Two years ago we wrote that AI-powered search would change how people find information online. It has. Many people now type a full question, get a written answer, and may never click through to a website at all. Your staff are doing the same thing at work, and sometimes pasting company information into the box to get a better answer.
That raises four practical questions. Which tools should your office use? How far should you trust the answers? What happens to the information your people type in? And can customers still find you?
What changed, briefly
Traditional search gave you a list of links, many of them ads, and left the reading to you. An AI assistant reads for you. A large language model (the kind of AI behind ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Claude) pulls from many pages and writes a summary, usually with links to its sources.
Every major platform has moved this way. OpenAI added web search to ChatGPT in October 2024. Google rolled out AI Overviews in May 2024 and AI Mode in May 2025, and on May 19, 2026 said AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users. It also announced search “agents” that can book local services and, in select categories, call a business on the customer’s behalf.
Our recommendation: ask an assistant
For research and everyday questions, we think ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Claude are excellent replacements for Google Search, and we advise clients to stop using Google Search. You ask in plain English, get a direct answer with sources, and can ask a follow-up without starting over. We use these tools ourselves every day.
There is a privacy reason too. Google Search is the front door of an advertising business, and every query your staff type feeds it. For the times you want a conventional list of links, we recommend Brave Search. We explain why in Choosing a private search engine, and how to make the change in Switching to Brave and Firefox.
Use business plans for company work
What happens to what you type depends on the service, the plan and the settings. As of September 2026, according to each provider’s own pages:
| Assistant | Personal accounts | Business plans |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Conversations may be used to train models unless you switch off “Improve the model for everyone”. | OpenAI says it does not train on business data by default (ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and API). |
| Microsoft Copilot | Signed-in users can opt out of training in Copilot’s privacy settings. | With a work account, Microsoft says prompts and responses are not used to train its foundation models. |
| Claude | Chats are used for training only if you choose to allow it in privacy settings. | Anthropic says it does not train on commercial data by default (Team, Enterprise and API). |
Terms change, so check them again before you commit. Our advice:
- Use a business plan for company work, on company accounts, so access can be removed when someone leaves. If your office runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot with a work account is a natural place to start.
- Keep confidential data out of any tool not approved for it: customer personal details, financial and health information, passwords, and anything under a confidentiality agreement. On a personal account, keep it out entirely.
- Write it down. A one-page AI use policy naming the approved tools is enough for most small offices. Ask us about requirements for your industry.
Trust, but verify
AI answers are fluent, which makes them easy to believe. They can still be wrong, out of date, or mix up two similar businesses or products.
Treat an AI answer the way you would treat advice from a well-read new employee: useful, often right, but checked before you act on it. Click through to the sources, especially for prices, legal or tax questions and anything about security. If an AI tells you to run a command, change a setting or download a “fix”, confirm it with the vendor’s documentation or your IT provider first.
Being found when an AI does the searching
Your customers use every kind of tool, so you still need to be findable everywhere. The good news is there is no secret trick. Google’s guidance for site owners (updated December 2025) says there are no extra requirements, special AI files or structured data needed to appear in its AI features.
- Say plainly what you do and where. Clear services, service area and hours are easier for people and AI to summarize correctly.
- Keep business listings current. Wrong hours or an old phone number now get repeated back in a confident, written answer.
- Keep the website healthy. A slow, often-down or hacked site is hard for any tool to recommend. See Is your website your weakest link?
- Answer the phone. If an AI agent calls to ask about availability, a missed call is a missed customer.
- Check yourself. Ask a couple of assistants about your business now and then. If the answer is wrong, fix your website and listings.
How FTI uses AI, and how we help
We use AI in how we design, build and support technology. In our managed IT services, AI is connected to monitoring, security logs, tickets and documentation, and watches all of it around the clock so our engineers see the full picture sooner. It assists; our engineers decide and act.
For clients, we help choose AI tools and business plans, set sensible data settings, manage who has access, and keep devices patched and protected. We also host business websites on our secure web hosting, so the site customers and AI tools read stays up and current.
