Speaking at Grocery Innovations Canada, an event held by the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) in Toronto, Innovate Marketing partner and co-founder Uwe Stueckmann said AI is changing the way consumers shop and that independent grocers make up a small portion of AI agent recommendations. The former Loblaw executive said about 10% of recommendations from large language models go to smaller retailers, while 90% go to Walmart, Amazon and Costco. To improve AI visibility, he advised small retailers to optimize their Google Business profile with updated business and holiday hours and an accurate description of their store and departments, and to do the same on Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp and other business listings. He also urged grocers to ensure their websites have enough clear, plain-English content describing what makes them different and better, and that e-commerce product descriptions and metadata are accurate and understandable. On reviews, Stueckmann said Google reviews help small grocers be found by AI agents and suggested adding a QR code at every checkout prompting customers to leave a review, noting the average number of Google reviews for businesses an AI finds is 133 versus 11 for businesses not found by LLMs.