Do Google AI Overviews Replace Local Packs and Send Users to Google Business Profiles Instead of Websites?

What does Google show for different local searches?

Do AI Overviews replace local packs?

For most clearly local searches, not yet. Whitespark's 2025 study of 540 queries across Houston, Phoenix and Denver found AI Overviews on 68% of queries overall and local packs on 39%, with a clear split. Local packs appeared on 93% of local-intent queries and AI Overviews on only 15% of them. For informational and hybrid queries, it was the reverse: AI Overviews appeared on 92% and 97%.

The change that worried local marketers is narrower. From late 2025, Google began showing an AI-generated version of the local pack in some accounts, naming one or two businesses instead of three. Local search specialist Joy Hawkins reported that, according to Places Scout data, these AI local packs appeared on roughly 8% of keywords and were rising. Some businesses saw declines of 50% or more in profile visibility. The details are covered in whether AI results are replacing map packs.

Where do the links in local AI Overviews go?

To a mix of sources, not mainly to profiles:

• Business Profiles are the single biggest source. BrightLocal's 2026 analysis of 1.9 million local AI citations across AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT found profiles made up 28.5% of citations.
• Business websites make up most of the individual domains. In the same study, about 93% of the unique cited domains were business websites.
• Directories and review sites, such as Yelp, BBB, Angi and MapQuest, appear regularly.
• Third-party content often dominates mixed queries. In one of Whitespark's Houston plumbing searches, 60% of the 23 citations were third-party pages and 40% were local businesses.

A local business can therefore appear in an AI Overview through its profile, its own service page, or a directory listing, and the click can go to any of them.

Are AI Overviews sending people to profiles instead of websites?

The evidence points to something different: fewer clicks spread across fewer businesses, with more going to ads. Hawkins wrote that AI local packs were lowering traffic to Google Business Profiles while increasing clicks to ads. For businesses dropped from a three-business pack to a one- or two-business AI pack, calls from the profile could fall sharply. Google's ads can appear above, below and, in some markets, within AI Overviews, including local ads.

For informational searches, the pattern is the familiar AI Overview one. People get an answer on the page, and fewer click through to any site. When they do, it is often to the page cited for the specific detail they wanted, such as a price range or a warranty rule. That can be your website, if it states those details clearly.

What about branded searches?

In September 2026, Google was seen testing Business Profile panels that open with an "AI Overview" label and an AI-written description, with a "Show more" button leading into an AI Mode chat. For branded searches, that means the profile panel itself is becoming an AI answer. The description can draw on your website and reviews, as covered in why a Google AI Overview can replace your Business Profile description.

How do you measure where your local clicks go?

• Business Profile Performance: calls, direction requests and website clicks by month. A fall in calls with stable impressions suggests you are being dropped from packs.
• Search Console: the Generative AI performance report shows impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode by page. It does not show queries.
• Search Console Performance report: clicks and impressions for your service pages, compared before and after AI Overviews appeared for their topics.
• Call tracking: separate numbers on the profile and website, so you can see which channel drives calls.
• Grid-based rank tracking: check whether you appear in the pack or AI pack across your service area.

We have not measured click shifts across client accounts ourselves. The figures above come from Whitespark, BrightLocal, Places Scout via Joy Hawkins, and Google's own documentation.

What should a local business do?

• Keep the Business Profile complete and active: categories, services, hours, photos, attributes and a steady flow of honest reviews. It remains the core of local packs and AI local packs. See how to optimise a Google Business Profile for local AI search.
• Build website pages that answer local questions: prices, timescales, what is included, and the areas you serve. These are what AI Overviews cite for mixed and informational searches. Cost pages are covered in how local businesses can create cost guides for AI Overviews.
• Fix directory listings that AI Overviews cite, such as Yelp, BBB and sector sites.
• Consider ads honestly. If AI packs show fewer businesses, local ads may be the only way to appear for some searches. Test them against your cost per lead.
• Track both channels, since a drop in one may be offset by the other.

How other assistants differ is covered in why AI local recommendations differ from map rankings.

What might this look like in practice?

Consider an illustrative roofing company, Zellisk Roofing, that saw profile calls fall by a third over two months while its profile impressions held steady. A search from several points in its city showed an AI local pack naming two competitors instead of the usual three businesses. At the same time, Search Console's Generative AI performance report showed rising impressions in Google's AI features (AI Overviews and AI Mode combined) for its "roof replacement cost" page. The company completed missing services on its profile and kept asking every customer for an honest review. It added a cost guide for its three most common jobs and ran a small local ads test. Calls recovered to near their earlier level, now split between the profile, the website and ads.

What do people ask about AI Overviews and local packs?

Is the local pack disappearing?

No. It still appears on most clearly local searches, though an AI version with fewer businesses is spreading.

Do AI Overviews link to my Business Profile or my website?

Both. Profiles are the largest single source of local AI citations, but most cited domains are business websites.

Why did my Business Profile calls drop?

A common cause is being left out of an AI local pack that shows only one or two businesses.

Can I see AI Overview traffic in Search Console?

You can see combined AI Overview and AI Mode impressions by page in the Generative AI performance report, but not the two separately, and not the queries.