How to Find Questions Customers Ask AI: A Guide for SMBs

Introduction: The New Customer Journey Starts with a Question to AI

The way customers find information is fundamentally changing. Instead of typing fragmented keywords into a search bar, they are having conversations with AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. According to a recent study, half of all consumers already use AI-powered search, signaling a massive shift in behavior [1].

This shift presents a new challenge for businesses: if you are not part of the AI's answer, you are effectively invisible. As experts in AI optimization note, the goal is no longer just to rank, but to be cited and recommended within AI-generated responses [2]. When an AI synthesizes an answer, it pulls from sources it deems credible and authoritative. Your brand needs to be one of those sources.

For Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), understanding this new landscape is critical for survival and growth. The first and most important step is to discover the exact questions your potential customers are asking these AI engines. Knowing the questions is the key to providing the answers.

This guide provides a practical, three-part framework to help you uncover these crucial questions. We will start with free, accessible methods and build toward more advanced, data-driven strategies, empowering you to improve your AI visibility regardless of your current resources.

Method 1: Adapting Traditional SEO Tools for AI Insights

Many of the tools you may already use for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can serve as a valuable starting point for understanding potential AI queries. This approach is powerful because it leverages existing subscriptions and familiar workflows, making it an efficient first step into AI Search Optimization (AISO).

Start with your own data in Google Search Console. Analyze the long-tail keywords and question-based queries that already bring traffic to your site. These are direct indicators of what your audience wants to know. Additionally, exploring Google's 'People Also Ask' and 'Related Searches' sections for your core topics can spark ideas for content that answers common questions [3].

SEO platforms like Ahrefs or Semrush can also be repurposed for this task. Use them to research the question-formatted keywords your competitors rank for. According to SEO experts at Semrush, identifying these "question keywords" is key to capturing users with high intent. This data provides a strong proxy for the types of questions users might pose to an AI.

Limitation: The primary drawback of this method is that it is indirect. These tools show what people search on traditional engines, not necessarily what they ask conversational AI. Search queries are often short and fragmented, while questions posed to AI are typically more natural, complex, and contextual. This data is a good starting point for brainstorming, but it is not a direct reflection of your performance in AI-generated answers.

Method 2: Mining Online Communities for Raw Customer Language

Your customers are already asking questions online, and their unfiltered language is a goldmine for understanding their true needs and pain points. Online communities offer a direct window into the customer's mind, free from the constraints of search engine syntax.

Explore platforms like Reddit, Quora, and niche industry forums where your target audience gathers. On Reddit, for example, you can find thousands of communities (subreddits) dedicated to specific interests and industries [4]. Search these communities for phrases like 'how do I,' 'what is the best for,' and 'can anyone recommend' related to your product category. The resulting threads contain authentic, detailed discussions about the problems your business solves.

This method is ideal for SMBs with limited budgets. It is often free and provides a level of authenticity that quantitative data can miss. The insights gathered here can form the foundation of a content strategy that speaks directly to customer challenges [5].

Limitation: While incredibly insightful, this process is manual, time-consuming, and difficult to scale. The data is unstructured and requires significant effort to organize. Most importantly, while this research reveals genuine customer intent, it does not confirm that these exact questions are being posed to AI models or how your brand is represented in those AI-generated answers.

Method 3: Using a Specialized AI Visibility Platform

To move beyond proxies and manual research, specialized platforms are designed to directly analyze and improve your visibility within AI models. These tools provide the most accurate and actionable picture of how you appear in AI-generated answers, which is the core of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

These platforms work by simulating thousands of realistic user questions across different customer personas and analyzing the responses from models like ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity. This process reveals precisely where your brand is mentioned, where your competitors appear instead, and where there are critical content gaps that cause you to be ignored. This moves you from guessing to knowing.

This is where Searchify provides a clear advantage for businesses. Our platform is built specifically to give you this direct insight. We don't just report on passive data; our platform is designed to provide clear, prioritized recommendations to improve your visibility. The Action Center translates complex data into a simple, manageable task list.

For example, you can see exactly how you stack up against competitors for a crucial question like 'what is the best software for small business accounting?' and get a prioritized list of actions—from technical website fixes to new content creation—to become a cited source. This data-driven approach allows you to focus your resources on what will actually move the needle. You can see a real-world example of this analysis in our AI visibility one-pager for Patagonia.

A Scalable Framework for SMBs

You don't need a massive budget or a dedicated data science team to start improving your AI visibility. The key is to adopt a scalable process that grows with your business. By combining the methods above, you can build a robust strategy that fits your resources.

Here’s how to combine these methods into a scalable process:

• Step 1 (Low Effort): Start by mining online communities (Method 2) to build a foundational list of customer pain points and questions. This step costs time, not money, and ensures your strategy is grounded in real customer language.
• Step 2 (Medium Effort): Use your existing SEO tools (Method 1) to validate and expand upon your findings. Cross-reference the questions you found with search volume data and competitor insights to prioritize your focus.
• Step 3 (High Impact): When you're ready to move from guesswork to a data-driven strategy, implement a specialized AI visibility platform like Searchify (Method 3). This allows you to directly measure your performance, track competitors, and focus on the most impactful actions. This is the most direct path to improving your presence in AI answers, as outlined in our guide to AI visibility services for SMBs.

This tiered approach allows any business to begin their AI visibility journey and scale their efforts as they see results. For a more detailed timeline, you can also explore our 90-day AI visibility plan.

Conclusion: Start Answering the Right Questions

Improving your visibility in AI search begins with a simple but critical task: knowing the questions your customers are asking. By using a combination of traditional tools, community research, and specialized platforms, you can build a comprehensive understanding of the new AI-driven customer journey.

The path to winning in this new era involves moving from indirect proxies to direct simulation and measurement. The ultimate goal is to ensure your brand is the one providing the definitive, trusted answers when your future customers ask for help.

Want to see the real questions AI is being asked about your brand and competitors? Get your free AI visibility one-pager and discover your biggest opportunities to win in AI search.