Detroit Homecoming Momentum, AI Search Hits 900M Users, and Citizens of AI at The Congregation

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting

From Redic's Desk

Detroit Homecoming was back this week, and the tone out of it was familiar: real momentum, with a warning not to coast on it. Commercial real estate leaders told the Homecoming crowd the city needs to keep building on its progress rather than treat it as finished business, and a separate session — with Big Sean among the voices — made the case that Detroit's entertainment economy needs real investment to match its cultural weight. Different rooms, same message: the "encouraging" read on Detroit's economy we shared last issue only holds if the momentum gets reinvested, not just admired.

That's the same lesson that applies to AI visibility. A good score today doesn't lock in tomorrow's results — the businesses that stay visible to AI tools are the ones that keep showing up, not the ones that check the box once and move on.

In the Community: Citizens of AI Co-Working at The Congregation

Tuesday put me back at The Congregation for Citizens of AI's LIVE AI Co-Working session — presented by REBRANDX in partnership with the Knight Foundation. No panel, no slides — just Detroiters working side by side on real AI projects, trading what's working and what isn't in real time. The line that's stuck with me from this series keeps proving itself: "the community is the new college." As AI reshapes work, creativity, and business, that kind of access can't live only inside traditional institutions — it has to be in neighborhoods, community spaces, and rooms exactly like this one.

Keep an eye out for TechTown Detroit's rescheduled First Thursdays date and our AI & Social Media seminar — both still in the works, with details coming as soon as they're locked.

What We're Watching: AI Search Just Became the Main Event

The numbers on AI search adoption are no longer a preview of the future — they're the present. ChatGPT hit roughly 900 million weekly active users by February 2026, more than double where it stood a year earlier. Gemini is running around 750 million monthly active users, and with Gemini now built into Siri across 2+ billion active Apple devices, most smartphone owners are one voice command away from an AI-generated answer about your business — or your competitor's.

Why it matters for our clients: only 17% of AI Overview citations come from pages that already rank in Google's top 10, which means ranking well in classic search is no longer enough on its own. But here's the actionable part — brands with a presence on four or more platforms (website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, review sites, directories, and beyond) are 2.8x more likely to show up in ChatGPT's answers. Visibility in the AI era isn't about gaming one algorithm. It's about being findable, consistent, and credible everywhere at once.

This Month's Prompt: Where Does My Business Actually Show Up?

Last issue's prompt checked whether your business info was consistent across the web. This one checks something different — whether you're actually present in enough places for AI tools to notice you at all. Multi-platform presence is now a ranking factor in its own right.

List every place online where [business name] in [city] has an active, up-to-date presence — website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, industry directories, review sites, and social platforms. Which of these look thin, outdated, or missing entirely? If you were an AI assistant trying to verify this business is real and trustworthy, what would you want to see that isn't there yet?

Run it, then pick one gap to close before the next issue. Small, steady additions beat a single big push.

On Micah's Desk This Week

Micah is building out the multi-platform presence audit above into a repeatable client deliverable, finishing structured-data and Google Business Profile consistency passes for the law firm clients from a couple issues back, and prepping outreach follow-ups for the newest round of inbound leads. If you want a read on how many of the platforms above your business actually shows up on, let her know — it's a fast add-on to the AI visibility audit she's already running.

Where to Start

If Detroit's momentum has you thinking about where your own business stands heading into Q4, that's exactly the conversation our free 30-minute AI Discovery Call is built for — no pitch, just a clear read on where you are and what to do first. Ready to talk? Reach out at info@mrjcdetroit.com.

MRJ Consulting is a Detroit-based digital marketing and AI consulting firm helping law firms, nonprofits, financial institutions, and small businesses across Southeast Michigan build AI-powered marketing systems that actually work. Detroit-Built. Globally Focused.