Google AI Mode is changing which local businesses appear when customers search. Here's what AI Mode uses to cite local businesses and the exact optimization steps to make sure your business shows up.
Google's AI Mode is changing how local search results appear. When someone searches "best pizza near me" or "HVAC repair Seattle," they're increasingly getting AI-generated summaries before, or instead of, the traditional blue links and Maps Pack they've been trained to expect.
If you've noticed your local search traffic shifting without an obvious explanation, AI Mode may be part of the story. More importantly, if you understand how AI Mode sources and cites local businesses, you can optimize for it directly.
Here's what we know about AI Mode and local search in 2026, and the practical steps to make sure your business appears when AI answers local queries.
Google AI Mode (also called AI Overviews, formerly Search Generative Experience) is Google's AI-powered response layer that generates direct answers to search queries. For local searches, this means Google's AI may summarize business options, provide recommendations, or answer "best [business type] near me" with a curated set of results.
How AI Mode handles local queries:
For transactional local searches ("dentist open now", "pizza delivery 10pm"), AI Mode typically surfaces:
For informational local searches ("what's the best time to visit a dentist", "how to find a good HVAC company"), AI Mode generates an answer that may or may not include specific business citations.
What this means for local businesses: AI Mode pulls its information from the same sources that power traditional local rankings, Google Business Profiles, your website, and review data. Businesses that already rank well in the Maps Pack tend to appear in AI Mode responses for the same queries. But there are nuances.
💡 Pro Tip: AI Mode citations are not guaranteed even if you rank #1 in the Maps Pack. AI-generated summaries appear selectively based on query type, user intent, and how much structured information Google has about your business. Optimization for both traditional local search and AI Mode uses the same signals, the work isn't different, the weighting may be.
Understanding where AI Mode gets its information tells you exactly what to optimize.
Primary sources:
Google Business Profile data: Your GBP is the most direct feed of structured local business information Google has. Business name, address, phone, hours, services, photos, and reviews are all structured signals that AI Mode can reference when composing summaries.
Your website's structured content: AI Mode reads your website. Pages with clear, well-structured information about your services, location, and expertise are more likely to be cited. Thin pages or pages buried in JavaScript that Google can't crawl are invisible to the AI layer.
Review content: Customer reviews, especially detailed, keyword-rich reviews on Google, influence how AI Mode describes your business. A business with dozens of reviews mentioning "fast response," "fair pricing," and specific service types has a detailed data profile to draw from. A business with 5 generic reviews has almost nothing.
Third-party authority signals: Mentions of your business in local news, industry publications, and high-authority directories provide corroborating data that strengthens AI Mode's confidence in citing you accurately.
📊 Flento Data: Local businesses with 30+ detailed Google reviews are 2.8x more likely to appear in AI Mode local citations compared to businesses with fewer than 10 reviews.
The good news: most of what you'd do to rank in the traditional Maps Pack also helps with AI Mode. The nuances below are where AI Mode starts to diverge.
Optimize your GBP with maximum structure: AI Mode favors structured information. The more completely you fill out your GBP, services, attributes, products, Q&A, hours by day, the more structured data Google's AI has to work with. Every empty GBP field is information the AI can't use to describe your business accurately.
Specific fields AI Mode draws from most heavily:
Ensure your website has clear, crawlable service pages: For each service you offer, have a dedicated page with:
These pages feed AI Mode the same way they feed Featured Snippets, as structured, trustworthy answers to user questions.
Add schema markup to your website: Schema markup (specifically LocalBusiness schema and Service schema) provides machine-readable structured data that AI systems can parse reliably. If your website doesn't have schema, it's harder for AI Mode to extract accurate information about your business.
At minimum, implement:
Review content is the richest, most varied source of business description data that AI Mode has access to. Two businesses with the same GBP setup will be described differently based on what their reviews say.
What AI Mode reads in reviews:
How to generate AI Mode-friendly reviews: You can't control what customers write, but you can influence the review prompting process.
After service completion, try this prompting approach: "If you're willing to leave a Google review, it's really helpful if you mention what specific service we provided and what outcome you experienced. That helps other customers find us when they're looking for that exact service."
This produces reviews like: "Kevin replaced our water heater same day after our old one failed. He was at our house within 2 hours and the new unit was installed by 4 PM. Fair price and zero hassle.", which is significantly more useful to AI Mode than "great service, would recommend."
Use Flento's Google Review Management Software to automate review request follow-ups with prompts that encourage specific, detailed review content.
Schema markup is your direct line of communication with AI systems. It tells Google exactly what your business is, what it does, and what information is authoritative.
LocalBusiness schema example (key fields):
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"name": "Sunrise Plumbing",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 Main St",
"addressLocality": "Austin",
"addressRegion": "TX",
"postalCode": "78701",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"telephone": "+15125551234",
"url": "https://www.sunriseplumbing.com",
"openingHours": "Mo-Fr 08:00-18:00",
"priceRange": "$$",
"description": "Licensed plumber serving Austin TX since 2009. Same-day service for emergencies. Water heaters, drain cleaning, fixture installation."
