The Workshop
Business performs at the speed of trust. So what happens when the first thing a buyer trusts isn’t your website, your salesperson or a referral from someone they know — it’s ChatGPT, Claude or Google AI Mode?
In a 2026 survey of over a thousand B2B software buyers, 69% chose a different vendor than the one they’d originally planned, based on what an AI assistant told them. A third bought from a vendor they’d never heard of before. (G2, 2026)
There’s as much to gain here as there is to lose, and most businesses don’t yet know which side they’re on. This session is 90 minutes on finding out, and on what to do next.
Logistics
Format: In person – Empire9, Level 1/323 Madras Street, Christchurch
Duration: 90 Minutes
Time: Thursday, 27th August: 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Cost: Free
Who is this for
- B2B businesses where buying involves research, comparison and a shortlist.
- Marketing managers and business owners who’ve heard plenty about AI search and very little that’s actually actionable.
- Anyone who’s typed their own company into ChatGPT and not much liked the answer.
What we’ll cover
- What the engines actually reward: It isn’t domain authority and it isn’t thought leadership. It’s narrower, stranger and far more fixable than either.
- How to measure any of this. There’s no ranking to check, so we’ll cover what actually counts: whether you’re mentioned, whether what’s said is accurate, and whether the engines agree with each other. Plus the three mistakes that make AI visibility reporting worthless — including the one almost everybody makes.
- The free tools that now exist. Twelve months ago there was no official data on any of this. Now there’s an AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools that shows the internal queries AI generates about your category, an AI Assistant channel in GA4, and a new generative AI report in Search Console that’s still rolling out country by country. We’ll show you where each one lives, what it tells you, and what it quietly leaves out.
Your Presenter
Dean Warwick,
Search Specialist at Empire9
Dean specialises in search visibility — how businesses get found in Google, and increasingly how they get cited by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode. He leads SEO audits and strategy for Empire9’s clients across technical SEO, AI search, analytics and local visibility, and regularly delivers workshops and training to help New Zealand teams upskill.
Much of his current focus is tracking how New Zealand brands appear across AI search engines, and building the reporting that separates real movement from noise.
The workshop is Free, 90 minutes, in person in central Christchurch. Limited to 50 seats. Bring a laptop and your least favourite AI answer about your own business.