Google AI Overviews Are Replacing the Local Pack — Here's What to Do

Google's AI Overviews — previously called Search Generative Experience or SGE — use Gemini to generate a summarized answer at the top of the search results page. For informational queries, they pull from web content. But for local queries like 'best plumber near me' or 'top-rated Italian restaurant in Decatur,' they pull from Google Business Profiles, reviews, and local citations.

The shift that matters: in 2024 and early 2025, AI Overviews appeared sporadically and often below or alongside local results. By mid-2026, they appear above the local pack on roughly two-thirds of all local searches. The AI answer is now the first impression — and for many searchers, the only impression they need.

Google confirmed in May 2026 that Google Business Profile is now an 'AI data feed' powering Gemini, Search, and Maps simultaneously. Your GBP isn't just your business listing anymore. It's the primary data source Google's AI uses to decide whether to mention you.

This shift changes the visibility math for local businesses. Previously, ranking in the top 3 of the local pack meant you'd be seen by most searchers. Now, you could rank #1 in the local pack and still lose visibility if the AI Overview above it recommends your competitor.

The AI Overview acts as a filter. Searchers read the AI's summary, get the answer they need, and often never scroll down to the map pack at all. Google hasn't published click-through data for this, but early studies suggest AI Overviews capture 30-40% of clicks that used to go to the first organic or local result.

For businesses in competitive markets — like restaurants in Buckhead or HVAC companies in Alpharetta — the impact is immediate. If the AI Overview cites two competitors and not you, you're effectively invisible to a large portion of local searchers, regardless of your local pack ranking.

Google's AI doesn't rank businesses the same way the local pack algorithm does. The local pack weighs proximity, relevance, and prominence. AI Overviews add another layer: they synthesize information from multiple sources and form a judgment about which businesses are most authoritative and best-documented.

The AI is looking for businesses it can be confident about. Confidence comes from consistency. If your business name is slightly different on Yelp than it is on your GBP, the AI registers that as uncertainty. If you have three recent reviews and your competitor has fifty, the AI has more data to work with for your competitor — so it's more likely to cite them.

The key insight: AI Overviews reward businesses that treat their online presence as a connected system, not a collection of independent profiles. Every listing, every review, every website page is a data point the AI uses to build its understanding of your business.

The good news: most of what makes you visible to AI Overviews also improves your local pack ranking. These aren't competing strategies — they're overlapping ones. Here's the specific checklist to get cited in AI Overviews.

Some old SEO tactics are losing effectiveness in the AI Overview era. Keyword-stuffing your GBP description won't move the needle — the AI is looking for structured, factual information, not keyword density. Buying fake reviews is worse than useless; the AI cross-references review patterns across platforms and inconsistency is a red flag.

Set-it-and-forget-it GBP management is effectively dead. If you claimed your profile in 2023 and haven't touched it since, the AI sees your business as less active and less relevant than a competitor who posts weekly. The businesses winning in AI Overviews are the ones treating their online presence as a living, breathing asset — not a one-time setup.

AI Overviews are one piece of a larger shift in how customers find local businesses. Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are all pulling from the same underlying data sources — your GBP, reviews, citations, and website. Optimizing for one means you're partially optimizing for all of them.

We call this the full search stack: SEO for traditional search rankings, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) for AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) for voice assistants and featured snippets, and VEO (Video Engine Optimization) for YouTube and video search. AI Overviews sit at the intersection of SEO and GEO — they're Google's version of the same AI-driven discovery happening across every platform.

The businesses that thrive over the next few years won't be the ones chasing each new algorithm update. They'll be the ones who build a consistent, complete, and active online presence that every platform — traditional or AI — can trust.