AI Is Coming for Local Search: How Google’s New AI Overviews Can Erase Your Business or Amplify It

Last Updated on 23 October 2025 by Dorian Menard

You’ve done everything right. You’ve claimed your Google Business Profile, collected dozens of glowing reviews, and maybe even ranked in the top three of the local map pack for years. Then one day, you check your analytics and your phone stops ringing.

You search for your own business and find something chilling: you’re not in the AI Overview. Google’s AI has chosen three other businesses to summarize for searchers, and yours isn’t one of them.

This isn’t hypothetical. AI Overviews now appear in 68% of local search queries, according to research from BrightLocal and Whitespark. That means more than two-thirds of your potential customers are seeing AI-generated summaries before they ever reach the traditional map pack.

If your business isn’t feeding that AI the right information, you’re invisible.

Google’s AI Overviews: A Paradigm Shift in Local Search

According to research from Near Memo and Mike Blumenthal, Google now presents local search results in three distinct layers:

First comes the AI Overview, an AI-generated summary that might mention three to five businesses.

Then comes the traditional Local Pack, the map with three pinned locations.

Finally, there’s AI Mode, which can show completely different businesses than either of the first two layers.

Here’s where it gets messy: these three layers don’t necessarily agree with each other. A business ranking number one in the map pack might not appear in the AI Overview at all. Another business barely visible in traditional results might get prominent mention in the AI summary.

The consistency and predictability you relied on? Gone.

Semrush published a study showing that organic click-throughs dropped by up to 64% in search results dominated by AI Overviews. Nearly two-thirds of potential traffic is being filtered through an AI layer that decides who deserves visibility.

Why Local Businesses Should Be Genuinely Concerned

Birdeye’s 2025 State of Google Business Profiles report revealed something alarming: Google has dramatically increased its enforcement standards. Fake reviews, outdated photos, and inconsistent business information are now triggering automatic suspensions at unprecedented rates.

Google has also removed several features that business owners relied on: the Chat function, call logs, and GBP-hosted websites. These changes signal a shift toward stricter quality standards and less tolerance for businesses that don’t maintain pristine digital footprints.

But here’s the truly frightening part: when AI generates a summary about your business, you don’t control that narrative. Google owns that text. If the AI pulls incorrect information from an outdated citation or misinterprets your service offerings based on inconsistent data across the web, you can’t simply edit it.

A frustrated business owner posted in a Google support thread describing exactly this scenario. The AI Overview for their industry mentioned competitors but described their business incorrectly, using outdated information from a citation they hadn’t updated in three years. When they tried to correct it, they discovered there was no direct way to influence what the AI says.

The only solution was to systematically clean up every single mention of their business across the entire web and wait for Google’s systems to re-crawl and re-evaluate.

Visibility Crisis: When AI Chooses Different Businesses

Joy Hawkins, one of the most respected voices in local SEO, has documented numerous cases where AI Overviews show completely different businesses than the map pack. In some instances, businesses ranking fourth, fifth, or even lower in traditional results were featured prominently in AI summaries, while the top three map pack businesses were ignored entirely.

This isn’t a bug. It’s a feature.

AI doesn’t rank businesses the way traditional algorithms did. It represents businesses in synthesized answers based on what it determines is most relevant, complete, and trustworthy in that moment.

Being number one in Google Maps no longer guarantees you’ll appear in AI results. If your citations aren’t clean, if your information isn’t structured properly, if your digital footprint is inconsistent or incomplete, the AI simply won’t see you as a reliable source.

The Key Shift: From Ranking to Representation

Research from Local Falcon and MapRanks has identified a critical conceptual shift in how we need to think about local SEO.

AI doesn’t rank businesses in the traditional sense. It represents them in responses synthesized by large language models.

This introduces the concept of “Share of AI Voice,” which measures how frequently your business appears in AI-generated answers across various search queries in your industry. This metric matters more than your position in the map pack because it reflects actual visibility in the results most users see first.

AI cares about different factors than traditional ranking algorithms. Proximity still matters, but it’s now weighted against completeness, consistency, and sentiment. A business slightly farther away with complete, structured data and positive mentions across multiple platforms might get chosen over a closer business with incomplete information.

What Does AI Actually Look For When Choosing Businesses?

Based on analysis from multiple industry sources, including BrightLocal, Local Dominator, and MapRanks, here are the critical factors:

Structured, Consistent Data Across All Platforms

Your business name, address, phone number, and service descriptions need to be identical everywhere they appear online. AI validation systems check multiple sources simultaneously, and inconsistencies trigger distrust signals that can disqualify you from AI Overviews entirely.

Understanding NAP consistency is more critical now than ever before.

Regular Content Updates

Businesses that consistently upload new photos, answer questions, respond to reviews, and post updates signal active management and current relevance. AI interprets this as a sign of a legitimate, engaged business worth featuring.

Learn how to use Google Business Profile Posts effectively to maintain this active presence.

Mentions on Review Sites and Social Forums

AI pulls from a broad ecosystem of sources. Businesses with active presences on Yelp, TripAdvisor, industry-specific directories, and even Reddit have more touchpoints for AI to validate their existence and quality.

