Sellers Are Asking ChatGPT Which Agent to Call. Are You Being Recommended?

Kodak and Blockbuster both saw the shift coming. They thought they had more time.

Whenever technology changes the way we live, buy, search or communicate, the same pattern plays out. At first the new behaviour seems niche. Then it becomes interesting, then significant, and eventually, normal.

The businesses that get caught out usually saw the technology coming perfectly well. What they underestimated was how quickly consumer behaviour would change around it, and what that change would mean for them. Seeing a new technology isn't the same as understanding how it affects your business.

Kodak invented the future - then struggled to move with it

Kodak invented the first digital camera in 1975.[1] The company whose business would eventually be devastated by digital photography was there at the very beginning of it.

The problem wasn't a lack of innovation. Kodak had built an enormously profitable business around film, processing and printing, and digital photography threatened all of it. Kodak did eventually invest heavily in digital, but it struggled to replace the economics of the model that had made it so successful. In 2012, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,[2] later emerging as a very different company.[3]

The lesson isn't simply "Kodak missed digital". It's this: sometimes the biggest barrier to adapting to the future is how successful your current model still is.

Blockbuster didn't lose because people stopped watching movies

People never stopped wanting movies. For years, Blockbuster's store network was its greatest advantage. Then Netflix launched its DVD-by-mail service in the late 1990s,[4] streaming followed, and convenience came to mean not driving to a store at all.

Blockbuster did experiment with online and subscription models,[5] but it was trying to transform a huge business built around physical stores while customer expectations moved somewhere else. In 2010, it filed for bankruptcy protection.[6]

The customer was still there. The behaviour had changed. You don't need to invent the next technology, but you do need to recognise when technology is changing what your customers expect.

And then there's Yellow Pages

For Australian businesses, this might be the most relevant example of all.

There was a time when being in the Yellow Pages wasn't really optional. If you needed a plumber, an accountant or a real estate agent, you picked up the directory. Then the internet changed how we found businesses, and Google, Google Maps and online reviews changed it further. By 2017, even Sensis, the company behind the Yellow Pages, acknowledged that in metropolitan Australia, the internet had become the main way people searched.[7]

The need never disappeared. What changed was where people went to find them.

First it was the Yellow Pages. Then it was Google. Now even Google is answering with AI.[8]

Search behaviour is changing again

For more than two decades, the model has been simple. Someone wants an agent, so they type real estate agent Lane Cove into Google, get a page of results and work their way through them.

Increasingly, there's another way to search. Someone can open ChatGPT or Gemini and ask:

• "I'm thinking about selling our family home in Lane Cove. Which local agents should I speak to?"

• "Who are some experienced agents for waterfront property in Hunters Hill?"

• "I need to rent my apartment in Coogee. Which property managers specialise in Sydney's Eastern Beaches?"

  
  

That's a very different interaction. The consumer isn't asking for a list of websites - they're asking for an answer, and increasingly they're asking AI to help narrow the field.

The question has changed

For years, businesses have asked: "Where do we rank on Google?" That still matters. But there's now another question worth asking: "Does AI understand enough about our business to recommend us?"

Does it understand who you are, where you operate, what you specialise in and what you're known for? Is there credible information across the web supporting those things?

An AI assistant can't confidently recommend a business it doesn't properly understand.

That's why AI search visibility isn't simply another version of SEO. It's about strengthening the digital signals that help AI systems understand your business and connect it with the questions people are asking.

Google isn't disappearing, but that's not the point

People won't stop using traditional search overnight. They didn't throw out their Yellow Pages the day Google launched, or stop renting DVDs the day streaming became possible. What matters is the direction of travel. Roy Morgan research found that 58% of Australians aged 14 and over used AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini in the first three months of 2026,[9] and people are becoming increasingly comfortable asking AI to research, compare, explain and recommend.

Most agents already use AI. They've seen what it can do. What's easy to miss is the other side of it: when a seller asks AI which agent to call and you're not part of the answer, you're invisible to that seller. It doesn't matter how good your website is or how active you are on social media. As people get used to asking AI about everything, the agents it doesn't surface simply won't be in the conversation.

If AI can't find you, recommend you or explain why you're the right choice, then for a growing number of sellers, you don't exist.

The common thread

Kodak, Blockbuster and Yellow Pages are very different stories, but they share one thing: the old way was still working while the new behaviour was forming. That's what makes technology shifts so easy to underestimate.

And digital authority isn't something you can switch on the day everyone decides AI search matters. It takes time for AI systems to understand the connection between your name, your agency, your location, your expertise, your reviews and the wider digital footprint that supports it.

You don't need to abandon Google, and you don't need to panic about AI. But you do need to recognise when behaviour is changing — and decide how long you're prepared to wait before responding.

Because the biggest risk with a technology shift is waiting until the new behaviour is already normal before deciding it matters to you.

Sources

All sources accessed 29 September 2026.

[1] National Inventors Hall of Fame. "Steven Sasson: Digital Camera." https://www.invent.org/inductees/steven-sasson

[2] CNN Money (19 January 2012). "Eastman Kodak files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection." https://money.cnn.com/2012/01/19/news/companies/kodak_bankruptcy/index.htm

[3] American Bankruptcy Institute (3 September 2013). "Eastman Kodak's Exit from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy." https://www.abi.org/feed-item/eastman-kodak%E2%80%99s-exit-from-chapter-11-bankruptcy-september-3-2013

[4] Netflix Tudum. "Netflix Celebrates 25 Years." https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/netflix-trivia-25th-anniversary

[5] CNBC (22 September 2020). "Netflix didn't kill Blockbuster — how Netflix almost lost the movie rental wars." https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/how-netflix-almost-lost-the-movie-rental-wars-to-blockbuster.html

[6] CNN Money (23 September 2010). "Blockbuster files for bankruptcy." https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/23/news/companies/blockbuster_bankruptcy/index.htm

[7] Hayne, J. (18 May 2017). "It's 2017 — why do most of us still get the Yellow Pages?" ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-18/why-is-the-yellow-pages-still-dropped-on-your-doorstep/8536298

[8] Google Australia. "Google Search: Introducing AI Mode in Australia." https://blog.google/intl/en-au/products/explore-get-answers/ai-mode-in-australia/

[9] Roy Morgan (2 June 2026). "13.6 million Australians now use AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Canva Magic Studio and Claude." https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/10248-artificial-intelligence-ai-tools-usage-march-2026