If you’re an electrician, plumber or builder who’s spent years getting your Google Business Profile sorted, ranking near the top of the map pack, and keeping your reviews ticking over, you’d be forgiven for thinking your local SEO job is basically done.
It isn’t. Not anymore.
A new study published this year found that nearly 1 in 3 businesses showing up in Google’s Local Pack simply don’t appear when the same person searches using Google’s AI Mode instead. Same search, same searcher, same location, different result. And AI Mode isn’t a niche feature any more. Google confirmed at I/O 2026 that it’s now used by over a billion people every month.
That means a decent chunk of the people looking for a plumber or electrician near them are getting a completely different set of businesses recommended to them than the ones showing up on the map. If you’re not in that list, you’re losing the enquiry and you’ll probably never know it happened.
Why this is happening
Local Pack rankings and AI Mode results aren’t the same system any more, even though they both pull from your Google Business Profile. They’re judging you on different things.
The map pack has always leaned heavily on proximity, category matching, and star rating. AI Mode behaves more like a research assistant than a directory. It’s trying to work out who genuinely deserves the recommendation, and it leans much harder on:
- Review depth and recency — not just your average score, but how many reviews you’ve got and how recently they were left
- How complete your Google Business Profile actually is — services listed properly, categories set correctly, photos, opening hours, the works
- Structured data on your website — the technical markup that tells Google, and AI tools generally, exactly what you do and where you do it
- Consistency of your business name, address and phone number across the web — directories, your website, social profiles, all matching
A business that’s been coasting on a decent star rating and a well-optimised map pin can still fall completely out of view here, because none of that is enough on its own any more.
The five-minute check worth doing this week
Don’t take our word for it. Go and search for your own trade in your own area, but use AI Mode instead of a normal Google search or Google Maps. Look for “electrician [your town]” or “plumber near [your area]” the way an actual customer would type it.
If you don’t show up, or you show up but with thin or outdated information, that’s a sign your local SEO needs a proper look, not just a top-up.
What a fix-up actually looks like
This isn’t about chasing another ranking factor for the sake of it. It’s about making sure the basics AI Mode is actually reading are solid:
- Google Business Profile filled in properly, not just claimed
- A steady, genuine flow of reviews rather than a burst from three years ago
- Structured data on your website so search engines and AI tools can read exactly what you do and where you cover
- Your business details matching everywhere they appear online
None of this guarantees a mention in AI Mode. Nobody can promise that, and anyone who does is overselling it. But it puts you back in the running for enquiries you’re currently losing without knowing it.
Not sure if you’re showing up in Google’s AI results? Get in touch for a free AI and local visibility check.
