The future of local search in 2027: will AI assistants replace Google Maps?

BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey asks US consumers the same questions every year, so it is a good way to see how habits shift. Between the 2025 and 2026 surveys, the change in where people look for local businesses was striking.

Google fell twelve points, AI tools rose by thirty-nine, and Apple Maps nearly doubled. On a chart like that, it is tempting to declare a winner. The full picture is more interesting.

Look at what the big AI products actually do when someone asks for a local business.

• Google's own AI is woven into Maps. Ask Maps, launched in India and the US in March 2026, uses Gemini to answer questions about places, drawing on information about more than 300 million places and reviews from over 500 million contributors.
• AI Mode in Search passed one billion monthly users within a year, according to Google at I/O 2026. Its local answers come from Google's place data, Knowledge Graph and Maps.
• Gemini now connects to Google Business Profiles, so owners can review performance, draft review replies and update their hours through the Gemini app.
• ChatGPT relies on web search, where business websites, directories and mentions make up the sources.

So Maps isn't disappearing. It is becoming the database that AI reads from, while the screen people look at changes. Fewer people may scroll a map of pins, but the AI answering them is still reading the same profiles, reviews and listings underneath.

That is our view, and it's an opinion rather than a forecast anyone can prove. But it fits the product announcements of the last eighteen months.

1. From browsing to asking

Customers describe what they need ("a quiet cafe where I can work for two hours, with good wifi") instead of scanning a list. Businesses whose profiles and reviews contain those details get matched.

2. From one result page to a shortlist of two or three

AI answers name fewer businesses. The gap between being third and being tenth used to be small. In an AI answer, it's the difference between being considered and being invisible.

3. From "find" to "do"

Google's agents already call US businesses for prices and stock, find restaurant tables and, from summer 2026, book more local services. Expect the line between searching and booking to keep blurring. Our guide on Google's AI calling and booking covers this in detail.

4. From stars to substance

People read AI summaries of reviews rather than scrolling through them. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 82% of consumers said they read AI-generated review summaries. What customers write, not just how many stars they give, starts to matter more.

5. From one platform to several

Customers spread across Google, Apple Maps, AI assistants and social platforms. The businesses that keep the same accurate details everywhere will be recognised and trusted by all of them. Our entity SEO guide explains how.

For all the change, a few things haven't moved at all, and they're the ones you control most:

• Being close to the customer still matters. Proximity ranks among the strongest local ranking factors in expert surveys.
• Being open when they search still matters. An AI is unlikely to send someone to a shop it believes is closed.
• Reviews still decide a lot. Recent, genuine reviews remain one of the main reasons people pick one business over another.
• Fake signals still get caught. Google blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews in 2024 alone, with AI-based systems doing much of the work.

The fundamentals of local search are surviving the AI shift. What is changing is how much a sloppy profile costs you.

1. 1Complete your Google Business Profile, including services with prices, attributes, special hours and booking link. Use our field-by-field checklist.
2. 2Claim Apple Business Connect and Bing Places, and copy the exact same details.
3. 3Ask every customer for a review, in their language, and reply to every one.
4. 4Publish your prices and policies on your website, so AI answers can quote them correctly.
5. 5Make sure your phone gets answered, because AI agents are starting to call.
6. 6Check what AI says about you every month in Google AI Mode, Ask Maps, ChatGPT and Gemini.
7. 7Get a baseline today with a free GMB ONE audit, which scores your profile and compares it with three nearby businesses.