How an AI Consultant Uses SEO to Rank in ChatGPT Search (Live from eMerge Americas)

I’m joined by Thiago E. Ferreira, Founder and CEO of Elevate AI Consulting and Adjunct Professor at the University of Miami, for a practical conversation on one of the biggest questions facing businesses right now: how do you get your business found and recommended in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and AI search?

Thiago breaks down how his own firm consistently appears as a top recommendation for AI consulting in Miami, competing for visibility alongside much larger firms. He explains why traditional SEO is evolving, how AI tools evaluate credibility, and what small businesses can do right now to improve their chances of showing up in AI-generated answers.

I also take you behind the scenes of my own client work with a South Florida dental practice that wanted to show up when potential patients searched for a dentist through ChatGPT, including the AEO, FAQ, schema, visibility, and AI enablement work we built together.

Whether you are a local business owner, consultant, entrepreneur, marketer, or founder, this episode will help you understand what it actually takes to build visibility in the age of AI search.

🔥 Topics we cover:

-- How to get your business found in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
 -- What Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO, actually means
 -- Why credibility, case studies, testimonials, and reviews matter for AI visibility
 -- Why your website, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, and other online information need to match
 -- How podcasts, media mentions, and third-party authority can strengthen visibility
 -- Why businesses should optimize around real customer prompts, not just keywords
 -- How Thiago’s firm competes for AI search visibility alongside much larger consulting companies
 -- How hands-on AI training can create immediate ROI inside organizations
 -- Why Thiago believes AI should enhance employees, not replace them

🔗 Connect & Learn More:

Thiago E. Ferreira and Elevate AI Consulting
 Website: https://elevateaiconsulting.com
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatedaiconsulting
 LinkedIn: Search Thiago E. Ferreira

eMerge Americas
 Website: https://www.emergeamericas.com
 eMerge Americas 2027 takes place March 2-4 in Miami Beach, with the Tech Expo running March 3-4.

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How I AI is now The AI Movement Podcast.

LinkedIn: Brooke Gramer

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"The AI Movement Podcast" is a concept and podcast series created and produced by Brooke Gramer of EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Thiago 0:00

it is looking for credibility. It is looking for case studies. Mm. It is looking for testimonials. Mm. It is looking to make sure that all your information across the web matches, so your LinkedIn, your Google My Business, your website, your blog, all of that has to really match. And then you have to have the proper schema markups on the back end of your website- Yes to make sure that it's easy to read. At the end of the day, you wanna spoon-feed the information to ChatGPT and Claude- as easily as possible so they cite you instead of your competition.

