What do the studies say about AI Overviews on local searches?
Two 2025 datasets measured it directly. Whitespark ran 540 queries by hand across Houston, Phoenix and Denver for plumbers, personal injury lawyers, dentists, optometrists, medical clinics and real estate agents, 30 queries per city and trade, split into local, informational and hybrid intent.[1] The headline: “on average, AI Overviews are currently appearing in 68% of local business-type queries,” with a range of 57% to 80% by city and trade.[1] By intent the picture splits: “AI Overviews appear for 15% of local-intent queries,” “92% of informational-intent queries,” and “97% of hybrid-intent queries.”[1] Real estate was the outlier, with overviews on as much as 50% of local-intent queries.[1]
Local Falcon took a wider but shallower cut: 60,000 queries (30,000 desktop, 30,000 mobile) across 4,423 businesses in 20 countries, and “observed Google AI Overviews appearing in 40.2% of queries, as of April 7, 2025.”[2] The lower figure is partly a different mix of queries: the same report found that “Queries that do not include a specific location name in the text are 11.1 percentage points more likely to trigger Google AI Overviews than queries that do include location names,” 46.1% against 35.0%.[2] Both are 2025 snapshots; they agree on the shape, not on one number.
| Query type | Example | AI Overview shown | Local pack shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local intent | “personal injury lawyers in Phoenix” | 15% | 93% |
| Informational intent | “how much do personal injury lawyers charge in Phoenix?” | 92% | 6% |
| Hybrid intent | “should I get a lawyer after a car accident in Phoenix?” | 97% | 17% |
| All 540 queries | 68% | 39% |
What do the local pack and the AI Overview do to each other?
They trade places. Whitespark found no reliable correlation between the two at the overall level, but once the queries were split by intent the pattern was clear: “AI Overviews and local packs have an inverse relationship, based on query intent.”[1] The pack appeared on 93% of local-intent queries and the overview on 15%; on informational queries the pack fell to 6% and the overview rose to 92%.[1] Across all 540 queries the overview showed 68% of the time and the pack 39%.[1]
Local Falcon adds two details about the overview itself. Proximity still matters a little for whether a business is named: appearance was 72.0% at grid points within a mile of the business and 68.5% at one to two miles, but once a business appeared its average rank barely moved, 3.39 against 3.49.[2] And putting a place name in the query makes an overview less likely, not more, which is why “plumber Denver” tends to get a map and “how much does a plumber charge” tends to get a paragraph.[2]
For an owner: your Business Profile, reviews and category still decide the map result for “trade plus city.” The overview is a second front, opened on the questions a customer asks a step earlier.
Which questions about a trade do trigger an AI answer?
Questions with a question word, a price, or a decision in them. Whitespark’s 92% and 97% rates came from queries built that way: “how much do personal injury lawyers charge in Phoenix?” and “should I get a lawyer after a car accident in Phoenix?”[1] Pew Research, measuring 68,879 real Google searches by 900 US adults in March 2025, found that 18% of all searches produced an AI summary, but “60% of search queries that began with question words such as ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘when’ or ‘why’ resulted in an AI summary.”[3]
The trend since then has run toward commercial questions. Semrush tracked more than 600,000 US keywords across 10 industries from November 2025 to April 2026 and reported that “AI Overviews grew an average of 71% across search engine results pages (SERPs) with commercial intent,” while “The appearance of AI Overviews for transactional-intent queries decreased by 5%.”[4] Its example of a transactional query is “sandwich places near me that deliver,” a map job; a commercial query is the comparison and cost research before it.[4]
For a plumber: “how much does a plumber cost,” “is it worth repiping an old house” and “how do I choose a plumber” get an answer that names sources. “Plumber near me” gets the map.
What about AI Mode and ChatGPT for local searches?
Both answer local questions, and both draw on business data you control. Google’s May 1, 2025 AI Mode announcement said users would “begin to see visual place and product cards in AI Mode,” and that for local spots they can “quickly see info like ratings, reviews, and opening hours,” with live busyness and the option to call or get directions.[6] Google’s documentation for site owners says “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary,” and asks businesses to keep Merchant Center and Business Profile information current and to make structured data match the visible text.[5]
ChatGPT handles “near me” by location. OpenAI’s help page says that if you ask “What are some good restaurants near me?” and ChatGPT places you in San Francisco from your IP address, it “may rewrite your prompt into the search query ‘top restaurants San Francisco’” before sending it to a search partner, and that it can show availability from OpenTable, Resy or Yelp for restaurants.[9] So the business that ranks for “top [trade] [city]” on the open web is the one that gets named. How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business walks through running those questions yourself.
Does it matter if nobody clicks the AI answer?
It matters because the answer is read even when nothing is clicked. Pew found that people who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits, against 15% when there was no summary, and clicked a link inside the summary on about 1% of visits.[3] On an informational local query the overview answers the cost question, names a few sources, and most people move on with that answer in their head.
