Here's the answer: local AI answers resolve at neighborhood level because buyers ask at neighborhood level, and distance is one of Google's three declared ranking factors, so the winning name changes by a freeway exit. A Westside med-spa isn't in one race. It's in five adjacent ones, and the monthly read shows which are winnable this quarter.
The instrument is 25 questions per primary neighborhood, five per arc: direct, best service in place. Qualified, using the trust phrases mined from your own reviews and calls, the no-upsell, the natural results, the actually-calls-back. Comparative, X versus Y, and yes, the AI answers is-this-competitor-worth-it questions. Situational, before an event, first time, on a budget. And discovery, where do locals actually go. Harvested from real mouths, never brainstormed in the abstract.
Run the set monthly, conversationally, follow-ups included, and log four things per question: who was named, the reasons given, the sources visible, and your status, named, mentioned-then-dropped, or absent. The reasons column is the treasure: assistants explain themselves, and praised for natural-looking results and a no-pressure consultation is competitor strategy handed to you free. Each reason converts to a fix: review mass, coverage, profile completeness, positioning.
Three months of reads produces the competitor map, incumbents, specialists, and ghosts, excellent businesses absent from every answer, and a build order: quick wins where you're mentioned-then-dropped, specialist plays on qualifiers you own, and long sieges saved for later. Pick races. Own your neighborhood before contesting the next one.
And log the read as it lands, including the months you vanish. Trends don't lie.
The full instrument is Volume 2 of our Local Answer system.
You can't win an invisible game.