AI-generated search is reshaping how patients find plastic surgeons, and rater8 CEO Evan Steele explains what practices must do to stay visible in this new digital landscape.
AI-generated search and Google’s new AI Overviews are fundamentally changing how patients discover plastic surgeons. Instead of browsing websites, prospective patients are increasingly served curated answers directly on the search results page—pulled from online reviews, directories, and third-party content. For private practices, this shift means traditional SEO tactics may no longer be enough to stay visible or competitive.
To break down what this means and how plastic surgeons can adapt, Plastic Surgery Practice spoke with Evan Steele, founder and CEO of rater8, a reputation management platform that helps medical practices optimize their online presence through structured reviews and patient feedback. In this interview, Steele explains how AI is reshaping the digital front door of healthcare, why reviews matter more than ever, and what strategies can help practices remain discoverable in an AI-first search environment.
Plastic Surgery Practice: AI-generated search results like Google’s new AI Overviews are reshaping how patients discover providers. What exactly is changing, and how might this impact private plastic surgery practices?
Evan Steele: We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in how information is surfaced online. With the rollout of AI Overviews, Google is no longer just showing a list of links, it’s curating and summarizing content for prospective patients directly in the search results. That means a patient searching “top-rated plastic surgeon in Austin” might get an AI-generated answer featuring specific doctors, pulled from a mix of sources like reviews and third-party directories.
For private practices, this means traditional SEO strategies, like having a strong website and investing in paid ads, are no longer enough. You now need to feed the algorithm with consistent, structured, high-quality data from multiple sources. Unfortunately, if your practice doesn’t show up in these AI summaries, you risk being left out of the conversation entirely, even if you’re delivering excellent care.
PSP: You’ve said that Google is increasingly bypassing practice websites. What does that mean in practical terms, and how should providers rethink their online presence in response?
Steele: Historically, a patient might click through several websites before making a decision. Today, Google is trying to eliminate that step by giving users the “best answer” right on the results page. That means your website might never be visited at all, especially if your competitors have more visible reviews, directory listings, or mentions in AI-referenced content.
Practices need to provide AI-ready content to optimize their digital footprint beyond their website. That includes keeping Google Business Profiles up to date, generating fresh patient reviews regularly, and ensuring that key pieces of information like services offered, locations, and provider credentials are accurate across the web.
PSP: How are patient reviews factoring into AI-driven search visibility? Has their role in SEO shifted compared to just a few years ago?
Steele: Absolutely. Reviews have always mattered for credibility and feeding the traditional and local search algorithms, but now they’re playing a direct role in AI discoverability.
AI models are crawling for patterns and signals across the web, and patient reviews offer a goldmine of structured, sentiment-rich content that helps these models understand who you are, what you offer, and why patients choose you. That means the quantity, recency, and specificity of your reviews now impact how visible you are, not just in traditional rankings, but in AI-generated summaries.
PSP: What is “structured review content,” and why is it becoming more important for search rankings and AI relevance?
Steele: Structured review content refers to reviews that are tagged, formatted, and categorized in a way that search engines, and now AI models, can easily understand and parse through. For example, a review that says “Dr. Smith was professional, and the staff was kind” might be tagged under categories like bedside manner, staff friendliness, or office experience. When thousands of reviews follow a similar structure, AI tools can extract meaningful patterns and confidently summarize them for patients searching online.
Practices that consistently generate a high volume of structured review content have a better chance of being accurately and favorably represented in AI Overviews and other summary-style search results. And the more patients readily rely on AI-generated summaries, the more important structured review content will become.
PSP: For a plastic surgeon who’s relied on word-of-mouth and a strong website, what are the first steps they should take to remain competitive in this new AI-influenced search environment?
Steele: A good rule of thumb is to start with what you already have: the voices of your happy patients. Turn that feedback into a steady stream of fresh, high-quality online reviews for both your practice and individual providers. Even if you rely heavily on referrals or word-of-mouth, especially for specific doctors, today’s patients still head online to validate what they’ve heard.
Focus on key platforms like Google, Healthgrades, WebMD, and Vitals, especially if you have multiple locations. Search engines prioritize recent, relevant, and consistent content across third-party sites, and prospective patients trust reviews tied to specific doctors.
Next, audit how your providers and locations are appearing online. Is your Google Business Profile optimized with current services, locations, and photos? Are your provider bios up to date across third-party directories? AI tools pull from all of this, so consistency and accuracy matter more than ever.
Finally, consider how you’re gathering and responding to patient feedback. Not just for visibility, but to improve the experience you’re offering. Reputation isn’t just about star ratings and reviews, it’s also about listening, learning, and evolving.
PSP: rater8 works with thousands of practices. What strategies or tactics are you seeing the most successful ones adopt to maintain visibility and grow in an AI-driven digital landscape?
Steele: The most successful practices treat reputation as a strategic necessity and use it to overcome barriers to growth, not just a function of marketing or SEO.
Reputation in plastic surgery is arguably more important than in other healthcare specialties, and the most successful practices treat patient satisfaction as a major competitive advantage. They’re proactive about collecting (and acting to address) patient feedback, they respond to reviews (especially the negative ones), and they analyze patient sentiment to make smarter operational decisions.
The most successful practices also recognize the importance of consistency. Whether it’s listings, provider bios, or patient review volume, they understand that AI rewards structured, fresh, and reliable information. Perhaps most importantly, they don’t silo this work—marketing, operations, and clinical teams are aligned around the idea that reputation is the growth lever that drives everything within the practice, from patient acquisition and retention to staff morale. PSP
Lead Photo: ID 37416103 © Marcel De Grijs | Dreamstime.com; Headshot: rater8