Trust is catching up with use. BrightLocal’s February 2026 survey of 1,002 US consumers found that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local business recommendations rose “from 6% last year to 45%,” making AI the third most popular source of recommendations behind Facebook and Google.[7] In the same survey 40% said they trust AI platforms to recommend a business (32% did not), 42% trust an AI recommendation as much as a traditional review, and 97% still read reviews.[7]
What can a local business do about it?
- 1
Answer the cost question with your real numbers
Write one page per service that says what it costs, in ranges, and what moves the price. Search Engine Journal’s July 2026 advice for local businesses is to “Publish cost and pricing guides” with realistic ranges rather than avoiding the question.[8] A plumber’s page for “how much does a plumber cost in [city]” with the call-out fee, the hourly range and three worked examples is the page an overview can quote. Our plumber page shows the ad side of the same question. - 2
Put the answer first, then the detail
Open each service page with two or three sentences that answer the question, then the ranges, then the FAQ. Google asks for nothing special beyond an indexed page that is eligible for a snippet.[5] - 3
Keep the business data identical everywhere
- 4
Keep earning reviews
97% of consumers still read them, and the AI answers summarize them: 82% of BrightLocal’s respondents read AI-generated review summaries.[7] A steady flow of specific, recent reviews is what both the pack and the overview draw on. - 5
Ask the assistants your buyers’ questions, every week
Type the cost, worth-it and how-to-choose questions for your trade and city into Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and note who is named. Showfolk’s AI search tracker does this weekly, reports who the assistants recommend instead and why, and drafts the ad that answers it. How the AI search tracker works.
Questions people ask
- Do AI Overviews show up for “near me” searches?
- Not often. Whitespark found AI Overviews on 15% of plain local-intent queries, and Local Falcon found that adding a location name to a query cut the trigger rate from 46.1% to 35.0%. Those searches mostly get the local pack; questions about cost or choice get the overview.
- What percentage of local searches trigger an AI Overview?
- It depends on the mix of questions. Whitespark measured 68% across 540 local business queries in May 2025, with 15% for local intent and 92 to 97% for informational and hybrid intent. Local Falcon measured 40.2% across 60,000 queries in April 2025. Both are 2025 snapshots.
- Does an AI Overview replace the local pack?
- No. In Whitespark’s study the two have an inverse relationship by intent: the local pack appeared on 93% of local-intent queries and the AI Overview on 15%, while on informational queries the pack fell to 6% and the overview rose to 92%.
- Does Google AI Mode show local businesses?
- Yes. Google’s May 2025 announcement said AI Mode shows visual place cards with ratings, reviews and opening hours, live busyness, and buttons to call or get directions, drawn from business data such as Google Business Profile.
- How do I get my business mentioned in an AI Overview?
- Publish pages that answer the questions the overview answers, with real cost ranges and clear first sentences, keep your business data consistent across Google, Apple, Bing and Yelp, and keep earning reviews. Google says no special markup or AI files are needed beyond an indexed, snippet-eligible page.
Sources
Every figure above points at one of these. Facts were last checked on .
- [1]Whitespark, May 12, 2025: New research: the prevalence of AI Overviews in local search. 540 queries across Houston, Phoenix and Denver in six trades; 15% local, 92% informational, 97% hybrid; 68% overall; local pack 39% overall and 93 / 6 / 17 by intent; the inverse relationship; the real estate outlier; the example queries
- [2]Local Falcon, May 21, 2025: Whitepaper on the impact of Google AI Overviews on local business search visibility. 40.2% of queries as of April 7, 2025; 60,000 queries across 4,423 businesses in 20 countries; 46.1% without a location name vs 35.0% with one; 72.0% vs 68.5% by proximity; average rank 3.39 vs 3.49
- [3]Pew Research Center, July 22, 2025: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results. 900 US adults, 68,879 searches in March 2025; 18% of searches with an AI summary; 60% of question-word searches; 8% vs 15% click rates; about 1% clicking inside the summary
- [4]Semrush, July 2, 2026: AI Overviews are expanding across commercial intent search (study). 600,000+ US keywords in 10 industries, November 2025 to April 2026; +71% on commercial-intent SERPs; -5% on transactional queries; the “sandwich places near me that deliver” example
- [5]Google Search Central: AI features and your website. “There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary”; keep Business Profile and Merchant Center current; structured data must match visible text
- [6]Google, May 1, 2025: New ways to interact with information in AI Mode. Visual place cards in AI Mode with “ratings, reviews, and opening hours,” live busyness, call and directions
- [7]BrightLocal, February 11, 2026: Local Consumer Review Survey 2026. 1,002 US consumers; generative AI for local recommendations from 6% to 45%; 40% trust AI recommendations and 32% do not; 42% trust them as much as reviews; 97% read reviews; 82% read AI review summaries
- [8]Search Engine Journal, July 22, 2026: AI Overviews now answer most local searches, how to get your business cited. A practitioner’s reading of the Whitespark figures (68% vs 39%) and the advice to publish cost and pricing guides and keep entity data consistent
- [9]OpenAI Help Center: Searching the web with ChatGPT. Location from the IP address; “What are some good restaurants near me?” rewritten to “top restaurants San Francisco”; restaurant availability from OpenTable, Resy or Yelp
