Short answer: AI Overviews appear on only about 8% of local-intent searches in 2026 — versus more than half of informational searches. The Google Maps Pack still owns local. If you sell to customers in a city, your single biggest SEO investment should still be local SEO fundamentals: a fully optimised Google Business Profile, a steady review velocity, consistent NAP, and locally-relevant on-page content. The AI shift is real, but it is not what is going to decide whether your phone rings.
The Data: AI Overviews Are Mostly Skipping Local
Independent SERP-tracking studies through the first half of 2026 converge on the same number: AI Overviews are triggered on roughly 8% of queries with explicit local intent (a city modifier, a "near me" qualifier, or queries Google classifies as local services). Informational queries — "what is," "how to," "why does" — trigger AI Overviews more than half the time. The gap is not noise; it is a deliberate design choice. Local intent gets the Maps Pack; informational intent gets the AI answer.
Inside the local results that do get an AI Overview, the three-pack usually still appears below the AI summary, and click distribution on the three-pack is barely changed from 2024 measurements. The user reads the AI snippet and then chooses a business from the map.
Why Local Is AI-Resistant (And Will Stay That Way)
1. The AI cannot generate the data the user needs
"Open now," "2.1 km away," "4.7 stars from 312 reviews this year," "currently accepting new patients" — these are real-time, geo-located, verified facts. Even the best LLM cannot synthesise them; it has to surface a structured local result. That structural dependency on the Local Pack is hard-coded into the query type.
2. Users want options, not a single answer
AI Overviews are optimised for "give me the answer." Local queries are optimised for "give me my choices." A user asking for a dentist wants three nearby options to compare on reviews, distance, and availability — not one anointed pick. That UX expectation is hard to override.
3. Google has commercial incentive to keep the Maps Pack
The Maps Pack drives Google Business Profile claims, Local Services Ads, and Google Maps engagement. All three are revenue lines or ad inventory for Google. AI Overviews are a strategic feature; the Maps Pack is a profit centre. Profit centres rarely get demoted.
The Local SEO Stack That Wins in 2026
1. Google Business Profile, fully completed
Every category, every attribute, services and products listed, hours accurate, photos refreshed monthly, posts published weekly. A profile that looks abandoned ranks like an abandoned profile.
2. Review velocity and response rate
Volume matters less than steady recent flow. Five new reviews this month beats fifty reviews from two years ago. Respond to every review (good and bad) within 48 hours — Google's documentation explicitly calls out response rate as a signal, and users notice.
3. NAP consistency across the top 20 directories
Name, Address, Phone exactly identical across Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, BBB, industry-specific directories, and major aggregators. Inconsistent NAP is still the silent killer that drops businesses out of the three-pack.
4. Locally-relevant on-page content
Real local landing pages with real local content — neighbourhoods served, local case studies, local testimonials, embedded map, local schema (LocalBusiness, PostalAddress, GeoCoordinates). Thin city pages that are clones of each other get filtered.
5. Local link signals
Sponsorships, local chamber memberships, local news mentions, local supplier and partner links. Local backlinks correlate with Maps Pack rank as strongly as any other off-page signal.
Where AI Visibility Still Matters for Local
Local intent gets the Maps Pack. But the research queries that precede local intent are increasingly being answered by AI Mode: "best family dentist for kids," "what should I look for in an HVAC installer," "is invisalign or braces better." The user reads the AI answer, forms a shortlist, then does the local search. Showing up in that AI answer feeds the eventual Maps Pack click.
Practical rule for local services businesses: about 70% of the SEO budget on local fundamentals, about 30% on the GEO and AEO work that earns citations on the upstream informational queries. The two work together — they do not replace each other.
The Vancouver Reality Check
We track this stuff in real time on dozens of local accounts across Canada and the U.S. Across our Vancouver SEO clients, AI Overview presence on commercial local queries through Q2 2026 has averaged 6–9% depending on vertical, and Maps Pack click share on the same queries is statistically unchanged from 2024. The businesses gaining ground are not the ones panicking about AI — they are the ones who have used the noise as cover to finally finish the local SEO basics they put off in 2023.
What to Read Next
- Local SEO Services → The full local stack — Google Business Profile, reviews, citations, local landing pages, local link building.
- Google Made AI Mode the Default → The bigger context on where AI is and is not changing search.
- GEO Services → The upstream informational visibility work that feeds local intent.
- Free SEO Audit Tool → Scan your site against the local and AI signals discussed in this post.
The Maps Pack still rings the phone.
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