Brooke 0:31

​Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer, your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing, events and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out, but here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift, and the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities will unlock. Welcome back to How I AI. This special episode was not planned. I was in the press room at eMerge Americas and was pleasantly introduced to Thiago Ferreira. Our conversation ended up being one of the most practical ones I had during the expo, Because this topic is one I get asked about constantly. How do small businesses actually show up when someone searches for them on AI? For anyone who doesn't know eMerge Americas it's one of the most important tech conferences in the country, and it happens right here in Miami. It brings together venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and tech innovators from across the world for two days of panels, networking, and real conversations about where technology is going. If you've never been and you're in the business of building anything, I would strongly encourage to get this on your radar. They also run a startup accelerator program funded by the City of Miami for businesses that are registered in Florida. So mark your calendars now because eMerge America's 2027 is happening March 2nd through March 4th with the Tech Expo running March 3rd and 4th right here in Miami Beach. I'll be sure to link everything in the show notes. Now let's get back to Thiago. Thiago Ferreira is the founder and CEO of elevateAI Consulting, an AI consulting firm. He's also an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, where he teaches a course called Human-Centered AI for All. He's one of the leading voices on AI adoption and answer engine optimization in South Florida, and he operates from a philosophy I really respect, that you bring the intelligence as an employee and the AI is just the tool. His work spans corporate AI training and boot camps, AEO strategy, custom AI development, and fractional chief AI officer engagements for clients across North and Latin America. But here's the fact that stopped me when I first heard it. Elevate AI Consulting consistently shows up as a top recommendation in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini for AI consultants in Miami. He shares a few key AEO strategies on how exactly he made that happen in our talk today. But before I bring you this bonus interview, I wanted to share something from my own client work because I think it'll make what Thiago covers land even harder. About eight months ago, I worked with a dental practice here in South Florida on AI enablement. My client was not behind in marketing as a business owner. Within her practice, she has a very strong website, runs Google Ads is present on social media, and her partner is already supporting her with marketing and IT. But when it came to AI, she was completely honest with me. She said, "I don't know anything about this, but I know it's important to be an early adapter." Her goal with working with me was simple. When someone asks ChatGPT for a dentist recommendation in South Florida, she wanted to show up first. So I put together a program for her, and we didn't start with hype. We started with education. In our first session, I helped her understand AI as a support tool, not a replacement. We covered prompting, how to give LLMs better context, and how AI search was already changing local discovery. I gave her a few case studies and also recommended some partners for her to work with. One of the first things her and I worked together when discussing answer engine optimization was making sure that her company's website was structured in a way that AI tools could actually pull from. Not just her company's boilerplate, but we put together a new FAQ strategy. We learned about Schema, talked about what signals AI uses to really decide who to recommend, and we mapped out where her practice was and was not showing up. From there, we got a little bit more practical. We went through ChatGPT. I did a basic training on really how to optimize it without getting overwhelmed. We mapped out how to use projects for marketing and patient education, I guided the team through building a brand avatar GPT for the practice, and also how to optimize LLMs for social captions, Google review responses in a way that AI could sound like the practice and really support the team consistently without spitting out AI slop. This case study launched back in November. That's been several months since, and this space has moved fast. There's two things worth knowing right now. First and foremost, Google AI mode just crossed one billion monthly users, and nearly forty-eight percent of all Google searches now trigger an AI-generated answer. That was up from thirty percent just a year ago. So if a local business is not structured to be cited in those answers, they're losing visibility in almost half of all searches, and most don't even know it yet. They're losing prominent visibility in almost half of all searches, and most don't even know it yet. Second, Google announced at I/O 2026 that it's expanding agentic capabilities in search for local services, meaning Google can now call a business on a potential customer's behalf. A patient could also ask Google to find and contact a dentist in South Florida without ever picking up a phone or clicking a link. So if your information is incomplete or not structured in the right way, you won't even be in that conversation. And this is exactly why I'm so glad I had this unexpected interview with Thiago where he breaks the importance of AI SEO down even deeper. So without further ado, let's dive into our conversation. Thiago, so wonderful to meet you here at eMerge. We're at day two of the conference.

Thiago 7:20

Pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Brooke 7:21

I would love to hear a little bit about yourself and your business, if you could share how you found yourself at the intersection of AI today.

Thiago 7:30

Absolutely. The name of my business is Elevate AI Consulting. Founded right here in Miami, Florida. I'm really proud of that. Being part of the tech ecosystem here in Miami. Mm-hmm. And we do a few different things. The main thing that we do right now is our AI training bootcamps.

Brooke 7:44

Okay.

Thiago 7:45

So we're usually working with small and medium sized businesses- Mm-hmm uh, usually training their entire teams on really focusing on the ROI that the AI can give them, right?

Brooke 7:56

Great.

Thiago 7:56

As you probably know, the conversation around AI has really shifted from everybody being really amazed at everything- Mm-hmm that it can do- Mm-hmm to companies now asking, "Where is the ROI for all this investment that we're doing?"

Brooke 8:09

Y- yes. So how do you do that? Just my experience working with clients, I do a little bit of AI enablement, client onboarding- Yeah and trainings. Yeah. I also partner with developers and engineers for more technical custom build-outs. Right. So I'd love to hear how you approach it, because sometimes getting over that first initial hump of selling AI can be difficult- Yeah because trust is very low now.

Thiago 8:32

Trust is very low. Employees are just reticent and scared of to even get their hands on.

