ISS World Expo 2026 Recap

The self-storage industry just wrapped another ISS World Expo at Caesars Forum, and if you walked the floor looking for the next shiny tech tool, you found plenty. But if you paid attention to what was happening beneath the surface of the sessions, a clearer theme emerged: AI isn’t here to replace the operator. It’s here to free them up to be a better one.

Two sessions from the Go Local Interactive team illustrated that idea better than any vendor booth could.

Melanie Terschak: The Search Landscape Just Changed — Again

Melanie Terschak, Go Local’s VP of Digital Solutions, opened with a line that reframed everything: the shift from traditional search to AI-powered search is the biggest disruption to how people find information since Google launched in 1998.

That’s not hyperbole. It’s data.

ChatGPT now has 900 million+ weekly active users. Google’s AI Overviews reach 2 billion people every month — without them ever clicking a link. And here’s the kicker for storage operators: Google searches for terms like “storage units” and “self storage near me” have been in significant year-over-year decline since April 2025.

The customer journey has changed. People aren’t typing two-word queries anymore. They’re asking AI, “I’m looking for a storage unit near the University of Kansas campus for my daughter to store her dorm items over the summer. What are some affordable options that are also secure and clean?” And AI is giving them three answers — not ten blue links.

This is the shift from SEO to GEO: Generative Engine Optimization. Your goal is no longer to be the top-ranked website. It’s to be cited in the answer.

The good news Melanie delivered: if you’ve been doing SEO right, you’re already about 60% of the way there. The gap is in the details — richer FAQ content, conversational question-and-answer copy on your site, a fully optimized Google Business Profile (with photos, posts, Q&A, and secondary categories), and reviews that actually say something. AI systems pull the text of your reviews into answers. A review that says “great place” helps no one. A review that says “Marcus at the front desk made my move-in seamless and the climate-controlled units were spotless” — that’s a citation waiting to happen.

She also handed independent operators something they don’t always feel like they have: a genuine competitive edge. The REITs are vulnerable in AI search. Their content is templated, their voice is national, their agility is limited. You know your neighborhood. You know the schools, the apartment complexes, the seasonal patterns. Write about them. That hyper-local authority is exactly what AI systems are trained to surface.

The race is on. Early movers get structural advantages that compound over time.

Jason Barrett: While the Algorithms Shift, the Fundamentals Don’t

At his Table Talk session, Go Local Co-founder and CEO Jason Barrett brought the conversation back to ground level — and the message was just as important.

All the AI in the world doesn’t change the fact that operators are still losing leads they shouldn’t lose. Jason’s framework was simple: three pillars, measurable outcomes, and a bias toward action.

• Tracking & Attribution — Do you actually know what’s driving signed leases? Not clicks. Not calls. Leases. Unique call tracking numbers on every channel, cost-per-lease reporting, ad platforms connected to your management software. Your Google Business Profile is likely your #1 lead source and, statistically, your most neglected asset. That’s a problem with an easy fix.
• Automation — Speed-to-lead matters enormously. A lead that doesn’t get a response within five minutes is already shopping your competitor. Automated follow-up via email and text, chatbots for after-hours inquiries, review request sequences post-move-in — none of this is about replacing the human at the front desk. It’s about making sure the human at the front desk isn’t buried in tasks that technology can handle cheaper and faster.
• Data-Driven Ad Spend — Your marketing budget should respond to your occupancy in real time. If you have a specific unit size sitting below target, concentrate spend there. If you’re running high, pull back and let your rate strategy work. A flat monthly ad budget applied uniformly across unit types ignores your actual business needs.

The through-line of Jason’s session — and honestly, the through-line of the whole show, which we discussed on the latest episode of The Go Local Brief — is that technology should be creating space for the human moments, not crowding them out. Operators who automate the repetitive earn more capacity for the interactions that actually win and keep customers.

The Bigger Theme

Walk the two sessions back-to-back and the connective tissue is obvious. AI is reshaping how customers find you and how technology can handle the operational weight that keeps operators from being present when it counts. Neither session was really about the tools. Both were about what becomes possible when the tools do their job.

That’s the message ISS 2026 left us with: the operators who win aren’t necessarily the ones spending more, or even the ones with the best tech stack. They’re the ones using technology as a force multiplier for human attention — and pointing that attention at the moments that matter most.

The race is on. The question is where you’re starting from.

Find Out Where You Stand

Not sure how your facility shows up in AI search results? We’ll tell you — for free. Our GEO analysis gives you a clear picture of your current AI visibility, what’s working, and where the gaps are.

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