What people actually do after reading the reviews
The reading order has changed, and with it what you should be managing. 82 percent of consumers read AI generated review summaries, 23 percent decide on the summary alone and 39 percent read the summary and then the reviews. The summary is now the first page of your reputation.
The new order of reading
The old sequence was search, profile, reviews, decision. The measured sequence now starts one step earlier: a generated summary of what the reviews say. 82 percent of consumers read those summaries.
What follows splits. 23 percent decide on the summary alone, so for roughly a quarter of readers the individual reviews are never opened. Another 39 percent read the summary and then the reviews, using the summary as an index rather than as a verdict.
What that changes about the work
A summary is built from repeated statements, not from your best review. If 4 of your last 10 reviews mention parking, parking will be in the summary whether it flatters you or not. That makes the pattern of what customers mention more important than the peak.
Trust has followed. 40 percent of consumers trust AI platforms for business recommendations and 42 percent trust them as much as traditional reviews. Meanwhile 45 percent used an AI tool to find a local business in 2026, up from 6 percent a year earlier.
Your replies are part of the material. They sit under the reviews, they are written by you, and they are the only text in the pile you control. With 19 percent of consumers expecting a same day response, a habit of answering within a day is also a habit of adding your own sentences to what gets summarised.
| Behaviour | Share | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Read the AI generated summary | 82 % | The summary is the first impression |
| Decide on the summary alone | 23 % | A quarter never see your best review |
| Read summary, then reviews | 39 % | The summary sets what they look for |
| Trust AI as much as reviews | 42 % | The intermediary is trusted |
What to do about it
Read your own last twenty reviews and count the recurring nouns. That list is close to what a summary will say about you, and it is usually two or three items long. Fix the one that repeats, and the summary changes over the following months.
Then answer consistently rather than eloquently. Short factual replies to criticism give the summary something even handed to repeat, which is the only influence available to you on a text you do not write.
Set a reminder for once a quarter. Twenty reviews is roughly two quarters of material at three a month, so a quarterly reading is often enough to notice a theme forming before it settles into the summary.
Questions and answers
Can I influence the summary?
Does a single bad review dominate a summary?
Are replies included?
Should I still care about individual reviews?
Sources
- BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 Summary readership, decision behaviour and trust in AI platforms
- Google Search Central, AI features in Google Search How pages feed the AI features that produce such summaries