Brooke 8:38

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 8:39

And so the differentiator with our bootcamp is the hands-on aspect.

Brooke 8:43

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 8:43

Right? And so whereas a lot of companies are really focused on big, overarching AI projects that can take- Mm six months, eight months, and sometimes- Yeah never reach their employees. Our AI training bootcamps are focused on employees getting hands-on- Mm-hmm building something themselves that they're really proud of, and that they can start using the very next day- Mm to make themselves more efficient.

Brooke 9:06

Yeah.

Thiago 9:06

Right? So as you probably have experienced, it's very different- something that you built yourself and that you're proud of-

Brooke 9:12

Yeah

Thiago 9:12

versus something that your manager came and told you, "You have to start using this tomorrow."

Brooke 9:17

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 9:17

Right? So people are u- building their own Claude skills, they're building their own apps for their departments. Yes. And as I said, they can start using it the very next day, so the ROI is immediate. And that really addresses their fears as well, right? Like, a lot of people are just scared. They think that AI is here to replace them.

Brooke 9:34

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 9:35

And I'm really there to show them that, no, AI is actually your superpower, not your pink slip.

Brooke 9:41

And so I imagine you partner with a lot of HR companies.

Thiago 9:46

Yes.

Brooke 9:46

Um, because just my years of working in corporate, you know, they're doing their due diligence of making sure their staff and employees are up-to-date, not only on internal required mandated trainings-

Thiago 9:56

Right

Brooke 9:56

yeah, to elevate them in that way. So is that how you find your clients? Do people find you? Yeah. What's that experience like?

Thiago 10:02

So I'm actually here at eMerge talking about answer engine optimization. Mm-hmm. That was the speech that I was giving, the workshop that I was giving.

Brooke 10:10

Really big topic this year.

Thiago 10:11

100%. And that's how most of our clients find us. Okay, great. So, uh, I book close to 10 calls a week on people that found me on ChatGPT or Claude- Wow, that's

Brooke 10:21

incredible

Thiago 10:21

and Gemini. Thank you. And that is what I'm talking to small businesses about. That's the- Mm-hmm opportunity.

Brooke 10:27

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 10:27

Right? Like, I'm ranking on these AI tools against Accenture and EY and Deloitte- Wow spending $0, just optimizing my content.

Brooke 10:36

Wow.

Thiago 10:36

And a lot of small businesses haven't realized that now they need to do SEO with a few extra steps.

Brooke 10:42

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 10:43

Uh, and that's the message that I've been trying to spread here, is you- Yeah have to invest 'cause that's how you're gonna level the playing field and be able to grow your business.

Brooke 10:51

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 10:52

People are finding, uh, businesses now on AI search. Yeah. And I do work with a lot of HR departments. Mm-hmm. One of the other products that we actually just launched is our AI team building competition.

Brooke 11:04

Ooh.

Thiago 11:04

So it's our own take on the offsite team building that usually companies do, which are usually escape rooms or those random trust falls. Yes. Have you done that?

Brooke 11:15

We've done, uh, done escape rooms at companies before, yeah.

Thiago 11:17

Right. So we developed this- AI, uh, team building competition that teams are working in groups-

Brooke 11:24

Mm-hmm

Thiago 11:24

building a fun, wacky idea with AI. The number one rule is nothing related to work. Okay. Uh, and then- Interesting uh, so they're still getting those AI hands-on skills. Yes. They're still letting their creativity fly. There's still the competition aspect.

Brooke 11:38

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 11:39

And then at the end, they present their project to this AI agent, kind of like a Simon Cowell that I've created- Okay,

Brooke 11:46

fun

Thiago 11:47

uh, that judges the projects and then chooses a winning group. So it's just a really fun day out of the office- Mm-hmm that combines the competition, the team building aspect, and also just AI fun.

Brooke 11:58

So you're bringing that whole concept, because I've worked for SaaS companies before, and they internally do stuff like this all the time. Right. But, But maybe someone in hospitality doesn't operate or think that way, but now everybody kinda has to think of themselves as a SaaS company- 100% in some way, shape, or form.

