The EU has officially classified ChatGPT as a search engine

European regulators now treat ChatGPT as a search engine, with the obligations that come with it. For businesses, it confirms something more practical: AI answers are where a growing share of customers look first.

In this week's round of tech news, the European Union formally classified ChatGPT as a search engine under its digital rules. The immediate consequences are regulatory - transparency and accountability obligations that until now applied to the likes of Google - and they land on OpenAI, not on you.

The reason it matters to a business in Melbourne or Manchester is what the decision recognises: a lot of people are no longer typing questions into a search box and scanning ten blue links. They are asking an AI and taking the answer. Regulators have simply caught up with behaviour that has been shifting for a couple of years.

That changes the question from 'do we rank on Google?' to 'when someone asks an AI who to use for what we do, does it know about us, and does it describe us accurately?' For most midsize businesses the honest answer is 'we have never checked'. It takes ten minutes: ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini what they know about your business and your category, and read the answers as a prospective customer would.

The fixes are mostly familiar. Clear, plain-English descriptions of what you do and who you do it for. Consistent details across your website, directories and reviews. Content that actually answers the questions your customers ask. AI systems reward the same clarity people do - they just reward it more visibly now.

Being findable by AI is becoming part of being findable at all. It is not a reason to panic, but it is a good reason to make sure the story the machines tell about you is the one you would tell yourself.