}
For service businesses, add Service schema for each major offering:
{
"@type": "Service",
"name": "Water Heater Replacement",
"serviceType": "Plumbing",
"areaServed": {
"@type": "City",
"name": "Austin"
},
"provider": {"@id": "#business"},
"description": "Same-day water heater replacement and installation. All brands. Licensed and insured. Serving Austin TX and surrounding areas."
}
🔥 Quick Win: Google's Rich Results Test (at search.google.com/test/rich-results) shows you exactly what structured data Google can read from your pages. Run your homepage and service pages through it, any errors in your schema are preventing AI Mode from reading that data accurately.
AI Mode tends to cite businesses that have clearly authoritative content about their service category, not just a GBP listing. Building topical authority through your website content makes your business a more reliable source for AI-generated answers.
The content cluster approach for local businesses:
Core service page (primary target): "[Service] in [City]: [Business Name]"
Supporting content around that service:
Each supporting page links back to the core service page, creating a topical cluster that signals expertise in that service category for your city.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Creating AI Mode-friendly content doesn't mean stuffing your website with keyword-dense pages. AI Mode can detect thin, formulaic content and deprioritizes it as a citation source. The goal is genuinely useful, specific information, not keyword repetition.
| Feature | Traditional Maps Pack | AI Mode Citations |
|---|---|---|
| Appears for | High-intent transactional queries | Variable, informational + transactional |
| Number of results | Usually 3 | Usually 3–5, sometimes narrative |
| Click type | Direct to Maps/GBP | May include direct link or narrative only |
| Primary signal | GBP + proximity + reviews | GBP + website content + reviews + schema |
| Optimization method | GBP + citations + reviews | Same + website structure + schema markup |
| User interaction | Maps navigation typical | AI summary read, then click |
The practical implication: Optimize for both by maintaining a strong GBP AND a well-structured website. The businesses that suffer most from AI Mode are those with strong GBP presence but thin, unoptimized websites, because AI Mode needs website data to generate confident local citations.
Currently, Google Search Console doesn't provide a specific breakdown of AI Mode-driven impressions vs. traditional search. But you can proxy this by:
Monitoring branded search impressions: AI Mode sometimes generates interest in businesses that leads to branded searches (searching "[business name]" directly). If branded search impressions are increasing while your direct traffic holds steady, you may be appearing in AI-generated summaries.
Click-through rate trends by query type: If informational queries (how, what, best) are generating lower CTR than before, AI Mode may be answering those queries directly without driving clicks. Informational content that generates impressions but few clicks is a sign AI Mode is using your content without driving traffic to you.
Flento's Local Keyword Rank Tracker tracks your Google Maps position for target keywords weekly. Monitoring your Maps Pack position alongside overall traffic trends helps isolate whether AI Mode changes are affecting your specific category.
Priority order for the next 90 days:
Month 1, GBP foundation:
Month 2, Website structure:
Month 3, Content and authority:
Does Google AI Mode replace the local Map Pack? No, as of 2026, AI Mode appears alongside or above traditional search results in some queries, but the Maps Pack remains prominent for local transactional searches. The two systems coexist and draw from the same underlying data.
Do I need to do anything special to appear in AI Mode local results? Not specifically, AI Mode uses the same signals as traditional local search (GBP, website, reviews). However, having a well-structured website with schema markup and detailed reviews gives AI Mode richer data to work with when composing local citations.
Will AI Mode hurt my local search traffic? For informational queries, possibly, if AI answers the question directly, fewer users click through. For transactional local queries ("book appointment", "get quote", "call now"), AI Mode typically drives clicks to the cited businesses. The impact depends heavily on your query mix.
How do I check if my business appears in AI Mode responses? Search for your primary local keywords in an incognito browser window from your service area. Note whether an AI-generated summary appears and whether your business is cited. There's no automated tracking tool for this yet.
Is schema markup required for AI Mode? Not strictly required, but it significantly improves the reliability of how AI Mode reads and cites your business data. Without schema, AI has to infer your business information from unstructured text, which introduces error risk.
What's the best content type for AI Mode visibility? Price pages, FAQ pages, and service comparison content (how your service type works, what factors affect cost, how to choose a provider) tend to get cited by AI Mode for informational queries. Complete, specific, and genuinely useful content outperforms thin keyword-optimized pages.
AI Mode isn't a separate optimization track, it's an extension of the same local SEO fundamentals you're already working with. A complete GBP, a well-structured website, strong review content, and schema markup give you the best chance of appearing in AI-generated local summaries, just as they give you the best chance in the traditional Maps Pack.
The businesses that struggle with AI Mode are those with strong GBP presence but websites that give Google nothing to work with. If that's you, the fix is straightforward: build service pages that actually answer questions, add schema markup, and start generating reviews that describe your work specifically.
Your GBP and website working together is the formula for both channels. That hasn't changed, it's just more important now.