Thiago 12:15

Yeah. And I think you've keyed in on something really important, right, is that everybody's gonna have to use AI one way or another.

Brooke 12:21

Yeah.

Thiago 12:22

So, uh, outside of my company, I'm also an adjunct professor at the University of Miami. And the course that I designed is specifically for students who are not technology majors. Mm, mm. And so I identified this gap that, uh, we were missing those AI courses for the history majors- Yes for the business majors for the law majors. Yes. Uh, And so I'm starting in the fall, the course is titled Human-Centered AI For All. Cool. And just like my company, we're really just focused on the human side of AI.

Brooke 12:55

Wonderful. So give us a snapshot, you know, the high-level overview of what you shared on your talk about SEO. How were you able to outrank Accenture when it comes to AI-generated searches? Yeah.

Thiago 13:09

So you really have to optimize your content. Your content, yeah. Uh, AI is bringing everything that SEO used to do- Mm-hmm it's bringing it all together in a whole new way. And so AI, if you think about it kind of conceptually- Mm-hmm AI wants to be your best friend, right? AI, AI wants to keep you engaged.

Brooke 13:26

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 13:27

And the way that it does that is by providing you good recommendations. Right. And so it is looking for credibility. It is looking for case studies. Mm. It is looking for testimonials. Mm. It is looking to make sure that all your information across the web matches, so your LinkedIn, your Google My Business, your website, your blog, uh, all of that has to really match. Mm-hmm. And then you have to have the proper schema markups on the back end of your website- Yes to make sure that it's easy to read. At the end of the day, you wanna spoon-feed the information to ChatGPT and Claude- Yes, yes as easily as possible- Yes so they cite you instead of your competition.

Brooke 14:06

That's incredible. So citing your resources, getting testimonials.

Thiago 14:10

Showing results.

Brooke 14:11

Showing results. Yeah, I had some feedback about this. I went to a podcasting conference- Nice and they also just gave really good feedback on how to build credibility as yourself on different websites.

Thiago 14:22

Yes.

Brooke 14:23

And what are more high-ranking websites than others that, like, pull the credibility on Google search, and- Yeah ultimately feed into ChatGPT, so

Thiago 14:32

such a- And things like this really count as well. Yeah, yeah. Like, uh, getting in front of the media, like doing podcasts. Podcasts are such a big thing. Getting quotes. Such a big thing, yeah.

Brooke 14:39

I get pitched probably, like, three times a day of people wanting to be on my podcast. Yeah. Well,

Thiago 14:45

thank you for having me.

Brooke 14:46

Yeah, of course. But, like- Like, going the extra step of not just being an auto-generated blast with, not even a phone number that's gonna show that, you know, you're just doing mass outreach, it's not personal, which is why I mostly just have podcast guests of people I've met organically in person through my network- Right or my personal outreach. Um, but yeah, podcasts are, are really good for SEO. Mm-hmm. So at what point does it get to the point where everybody's optimizing a AI search, and then, how do you stand out?

Thiago 15:18

Yeah. So the difference is in prompts, right? The prompt. So the way that you're tracking- how you rank in these LLMs- Yeah is by tracking different prompts.

Brooke 15:27

Got it.

Thiago 15:27

And so the way that you beat your competition is by optimizing for specific prompts. Mm-hmm. The same way that with SEO you would really focus on those keywords-

Brooke 15:35

Yeah

Thiago 15:36

right? Now you're focusing on what are the prompts that people are most likely to search for me for-

Brooke 15:41

Mm-hmm

Thiago 15:41

and then optimizing the content to answer those questions directly. Yes. Right?

Brooke 15:46

And also talking like we're talking now.

Thiago 15:49

Naturally, yeah. Naturally. And, uh, things that are relevant.

Brooke 15:52

Mm-hmm.

Thiago 15:53

It's not about just filling your website with random keywords like people used to do. Yeah, yeah. Like naming random industries and, like, just trying to add random things.