Check out the best Australian review websites to expand your digital footprint.

Schema Markup and Conversational Content

Structured data markup on your website helps AI understand exactly what you offer, where you operate, and how to categorize your services. Content written in natural, conversational language that answers common questions performs better because it matches how AI processes information.

Our guide to local schema markup explains how to implement this properly.

The businesses winning in AI search aren’t necessarily the ones with the most backlinks or the highest domain authority. They’re the ones with complete, consistent, actively maintained digital footprints that give AI confidence in representing them accurately.

The GBP Suspension Problem: What You Don’t Fix, Google Might Remove

Birdeye’s research revealed that Google’s verification and compliance systems have become significantly stricter. Even minor inconsistencies can now trigger automatic suspensions: having “Pty Ltd” in some listings and not others, slight variations in suite numbers, inconsistent phone number formatting, or category mismatches across platforms.

When your GBP is suspended, you disappear from Google Maps entirely. But you also become invisible to the AI systems that pull from Maps data to generate overviews. The AI doesn’t see suspended profiles. It’s as if your business doesn’t exist.

If your GBP has been recently suspended or flagged, you need professional help to navigate the reinstatement process. At Search Scope, we’ve successfully reinstated hundreds of suspended profiles by identifying the exact compliance issues Google flagged and systematically resolving them.

Learn more about how to fix a suspended Google Business Profile and understand the steps to appeal a GBP suspension.

Suspension isn’t just a temporary inconvenience. In an AI-driven search landscape, it’s a death sentence for your visibility.

Local Citations: Your Lifeline in the AI Era

AI pulls information from a network of interconnected sources. Your website schema, Yelp profile, TripAdvisor listing, industry directories, social media pages, and dozens of other citation sources all feed into the AI’s understanding of your business.

MapRanks put it bluntly: “AI-powered search pulls information from multiple ecosystems simultaneously. Inconsistent listings don’t just hurt visibility, they create confusion that disqualifies businesses from AI-generated results entirely.”

Over years of operation, your business information has spread across hundreds of websites. Maybe you moved locations three years ago but never updated your old address on 40 different directories. Maybe your phone number changed, or you rebranded slightly, or you expanded your service offerings.

Traditional SEO might have allowed you to get away with this. AI won’t.

When the algorithm encounters conflicting information about your business, it doesn’t know which version is correct. Rather than risk featuring inaccurate information, it simply chooses a competitor with cleaner data.

Start with 5 steps to audit NAP consistency and avoid these 10 local citation mistakes.

At Search Scope, we offer comprehensive citation cleanup at $599 per location. We systematically identify every mention of your business across the web, correct inconsistencies, update outdated information, and ensure that every data point matches exactly. This gives AI systems the confidence to feature your business prominently.

You can also explore our complete citation audit guide to understand the full process.

What Smart Businesses Are Doing Right Now

The businesses that will dominate local search in the AI era aren’t waiting. Research from Search Engine Land and Local Falcon has identified clear patterns among businesses maintaining or growing their visibility in AI Overviews.

Step One: Comprehensive Audit

Catalog every citation, every directory listing, every social media profile, and every mention. Then standardize everything. Business name, address, phone number, service descriptions, hours, categories… everything must match exactly.

Our local SEO audit and strategy guide walks you through this process systematically.

Step Two: Rebuild Trust Signals

Weekly updates to your Google Business Profile: new photos every week, responding to every review within 24 hours, posting regular updates about services or offers, and actively managing your Q&A section.

Learn how to use Google Business Profile Insights to track your progress and understand why your GBP might not be showing up.

Step Three: Train for AI Readiness

Restructure your website content to include FAQ sections written in natural, conversational language. Implement proper schema markup so AI can easily parse your service offerings. Ensure that the way you describe your business matches the way customers describe you in reviews and social media posts.

The 2025 AI SERP guides emphasize “entity-first SEO,” which means thinking about your business as a distinct entity that needs to be clearly defined, consistently represented, and actively validated across multiple platforms.

Check out our guide on entities in local SEO to understand this concept better.

The Calm Before the AI Storm

The businesses vanishing from search results aren’t being penalized by Google. They’re being ignored by AI.

There’s a difference. A penalty suggests you did something wrong. Being ignored means you simply don’t register as trustworthy or relevant in the systems making visibility decisions.

This is actually good news because it means you have control. You can fix this. But you need to act now, before your competitors do, and before the gap becomes too wide to close.

The transition to AI-driven search isn’t going to reverse. This is the new reality, and it’s only going to intensify. Every month, AI Overviews appear in more searches. Every month, more traffic gets filtered through AI-generated summaries. Every month, businesses with incomplete or inconsistent data become more invisible.

Before Google’s AI decides who matters in your industry, make sure your digital footprint clearly says it’s you. Clean up your citations, rebuild your GBP trust signals, and structure your data for AI consumption. The businesses that do this work now will own local search for the next decade.

If you need help, our local SEO services ensure your business information is consistent and AI-ready across the entire web.

The AI takeover of local search is here. The only question is whether your business will be amplified by it or erased by it.