TL;DR
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity each pull “best near me” answers from different data sources, so ranking well in one does not guarantee a mention in another.
- ChatGPT runs on Bing’s web index and has no direct access to Google Maps or Google Business Profile data (Rollison, Search Engine Land, May 2025).
- Google AI Overviews pulls from its own Maps and Places data plus scraped third-party content, and only shows a local pack on about 15% of simple “near me” searches (Whitespark, Q2 2025, via Search Engine Land).
- Nearly half of consumers, 45%, now use AI tools for local business recommendations, up from just 6% a year earlier (BrightLocal, 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey).
- The businesses that get recommended are the ones with consistent, verifiable, third-party-visible information across the web, in addition to a well-optimized Google Business Profile.
Want to know exactly where your business currently stands with AI assistants? Get a free AI visibility audit and I’ll show you what ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews already know about you.
What Happens When Someone Asks an AI Assistant for the “Best [Service] Near Me”
An AI assistant answers a “best [service] near me” question by pulling from whatever data source it has access to, and that source is different for every platform. ChatGPT does not have its own search index or map data. It runs a Bing web search behind the scenes, pulls roughly 20 to 30 top results, then filters them down to the 3 to 5 sources it actually cites (Rollison, Search Engine Land, May 2, 2025). Google AI Overviews works differently because Google owns both the search index and the Maps and Places data behind every local listing, so it can pull directly from that infrastructure and layer in scraped content from sites like Yelp and Reddit on top. Perplexity also runs its own web search and citation process, though the specific local-data mechanism it uses is not as well documented publicly as ChatGPT’s or Google’s.
This matters because it means there is no single “AI SEO” fix that works across every platform the way ranking on page one of Google used to. A business that shows up clearly in Google’s local pack can still be invisible to ChatGPT if its web presence outside Google, on directories, review sites, and its own website, is thin.
Does Google AI Overviews Use the Same Local Pack as Regular Search?
Google AI Overviews shows local business results in a format connected to, but not identical to, the local pack you see in standard search. Google reintroduced local business results directly inside AI Overviews in March 2025, after removing that feature in September 2023 (reported by Greg Sterling and confirmed by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable, March 2025). This local-pack-inside-AI-Overviews format does not appear on every local search. A Q2 2025 study by Whitespark found AI Overviews showed up on only about 15% of simple local-intent searches, compared to 92% to 97% of informational or hybrid-intent searches (via Search Engine Land‘s guide to AI’s impact on local search).
That gap matters for how you think about local SEO in 2026. A narrow, high-intent search like “plumber open now near me” is less likely to trigger an AI Overview at all, so traditional local pack rankings and your Google Business Profile still carry most of the weight there. A broader, research-style search like “how to choose a plumber” is far more likely to trigger an AI Overview, and that is where AEO-style content optimization starts to matter as much as your GBP listing. See how this narrow-versus-broad search gap already reshaped one small business’s visibility in why your business isn’t showing in the Google Map Pack.
Does ChatGPT Pull From Google Business Profile or Google Maps?
No. ChatGPT has no direct access to Google Business Profile or Google Maps data. It answers local questions entirely through Bing web search results, then renders its own map interface separately from any geographic database (Rollison, Search Engine Land, May 2025). This is the detail that surprises most business owners I talk to, because they assume that optimizing their Google Business Profile automatically helps them show up in ChatGPT too. It does not, at least not directly. What actually influences whether ChatGPT cites your business is how visible and verifiable your information is across the wider web: third-party directories, review platforms, local news mentions, and your own website content, all indexed by Bing.
If your business only exists cleanly inside Google’s ecosystem, meaning your Google Business Profile is strong but your website and outside citations are thin, you can be well-ranked in Google’s local pack and still never get mentioned by ChatGPT for the same query.
What Makes an AI Assistant Actually Recommend a Business
An AI assistant recommends a business when its information is consistent, specific, and easy to verify across multiple sources rather than optimized for a single platform. Based on the filtering behavior documented for ChatGPT, the sources that make it through tend to share a few traits (Rollison, Search Engine Land, May 2025):
- Source trust. Established directories, review platforms, and local publications get weighted over generic aggregator sites and outdated business listings.
- Content verifiability. Specific, dated, and attributed information, like a review with a real date and a named reviewer, beats vague marketing copy.
- Accessibility. Content that sits behind a paywall or cannot be linked to directly gets filtered out, no matter how accurate it is.
- Structured, hours, and ratings clarity. Listings with clear hours, ratings, and contact details are easier for the model to cite confidently.
