Your Business Profile Drives AI Mode Local Citations. How to Show Up

When someone asks Google’s AI Mode for a plumber, roofer or cleaner nearby, the answer often leans on Google Business Profile cards. That makes your profile one of the biggest drivers of AI Mode local citations, and it is the part of AI search a local business can control most directly.

What drives AI Mode local citations?

Data from Profound, a company that sells AI visibility tracking, points squarely at Google itself. As Search Engine Journal reported, google.com became the second most cited domain in AI Mode, and its share of AI Mode citations rose 8.4x between April 15 and June 30, 2026.

The growth did not come from blog posts or news. According to Search Engine Land’s write-up of the same Profound report, it came from Business Profile cards on local queries and from Product Knowledge Panels. Home services was one of the five sectors with the most change.

In plain terms: when AI Mode answers a local question, it often cites a Google Business Profile card. If your profile is thin, out of date or missing services, that is what the AI has to work with.

Are local customers really using AI to find businesses?

Some are, but most still start on Google. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,227 US consumers, 52% started their last local search on Google Search and 9% on Google Maps. 71% used Google at some point, and 73% started on a phone.

AI is a real but smaller slice. 23% used AI tools during their last local search, 8% started with AI, and 31% use AI monthly for local recommendations. Of the people who started with AI, 43% checked Google as well, and only 2% relied on AI alone.

That is why the Business Profile matters twice. It shows up when people search Google the traditional way, and it is what AI Mode cites when people ask the AI instead. One well-kept profile covers both paths. We covered the click side of this shift in our post on AI Overviews and your service pages.

What else does AI Mode pull from?

Your profile is not the only input. Semrush’s AI Visibility Index, which analyzed 126 million US prompts from January to April 2026, found that each AI platform leans on a different mix of sources. PPC Land summarized the findings:

For a local service business, the AI Mode row is the one to read closely. Facebook, Instagram and Yelp are places most contractors already have a presence, even if nobody has touched them in a year. If those pages list old hours, a former phone number or services you no longer offer, that information can travel into an AI answer.

Semrush sells SEO and AI visibility tools, so treat this as one vendor’s large dataset rather than a rule. The direction is still useful: AI Mode reads more than your website.

How to show up in Google AI Mode for local searches

None of these steps are tricks. They make the information AI Mode already cites more complete and more consistent.

1. Complete every Business Profile field. Primary and secondary categories, every service you offer, service areas, hours, holiday hours and a plain description of what you do and where.
2. Add real photos regularly. Trucks, crews, finished jobs and your storefront if you have one. A profile that looks active gives people a reason to trust it.
3. Earn reviews the honest way. Ask every happy customer, make it easy with a direct link, and reply to reviews, good and bad. More on the rules below.
4. Clean up Facebook, Instagram and Yelp. Match your name, phone, hours and services to the Business Profile exactly. These are the sources Semrush found AI Mode leaning on.
5. Make your website agree with your profile. Each core service should have its own page that uses the same service names, service areas and contact details as the profile.
6. Consider short videos. Semrush found AI Overviews dominated by YouTube. A few how-it-works or job walkthrough videos give Google another source to cite.

This is the core of our local SEO and Google Business Profile service, and the broader work of earning citations across AI platforms is what our answer engine optimization service covers.

Will Google’s AI start calling your business?

It might. Google already has an “Ask for Me” style feature that phones local businesses that appear in local results to ask about pricing and availability, then sends the customer a summary, usually within about 30 minutes. It first covered auto shops and nail salons.

According to JobNimbus’s summary of the announcement, Google said at its I/O conference in May 2026 that the feature is expanding to home repair, with a roofer as the example, and that the US rollout would come in summer 2026. We have not been able to confirm that the home-services rollout is complete, so treat it as coming rather than here.

Businesses can opt out through their Business Profile settings. Before you do, think about what the call actually is: a potential customer asking what you charge and when you can come out. If your team can answer those two questions clearly on the phone, the call works in your favor.

• Make sure the phone number on your profile rings somewhere that gets answered during business hours.
• Give whoever answers a simple script for pricing ranges and next available appointments.
• Check your Business Profile settings so the opt-out is a decision you made, not a default you never saw.

Does it matter which AI model Google uses?

Less than you might think. Google is upgrading the models behind AI Mode quickly. Search Engine Journal reported that Gemini 3.7 Flash was added to AI Mode on August 14, one day after the model launched, for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers globally in English. The reports do not say which model powers free AI Mode or AI Overviews.

Models will keep changing. The sources they draw on, especially your Business Profile and the big local platforms, change much more slowly. That is where your effort pays off over time, whichever model is answering.

If you already run Local Services Ads, your profile work supports that channel too. See our Local Services Ads migration checklist for what is changing there.

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