Ask a phone a question like “where can I get my boiler fixed near me?” and you increasingly get an AI-written answer instead of a simple list of links. That shift raises a fair question for every local business: with AI search, Google Business Profile work — is it still worth doing? The honest answer is yes, and the reason is simple: the AI’s answers about local businesses are built from the same information your profile contains.
The short answer
Yes — your Google Business Profile still matters in the AI search era, because AI answers about local businesses are built from profiles, reviews, websites and listings. A complete, accurate, well-reviewed profile gives the AI clean material to describe you; a half-empty one gets you left out. Consistency everywhere is the preparation that works.
Where AI answers about local businesses come from
AI search features do not invent their local knowledge. When an AI answer recommends or describes a local business, it draws on sources Google already trusts: business profiles, reviews, websites, and directory listings. The business with a complete, accurate, well-reviewed profile gives the AI clean material to work with. The business with a half-empty profile, old hours, and three reviews gives it almost nothing — and is quietly left out.
What is genuinely changing
Two things are changing. First, customers may see an AI summary before they ever reach the map or your website, so being described correctly matters as much as being listed. Wrong hours or an outdated service list can now be repeated back to a customer by an AI, confidently and wrongly. Second, detailed reviews carry more weight, because AI summaries often reflect what reviewers actually say — “great with nervous patients” or “always late” — rather than just the star rating.
Neither change kills the profile. Both of them raise the value of keeping it accurate, current, and rich in real customer detail.
AI search and Google Business Profile: what to do now
The practical response is not panic, and it is not a new trick. It is the same routine, done with a little more care:
Keep every fact on your profile correct — hours, services, phone, address — because an error now gets quoted, not just displayed. Encourage reviews that mention specifics, by doing work worth describing in detail; never script or buy reviews, which risks the whole listing. Keep your website’s basic pages clear and current, since AI answers draw on websites too. And check how your business appears in AI answers from time to time, the same way you would check your map ranking.
What not to believe
Be sceptical of anyone selling panic. Claims that local SEO is dead, or that a special new optimisation guarantees you a place in AI answers, are marketing, not evidence. Some agencies will happily sell you a renamed version of the same fundamentals at twice the price. The businesses feeding AI answers well are simply the ones whose information is consistent everywhere the AI looks.
Also be honest about tools: software can help you keep profiles, reviews, and posts organised, but AI-generated content still needs a human check before it represents your business in public. Nothing about your listing should be fully automatic and unreviewed — accuracy is the entire point.
Consistency is the unglamorous answer
Strip away the novelty and the AI era rewards something boring: consistency. The AI systems answering local questions are, in effect, cross-examining your business across every source they can reach. When your profile, your website, and your listings all tell the same story — same name, same number, same hours, same services — the answer comes back confident and correct. When the sources disagree, the AI hedges, picks one at random, or leaves you out in favour of a competitor whose facts line up. That is why the businesses least worried about AI search are not the ones chasing new tricks; they are the ones whose basic information has been tidy for years. If your details are currently scattered, fixing them is not old-fashioned housekeeping — it is the most direct preparation for AI search that exists, and it improves your ordinary map and search results at the same time.
Check how AI describes your business today
You can test this yourself in a few minutes. Ask a search engine’s AI feature the questions your customers would ask — “best-rated dog groomer in [your town]”, “who can fix a boiler quickly near [your area]” — and see whether your business appears, and whether what is said about it is accurate. If the hours quoted are wrong or a service you no longer offer is mentioned, the fix is almost always the source data: your profile, your website, or an old directory listing that still carries the error. Correct it at the source rather than complaining about the answer. Repeat the check every few months, the way you would glance at your map position, and treat anything inaccurate as a small to-do list.
The balanced verdict
AI search is a new front window, not a replacement shop. Customers will still call, still ask for directions, and still read reviews — and the profile is still where most of that happens. Businesses that keep their information complete and current will be the ones the AI describes well. That is a reason to maintain your profile properly, not to abandon it.
Questions owners ask next
Can I pay for special “AI optimisation” to guarantee my business gets mentioned?
Be sceptical. Claims that local SEO is dead, or that a special new optimisation guarantees a place in AI answers, are marketing, not evidence — some agencies will happily sell you a renamed version of the same fundamentals at twice the price. There is no separate trick to buy. The businesses feeding AI answers well are simply the ones whose information is consistent everywhere the AI looks.
How do I check what AI answers say about my business?
Ask a search engine’s AI feature the questions your customers would ask — “best-rated dog groomer in [your town]”, “who can fix a boiler quickly near [your area]” — and see whether your business appears and whether what is said is accurate. If the hours quoted are wrong or a service you no longer offer is mentioned, fix it at the source: your profile, your website, or the old directory listing still carrying the error. Repeat the check every few months.
Do reviews matter more in AI search than they did before?
In one specific way, yes: detailed reviews carry more weight, because AI summaries often reflect what reviewers actually say — “great with nervous patients” or “always late” — rather than just the star rating. So encourage reviews that mention specifics, by doing work worth describing in detail. Never script or buy them: that risks the whole listing, which is now the very material the AI reads.
Does my website still matter, or is the profile enough?
The website still matters, because AI answers draw on websites as well as profiles and listings. Keep your basic pages clear and current, and keep the facts — name, phone, hours, services — telling the same story everywhere. One caution on tools: software can help keep profiles, reviews and posts organised, but AI-generated content still needs a human check before it represents your business in public. Accuracy is the entire point.
What to do next
Treat your profile as the source document both Google and its AI read about you: fix it, keep it current, and keep the reviews honest and flowing. If you want the routine — checks, review replies, posts, and a monthly report — organised in one system, you can see what I use on my Local Alchemist AI page.
Disclosure: the page linked above contains an affiliate link. If you buy through it, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.