Brooke 16:01

Yeah.

Thiago 16:01

It's about AI is intelligence, right? And so it's about actually being credible and talking about things that are relevant to your clients.

Brooke 16:11

Beautiful. Well, as we wrap up this talk, what's maybe one key takeaway you'd want listeners to have from our conversation? Yeah.

Thiago 16:19

So the main message that I'm trying to spread here at eMerge and in everything that we do is truly that AI is your superpower- Mm-hmm not your pink slip. Mm. AI is your enhancement, not your replacement. And so for us as a company, it's really important that when companies come to us- Mm-hmm and their AI strategy begins with how many people can we cut- Yeah we don't work with those companies. We are really proud of our clients and the way that they're using AI to make their teams more efficient-

Brooke 16:52

Yes

Thiago 16:53

so they can hire more humans, not less. Yes, yes. When we talk about growing businesses-

Brooke 16:58

Yeah

Thiago 16:58

we're not just talking about growing the bottom line- Mm-hmm and the financials. Mm. We're talking about growing in the number of employees that those entrepreneurs support-

Brooke 17:06

Mm-hmm

Thiago 17:07

the number of families, right- Yeah that they're helping, uh, support- Yes and all the different ways that they impact their local communities. Yes. Like, to me, that's what AI is about. That's the message that I'm trying to spread here at eMerge- Absolutely and everything that we do is exactly that, that AI is just a tool. We are actually the ones bringing the

Brooke 17:27

intelligence. So. Such beautiful final words How can listeners connect? How can they reach out to you and find more about your work?

Thiago 17:33

Absolutely. So, listeners can find us on Instagram- Mm-hmm @elevatedaiconsulting. LinkedIn as well- LinkedIn or elevatedaiconsulting.com. We post a lot of blogs about exactly what I'm talking about, the human-centered AI- Mm-hmm and how we can use AI to enhance ourselves.

Brooke 17:51

Wonderful. Thiago, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate you.

Thiago 17:54

Thank you for having me. This has been a really nice conversation.

Brooke 17:56

Enjoy the rest of your expo.

Thiago 17:57

Thank you. You as well.

Brooke 17:59

That's a wrap on this special bonus episode of How I AI. And if you're a small business owner who's been putting off thinking about how you show up in AI search, I hope this conversation is the thing that changes that. One more thing before I go. If you've been following along the show, you may have noticed I love being on the ground at conferences, listening in on panels, recording conversations right on the expo floor. I also moderate talks here in Miami and bring that energy back to you through episodes like this one. This is one of my favorite things to do

Speaker 18:31

as

Brooke 18:31

a host and a connector in this space. So if you are organizing a conference, hosting a summit, or putting together a panel and you want media coverage or a moderator who knows how to draw out the real conversation, I would love to talk. Reach out to me directly. And all my links to work with me one-on-one with client work is available in my Stan store linked below in the show notes. All right, that's it for today. And if you're not already subscribed to this podcast, do so now so that you do not miss what's coming up for season two. There's a lot in the works behind the scenes, and I cannot wait to share more. Thank you for joining How I AI. I'll talk to you soon. take care. If you're tuning into this podcast, you're most likely an AI advocate, and you may have also wondered how to support your body against the invisible stress of EMFs. Think wifi, cell towers, or hours in front of your laptop. Leela Quantum products are lab tested in triple blind studies and are proven to help harmonize and neutralize EMF signals. Their products are the few things I felt a real energetic shift from. I personally wear their quantum energy necklace daily. And if you're someone who cares about optimizing your energy and nervous system like I do, explore their offers with my exclusive discount link below. Have you just started exploring AI and feel a bit overwhelmed? Don't worry, I've got you. Jump on a quick start call with me so you can walk away with a clear and personalized plan to move forward with more confidence and ease. Join my community of AI adopters like yourself. Plus, grab my free resources, including the AI Get Started Guide. Or try my How I AI companion GPT. It pulls insights from my guest interviews along with global reports, so you can stay ahead of the curve. Follow the link in the description below to get started.