One detail worth knowing before you invest heavily in schema markup for this specific purpose: a study run by OtterlyAI across 319 prompts on 7 AI platforms between December 2025 and March 2026 found that only Gemini could reliably read JSON-LD schema directly off a page. The other six platforms, including ChatGPT and Perplexity, largely failed to fetch or parse it, and Google AI Mode sometimes hallucinated schema types that were not actually present (OtterlyAI, “Schema Markup’s Real Impact on AI Search,” 2026). Their conclusion was direct: schema markup is still a solid traditional SEO lever, but it is not the lever that gets you cited by most AI platforms. That role belongs to consistent, verifiable, unpaywalled content across the wider web, the same signals that already matter for local citation building.
How Many People Actually Use AI for Local Business Recommendations
Nearly half of consumers, 45%, now use AI tools to find local business recommendations, a sharp jump from just 6% the year before (BrightLocal, 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, based on 1,002 US adults including 455 active AI users). AI recommendations currently rank third overall behind Google and Facebook, but have already passed Yelp and TripAdvisor. Among AI tools specifically, ChatGPT leads local-recommendation usage at 31%, with Google’s AI Mode close behind at 23%. Trust in these recommendations is real but not blind: 63% of active AI users say they trust what the AI recommends, but 97% still cross-check that recommendation against actual reviews before making a decision.
That last number is the one I point out to every local business owner I work with. AI assistants are becoming a genuine discovery channel, but they are not replacing the review-checking step. A business with an AI mention and thin, old, or inconsistent reviews still loses the customer at the verification step. This is exactly the gap I walk through in my Local SEO checklist for 2026, since reviews and citation consistency show up on that list for a reason.
What This Means for Your Local SEO Strategy in 2026
It means your local visibility strategy now has two separate jobs instead of one: ranking in Google’s own local pack, and being verifiably present across the wider web that platforms like ChatGPT actually read. These overlap, but they are not the same task, and treating them as one thing is why some well-ranked local businesses still get skipped over in AI-generated answers.
Practically, this changes where I tell clients to spend their next few hours of local SEO work:
- Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current. This still matters most for the narrow, high-intent “near me” searches where AI Overviews rarely appears, and where the traditional local pack still decides who gets found.
- Build and maintain consistent citations on the directories and review platforms AI models actually pull from, beyond Google alone, since that is the data ChatGPT and Perplexity are reading.
- Publish specific, dated, verifiable content on your own website, like real case results, named reviews, and clear service details, rather than vague marketing language that filtering algorithms tend to skip over.
- Don’t treat schema markup as your AI-citation strategy. Keep it for traditional SEO, and put your real effort into the verifiable-content and citation work above.
If you want a plain-English read on exactly where your business currently stands with AI platforms, I offer a free AI visibility audit that checks whether ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews already know about your business, and a free local SEO audit that checks the 12 things I look at on every Google Business Profile before quoting a client. Either one is a fast way to see which side of this two-part strategy needs work first.
For businesses ready to build both sides of this out properly, I run ongoing engagements that combine local SEO work with AI SEO and AEO strategy, since the two are increasingly one job rather than two separate specialties. You can see current pricing for either on my AI SEO & AEO pricing page or my local SEO packages and pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ChatGPT use Google Maps data to answer “near me” questions?
No. ChatGPT has no direct access to Google Maps or Google Business Profile data. It answers through Bing web search results and renders its own map interface separately (Rollison, Search Engine Land, May 2025).
Will optimizing my Google Business Profile help me show up in ChatGPT?
Not directly. A strong Google Business Profile helps you rank in Google’s own local pack and, increasingly, in AI Overviews, but ChatGPT reads Bing’s web index instead, so your visibility there depends on citations, reviews, and content across the wider web.
Does adding schema markup get my business cited by AI platforms?
Mostly not, according to a 2025-2026 OtterlyAI study that found only Gemini could reliably read JSON-LD schema directly, while six other platforms largely failed to parse it. Schema is still worth having for traditional SEO, just not as your main AI-citation strategy.
How often does Google AI Overviews show local business results?
Only on about 15% of simple, high-intent local searches, compared to 92% to 97% of broader informational searches, according to a Q2 2025 Whitespark study. This means traditional local pack rankings still matter most for narrow “near me” searches.
How many people use AI tools to find local businesses now?
45% of consumers now use AI tools for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier, according to BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey. ChatGPT leads AI-tool usage for this at 31%, followed by Google’s AI Mode at 23%.
Do people trust AI recommendations for local businesses?
Partially. 63% of active AI users say they trust the recommendations they get, but 97% still check real reviews before deciding, according to the same BrightLocal 2026 survey. AI is becoming a discovery channel, not a replacement for review-checking.
Get a Clear Read on Where You Stand With AI Assistants
Most local businesses have no idea whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI features already know about them, recommend a competitor instead, or never surface them at all. The two-part strategy above, a strong Google Business Profile plus verifiable presence across the wider web, is how I close that gap for my clients.
If you’d rather skip straight to knowing where you stand, request your free AI visibility audit and I’ll check ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI features for your specific business. If you’re ready to talk through a full strategy, book a free consultation and we’ll map out exactly what to fix first.
