At a recent I/O event, Google announced that AI Mode had surpassed a billion monthly users, and has seen its monthly query volume grow 200% plus every quarter since its launch. It’s no longer a small test feature anymore. This is the primary means that more and more people are searching, and it determines what’s displayed before a local business before it gets a click. So the logical response of a business owner is to think of all this as being rewritten. Well, that’s not correct. Local visibility is changing rapidly in some regions–and the statistics corroborate this. The other parts that make the final decision on who is picked haven’t budged from their spots. This article discusses what is “new” and what the numbers actually mean, as well as which fundamentals still hold true.
When you’re just reading headlines about AI taking over search, the image below will not feel quite so frightening, and much more actionable.
What Actually Changed Recently
The AI Mode is now powered by Google’s Gemini 3.5 Flash model and processes much more than just typed keywords. It can include text, images, files, video and even open browser tabs in a search. Search too hasn’t slowed down. Despite AI answers replacing a significant number of clicks, Google said for the first time that total search volume soared to an all-time high last quarter. So it’s not that people are looking less. It’s more people who receive a portion of their answer before they even go to a website.
AI Overviews Touch Local Searches Less Than People Assume
This is where many business owners fail to get this. Several recent studies estimate that AI Overviews appear in about 7-8% of local-intent searches, such as “plumber near me” or “best dentist in my area”, but this figure is closer to 50% when it comes to local searches as a whole. These summaries are generated much more frequently than those for local, transactional searches, and when they occur, they often include information such as health, home improvement, general advice, and other informational topics. When someone clicks on a summary box they still go on to the map results or website.
The overall AI Overview coverage gap is important to what owners should do about it. The half of all searches that receive an AI answer shouldn’t be the metric to focus on, as the buying intent searches are landing on traditional local results even more frequently than informational ones.
Zero-Click Growth Is Real, But It Hits Unevenly
Zero-click searches, those searches answered without clicking on any site, have risen to about 27 percent of search traffic in the U.S. from about 24 percent only a short while ago. Click-through rates to the ranked links below an AI Overview are reduced by nearly 50 percent, from approximately 15 percent to 8 percent. The drop is substantial for the general information content. For local service searches, which requires only a phone number and not a definition, it’s a lot less steep.
Reviews Have Become a Primary Data Source for AI
One of the most obvious things that has been learned lately, is that reviews are no longer a ranking factor, but a direct input. Researchers analyzing Google’s AI Mode reveal that customer reviews have become one of the primary data sets it uses to compile a local recommendation, alongside other fundamental information such as hours, pricing and star ratings. When a business has a well-answered, up-to-date, and insightful review, it’s handing the AI system content to work with. If a business doesn’t have fresh or good reviews, then it’s practically giving back nothing.
This alters the internal priority with which review generation is to be done. If you have a trickle of ratings of five stars, and no written details, these systems don’t have a lot to talk about. When a review says something about services, results, or experiences, it provides something real for humans and AI to refer to and simulate.
The Map Pack Isn’t Always on Top Anymore
The local map pack has been there for a long time, just under any ads, in the top of the local search results. On some searches, AI Overviews have come to appear above that pack of maps recently. One of the largest structural changes in recent years in the way local results are seen has been heralded by industry analysts. Does not uninstall the map pack. It simply means that it is in front of them more often than it used to be, and the information that now faces it is compiled from the same signals: reviews, profile completeness and consistent business information.
Structured Data and Entity Signals Carry More Weight
New ranking factor studies focus on entity signals and not just link quantity. It means it’s no longer all about the number of links; it’s about having clean, structured data and consistent citations in authoritative “best of” or local “guides” content. These systems have a point of reference when there’s a page that clearly lays out what a company is, where it’s based, and what it charges. Without that structure, it’s easy to overlook a page even if it is pretty good in the normal search results.
Google Business Profiles Are Doing More Work Than Before
Google now has AI-authored sections for Business Profiles, typically called “what to know,” that summarize a company based on their reviews, photos, and posts. They’re also making results more personal and hyperlocal – two people entering the same query on the same search within a few blocks of each other may find different results now. An incomplete, outdated or inactive profile does not have a lot of information for these systems to summarize and provide visibility to in a meaningful way, and that is not a ranking penalty, but it is a result that can be subtle.
What Hasn’t Changed in Local SEO
AI Overviews and AI Mode didn’t change the rules of the internet, they simply interpreted them in a new way. Even if a business has been renamed, the name, address and telephone number is the same everywhere. It still requires actual and fresh reviews and feedback on the reviews. Still requires a functional website with service and location pages. All of this became irrelevant. In fact, it appears that these basics are feeding more surfaces than before in the latest data.
Visibility Now Spans More Than Just Google
Search is no longer a monoplatform play either. Standalone AI chatbots available today feature meaningful usage among ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and Perplexity, with each one drawing its own material from where it’s getting its data when it comes to knowledge about area companies. Any strategies that are tailored to the traditional search results are missing a potential piece of the search pie as users increasingly rely on other platforms to find businesses. Any optimization strategies that don’t take into account how businesses are cited on other platform types are leaving visibility on the table for a considerable portion of how people are searching today.
What Small Business Owners Should Actually Do
In this situation, there are a few more things than others that are important:
- Consistency is key: Business Name, Address and Phone Number must remain the same for all listings and directories.
- Actively collect and respond to reviews, since they’re now a direct input for AI answers
- Include or update structured data that systems can easily understand what the business provides
- Ensure the Google Business Profile is well filled out and up to date, including some recent photos and updates.
- Create service and location pages that clearly communicate facts, rather than implication.
All of these are not new inventions. It’s still the same basics but now more with it. None of this requires formal training either, just consistency and a bit of ongoing attention.
Getting the Technical Side Right
It can be hard enough to keep track of entity signals, structured data, and profile activity across the different platforms without having to actually operate a business. This type of monitoring is generally a part of a team that provides local seo services Fort Lauderdale businesses rely on, as making sure they keep up with these variations is the essence of the occupation.
The Bottom Line
So far, the available information unambiguously indicates that the best thing about AI systems like this is reward, regardless of whether it’s a website, a blog, a video, or an email, is accurate, relevant information, along with good reviews and clear, structured content. The thing that’s changed is that work around this time is now visible in more places, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and chatbots outside of Google itself. Companies that are struggling are not being out-competed by AI. They’re losing because of things that used to be gaps, but with much less opportunity to cover them.
Owners that consider this an opportunity to invest more in the accuracy of their listings, real reviews and clean content will likely discover that AI comes out ahead for them, rather than against them. Those businesses that don’t do that are the ones giving it to those that do.
