AI Search and Local Businesses: What You Need to Know in 2026

Search has changed more in the last two years than in the previous ten. AI-generated summaries now appear at the top of many Google searches. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar tools are answering questions that would previously have sent someone to a website. Customers are interacting with search differently.

For a local business in Birmingham or Coventry, most of this is less alarming than the headlines suggest — but some of it genuinely matters. Here’s what’s actually happening and what to do about it.

What AI search summaries are (and aren’t)

Google’s AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of many search results — are most common for informational searches: “how does conveyancing work,” “what is an EICR certificate,” “how to prepare for a physiotherapy appointment.”

For local service searches — “plumber Birmingham,” “accountant near me,” “electrician Wolverhampton” — the map pack still dominates. AI summaries don’t replace the local pack because the local pack answers a different question: not “what is this service” but “who near me provides this service.”

The conclusion: for local discovery searches, the fundamentals of Google Business Profile and local SEO still apply in the same way they did before AI summaries became prominent.

Where AI search does affect local businesses

Informational content. If you’ve written blog posts or service pages designed to rank for “how to” and “what is” searches, AI summaries may now answer those questions directly without sending the visitor to your website. Traffic to purely informational content has declined for many sites.

The response isn’t to stop writing content — it’s to make sure your content is distinctive enough, specific enough, and local enough to be cited by AI summaries rather than replaced by them. A post titled “What Is an EICR?” competes with every electrical website in the UK. A post titled “What Does an EICR Inspection Involve for Landlords in Birmingham?” serves a much more specific audience and is much more likely to be cited in a local context.

AI assistants recommending businesses. When someone asks ChatGPT or a similar tool “can you recommend a good accountant in Coventry,” these tools currently use a combination of web search results, business directories, and website content to generate a response. Businesses that are well-represented across multiple signals — their own website, Google Business Profile, reviews, mentions on local directories — are more likely to appear in these recommendations.

Structured data matters more. AI systems are better at extracting information from pages that use schema markup — the structured code that tells search engines (and AI tools) exactly what a business does, where it is, what its hours are, and how to contact it. Having schema markup on your website is increasingly important.

What hasn’t changed

For local service businesses in the West Midlands, the following remain the primary drivers of new enquiries:

• Google Business Profile — appearing in the map pack for local searches
• Organic search rankings — your website appearing in results for relevant searches
• Reviews — both as a ranking signal and as a conversion signal when someone finds you
• Website content — helping Google (and AI tools) understand exactly what you do, where you do it, and why you’re trustworthy

These aren’t going away. The businesses that dominate local search in 2026 — and that appear in AI-generated recommendations — are the ones who have done this groundwork consistently.

What to do right now

Keep your Google Business Profile active. Weekly posts, consistent reviews, complete information. This remains the highest-leverage thing a local business can do.

Make sure your website has schema markup. If you don’t know whether your site has it, a free review will tell you.

Write local-specific content. Not generic “what is X” posts that compete globally, but posts that serve your specific local area and your specific customer situations. These are harder to replace with an AI summary and more relevant to the customers you’re trying to reach.

Get listed accurately on major directories. Yelp, Yell, Bing Places, Apple Maps, TrustATrader. Not for the traffic those directories send — but because consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) data across the web is a trust signal for both Google and AI tools.

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At mybitness, every website we build includes schema markup and is structured to perform well in both traditional and AI-influenced search.

Get a free review of your current setup →