The short answer: mostly not on the searches that ring your phone, and increasingly yes on the searches that come before them. When someone types "dentist in Bolton", Google still shows the map with three businesses on it nearly every time. When they type "how much does a dental implant cost in Bolton", Google now answers the question itself, at the top of the page, and far fewer people click through to anyone. That second search is where most local businesses are quietly losing ground. Here is what the research shows, what it does not show, and what is worth paying to fix.
Key takeaways
- Across 146 million searches, Ahrefs found AI Overviews on 7.9% of local searches, against 22.8% of searches that were not local.
- Whitespark's study of plumbers, dentists, lawyers and three other trades found AI Overviews on 15% of plain local searches, 92% of question searches and 97% of cost-and-advice searches. The map pack did the reverse: 93% of local searches, 6% of question searches.
- When an AI Overview appears, people click a normal result less. Pew Research measured 8% of visits against 15% without one, and just 1% clicked a link inside the summary.
- A newer threat is the AI version of the map pack. Sterling Sky reports it often shows one or two businesses instead of three, and many versions drop the call button.
- All of this research is American. UK searchers see AI Overviews too, but nobody has published the same measurements for British towns yet, so treat the numbers as direction rather than gospel.
Two kinds of search, two different answers
Picture how a customer actually finds a plumber. First comes a question: "why is my boiler losing pressure", or "how much does a boiler service cost". Then, when they have decided they need someone, comes the local search: "plumber near me", "boiler engineer Wigan".
Google treats those two moments completely differently. Whitespark ran 540 searches across plumbers, dentists, optometrists, medical clinics, personal injury lawyers and estate agents in three US cities, split by what the searcher wanted.
| Kind of search | Example from the study | AI Overview shown | Map pack shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain local | "primary care clinic Phoenix" | 15% | 93% |
| Question | "how long does an eye exam take in Phoenix" | 92% | 6% |
| Cost or advice, with a town | "average cost of dental implants in Phoenix" | 97% | 17% |
The two features barely overlap. Where the map pack shows, the AI Overview mostly does not, and the other way round.
Ahrefs, looking at a far larger pile of 146 million results pages, found the same pattern from the other direction. AI Overviews appeared on 20.5% of all searches. Split out, that was 7.9% of the searches it classed as local and 22.8% of the rest.
So if your leads come from people who already know they want a business like yours, the map pack is still doing the work, and your Google Business Profile is still the thing that decides whether you are in it.
Where the damage actually happens
The question searches are where the clicks are going. Pew Research tracked the real browsing of 900 American adults through March 2025. On results pages with an AI summary, people clicked a normal link on 8% of visits. On pages without one, 15%. They clicked a link inside the AI summary itself on just 1% of visits. They also ended their browsing session altogether after 26% of pages with a summary, against 16% without.
For a local business that matters in a specific way. The owner who wrote a good page answering "how much does a dental implant cost" used to collect visitors from that question, some of whom then booked. Now Google answers it on the page, and the visitor may never arrive. Your website has not got worse. Fewer people are being sent to it.
The honest part: nobody has measured how many of those lost clicks would have become bookings. Someone asking what a filling costs might have been a patient, or might have been curious. Anyone quoting you a figure for "customers lost to AI" is guessing.
The newer problem: an AI version of the map
The map pack has been the safe ground. That is starting to change. Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky, a local search agency, reported in January 2026 on what she calls the AI Local Pack: an AI-written version of the map results. Citing third-party rank-tracking data, she puts it at roughly 8% of keywords and rising, and describes three problems with it. It often shows one or two businesses instead of three. Many versions remove the click-to-call button. Across the board it surfaces 32% fewer businesses than the normal pack.
Her team also looked at call data from 179 Google Business Profiles and found businesses in top positions getting fewer calls than a year earlier. That is a small sample from one agency, and it is North American, but it is the first sign that the "people who already want you" searches are not immune either.
