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Micro-internship brief ≈5h in one sittingno-codeIndia edition

Who wins AI search in your city? (GEO)

People now ask ChatGPT and Gemini "best coaching class near me" instead of Googling. This is GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — one of 2026’s hottest marketing skills. Investigate which local businesses AI recommends in your city, figure out why, and write a plan to get one business recommended.

AI-assisted MarketingCampaign StrategySearch OptimisationUX DesignSQL & Databases

Posted by The AI Internships

The work brief

  1. 01Pick a local category you know (coaching classes, cafés, gyms, salons) in your own city/area.
  2. 02Ask the same "best X in <your area>" questions on at least 2 AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity). Screenshot the answers.
  3. 03Investigate the winners: check their Google reviews, website, listings — what do the AI-recommended ones have in common?
  4. 04Pick one business that did NOT get recommended and write a GEO plan to change that.

What you’ll produce

4 deliverables

Submission standard

Submit your queries and results, a screenshot, your winner analysis, and the GEO plan. This must be YOUR city — results for "a city" in general won’t match what AI actually says. Share a public link to at least one real AI search, and make sure your screenshot shows your query, your city/area, and the date.

  • Your queries and which businesses each AI named

    Written responseRequired

  • Screenshot of an AI recommending local businesses

    The screenshot must show the AI tool’s UI, your typed query with the real city/area name, and the date.

    Image uploadRequired

  • What the AI-recommended businesses have in common (with evidence)

    Written responseRequired

  • Your GEO plan for one business that isn’t getting recommended

    GEO means Generative Engine Optimization. Explain what should change so AI answer engines can find, trust, and cite this business.

    Written responseRequired

You’ll complete these inside your private workspace.

What you must submit as proof

This brief requires evidence an AI can’t fabricate.

  • Public share link to one of your AI searches (ChatGPT/Perplexity ‘Share’)

    A live shared chat proving the ‘best X in <your area>’ query and answer are real, not typed up after the fact.

    Public linkRequired

Submissions without this evidence cannot be submitted.

Protect other people in your proof. Blur faces, names, phone numbers and email addresses before you upload, and refer to anyone you worked with by role or number ("Listener 1", "the stall owner"). Your proof is only ever used to check your work — it is never published, never appears on your certificate, and is never shown in your public portfolio.

How your work is evaluated

The passing benchmark is 70/100.

Real research

29%

Queries were actually run for a real area, with named results.

Pattern analysis

29%

The common factors are evidenced, not guessed.

GEO plan

14%

The plan targets the actual gaps found in the analysis.

Verifiable local results

29%

A live/shared chat and dated screenshot show real queries for a real named locality with named results. If there’s no verifiable chat, or the area/businesses are generic rather than a specific real place, this criterion is a fail.

How we grade your AI usage

30% of your score

Using AI is the point — it’s the skill this certificate proves. You’ll answer three short questions about how you used it: what you asked, what was wrong with its first answer, and what you changed. Specific, honest answers score high. “I pasted the brief and submitted the answer” scores near zero.