The playbook for conversational site selection
Conversational AI is transforming how brands evaluate real estate decisions. This playbook shows how site-selection teams can use Zeus.ai Chat to understand performance drivers, compare locations, and make faster, clearer decisions.
Selecting the right locations has always depended on strong data and sound judgment.But brands today need to move faster than ever to win prime real estate, keep pace with shifting customer behavior, and stay ahead of competitors. Predictive models can tell you what a forecast looks like with impressive accuracy, but getting to a clear explanation of why a site is projected to perform the way it does can still take time.
With Zeus.ai Chat, teams can now evaluate sites through natural conversation. Instead ofmanually combing through layers of data, you can ask questions and receive thorough, plain-language answers in seconds. This conversational approach brings more clarity to your predictive model by making it easier to understand performance drivers, compare sites, and interpret trade areas with precision.
AI chat built specifically for site selection is still new, and many teams are just beginning to experience how transformative it can be. We created this playbook to show exactly how to use conversational AI throughout your site evaluation process and get the most out of every interaction with Zeus.ai Chat.
How conversational AI fits into the site selection workflow
A site-selection professional’s day-to-day often involves switching between tasks like analyzing a proposed site, validating a franchisee-submitted location, or pressure-testing whether a market is truly a good fit. AI chat tools help in those moments by letting you ask the question that’s already in your head and get a clear, contextual answer right away.Instead of digging through datasets, dashboards, and reports to piece the story together yourself, you can move through an evaluation in a more direct, efficient way.
For example, when you’re reviewing a new proposed site, AI chat can quickly explain what’s driving the forecast, what trade-area characteristics stand out, and how that location compares to your stronger stores. And during franchisee site approvals, it can also serve as a fast sanity-check by surfacing what looks promising, what feels risky, and what you should
validate before giving the green light.
AI chat is also powerful for the core themes that always come up in site selection:
- Understanding performance drivers behind a projection
- Interpreting trade area context
- Assessing competition and potential oversaturation
- Finding meaningful portfolio comparisons
- Identifying risk factors that could lead to underperformance
And maybe most importantly, it helps teams communicate decisions more clearly. Whether you’re
aligning with decision-makers, operations, or a franchise partner, AI chat turns complex
analytics into straightforward explanations.
How to approach site selection as a conversation
Getting the most value from AI chat in site selection isn’t about asking one perfect
question—it’s about using conversation the same way you’d work through a site with a strong
analyst or colleague. Start with a high-level question to frame the site, then use follow-ups
to work through the details that shape the decision.
A good rule of thumb is to think in layers:
- Start with orientation: Get the high-level story of the site.
- Dig into the why: Ask what’s influencing performance and what matters most.
- Pressure-test the risks: Explore what could cause underperformance.
- Validate fit: Look at trade area alignment, customer segments, and similar high-performing locations.
- Compare and prioritize: Stack this site against others in your pipeline.
And when you feel like you’ve hit a stopping point, one of the most productive questions is simply: “What should I look at next?” In real evaluations, that helps uncover blind spots and ensures you’re not missing a key detail before moving a site forward or recommending approval.
The conversational site selection toolkit
To make this even easier to apply, we’ve put together a downloadable resource that turns the playbook into a repeatable evaluation method.
This toolkit includes:
- A prompt sequence for a full site evaluation
- A prompt library organized by category (forecasting, trade area, competition, customer segments, analog analysis, and more)
- A realistic sample conversation showing how a complete evaluation can unfold
- A printable checklist to guide consistent review across your team
We created this toolkit to help you put conversational AI into practice quickly, so you can
make AI chat a consistent, high-impact part of your site selection process.
Putting conversational site selection to work
Conversational AI brings speed and clarity to the parts of site selection that typically take the longest: interpreting model drivers, understanding trade-area fit, assessing competitive pressure, and spotting risks before a decision is made. When you can ask questions naturally and get immediate explanations grounded in your data, evaluations become faster, clearer, and easier to communicate across teams.
Use this playbook to guide your next evaluation and download the toolkit for a more structured prompt library and full conversation workflow.
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