine, your location, what real guests say — enough for it to confidently recommend you by name, without the person ever visiting your website first.
45% of people now ask AI tools like ChatGPT for local recommendations — up from just 6% a year ago. When someone asks where to eat, the AI doesn't show a list of ten options — it recommends one or two, with confidence.
Almost no restaurant has optimized for this shift yet — which makes it a genuine head start for the ones who do, not a crowded category to fight for.