What is worth doing about it
None of this calls for new tricks. Google's own May 2026 guidance, which we went through in why Google told agencies to stop selling AI-SEO add-ons, says the fundamentals still decide who gets shown. For a local business that comes down to four jobs.
Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current. It decides whether you appear in the map pack, where most "near me" searches still land, and it feeds the AI version too. Right categories, every service listed, real photos, hours that are never wrong. We set one up properly for £179 as a one-off, or it is part of the monthly work below.
Answer the question searches on your own site, with real numbers. If Google is going to write an answer to "how much does a boiler service cost in Wigan", it needs somewhere to take that answer from. A page with your actual price and what it includes gives it something to use and to credit. A page that says "call for a quote" gives it nothing.
Get reviews that say what you did. A review that mentions the job and the town is evidence Google and the AI assistants can read. Five words of "great service" is not.
Keep your name, address and phone number the same everywhere. Google is not the only engine answering questions now. ChatGPT and Perplexity piece together a business from what they find across the web, so the same details on your site, your profile and every directory help all of them.
What it costs to have us do it
The website is built free, and Starter at £39 a month keeps us working on it: pushing it up Google, getting it recommended by ChatGPT and the other AI assistants, turning more visitors into bookings, with hosting, security and small changes included. Under the Busier Guarantee you pay nothing until it is making you busier, measured on your own Google numbers.
When you want the full search engine running, that is our AI search work on the Found plan at £169 a month: two blog posts a month written around what your customers actually ask, structured data kept current, Google Business Profile upkeep, rank tracking across your services and towns, and one plain-English report of what moved. No contract, cancel monthly. Every other figure is on the pricing page.
On timing, the straight answer from our own work: technical fixes can show within weeks, while rankings and AI citations typically take three to six months of steady work. Nobody can promise you a place in an AI Overview, because Google decides that, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Start by seeing where you stand
Before paying anyone, run our free scan on your own site. It runs 48 checks, including whether search engines and AI crawlers can read your pages and whether your business details are marked up properly, and it lists the fixes in priority order. No call, no form. Then search your own trade and town on your phone and look at what comes up: map pack, AI Overview, or both. That tells you more about your own market than any American study can.
Common questions
Do AI Overviews show up for "near me" searches?
Rarely, for now. In Whitespark's study, plain local searches got an AI Overview 15% of the time and the map pack 93% of the time. Ahrefs found AI Overviews on 7.9% of local searches overall. The one to watch is the AI Local Pack, which Sterling Sky puts at roughly 8% of keywords and rising.
Is my website traffic falling because of AI Overviews?
It might be, if much of your traffic came from people asking questions rather than looking for a business. Pew found people clicked normal results on 8% of visits with an AI summary against 15% without. Check your Google Search Console: if clicks are down while impressions hold steady, question pages losing clicks to an AI answer is one likely reason.
Can I pay Google to appear in an AI Overview?
No. You cannot pay to be quoted in the written answer. Ads are bought separately through Google Ads and labelled as ads, and Sterling Sky notes that ads keep the call button the AI Local Pack sometimes removes, which is one reason some businesses lean on Google Ads while the organic side settles.
Do I need to change my website for AI Overviews?
Usually not a rebuild. The pages that help most are plain answers to the questions customers ask, with your real prices, plus accurate structured data. If your current site is slow or has no page per service, that is worth fixing first, and the free scan will tell you whether it is.
What your missed calls cost you.
£780 a month
£180 a week, £9,360 a year, going to whoever answers first.
These are example numbers. Change them to your own. Worked out as 5 missed calls a week, times £120, times the 30% who would have booked, then over a month (52 weeks divided by 12).
A receptionist that answers every call in seconds, day or night, is £149 to £399 a month. It has to pay for itself in the first month, or you get every penny back, setup included.
Hear it answer as your businessWant the version of this with your name on it?
Run the free scan on your current site, 48-plus checks including AI search, no charge, or ask for your free website: we build it first, then the systems that get you booked. £39 a month keeps us working on it to bring you more customers, and you pay nothing until you’re busier. There is no obligation either way.