For years, Google Business Profiles (GBPs) have been a cornerstone of local SEO strategy, driving calls, bookings, direction requests, and website visits directly from the search results page. However, since early 2025, interactions have been in decline.
This downward trajectory isn’t necessarily because performance is down - but because Google’s AI is intercepting engagement by serving information usually reserved for Business Profiles.
So, the question is… if AI is answering more business questions directly in search, is it still worth investing time and budget into GBP optimisation? Ultimately, yes, but the situation is becoming more nuanced.
How is Google’s AI affecting GBP interactions?
A growing trend across local search is the reduction in direct engagement with business profiles. Where users once explored your Google Business Profile, they’re now increasingly catered to directly in AI-generated search experiences.
This means:
- Reduced profile interactions – fewer clicks on posts, fewer Q&A engagements, and lower conversion from discovery to action.
- Attribution loss – your business may influence the answer - but without visibility into the interaction itself.
GBP is still feeding the system, but the system no longer sends users back in the same way, and with no attribution, you’re not kept in the loop.
Impressions are becoming a less reliable GBP metric
Impressions within Google Business Profiles are becoming more volatile. Rather than consistent visibility driven purely by optimisation, presence is now increasingly influenced by context:
- Is the user searching for a place to physically visit?
- Is the query navigational (Maps-led)?
- Or is it informational (where AI may fully answer it)?
In effect, this means that even similar businesses in the same area may see very different visibility levels, not because of how well their profiles are optimised (using traditional methods), but because of how Google interprets the user’s intent in that moment.
There’s an additional AI-driven step that now takes place before ranking is considered. You could call it a hyper-relevance check that aims to enhance the personalisation of results. Optimising for this new hurdle centres on feeding structured, machine-readable signals into the AI system that decides when you deserve to appear.
How Google Business Profiles are changing as AI search evolves – and why optimisation still matters
The Q&A section is disappearing, but the data isn’t
Google is transitioning GBPs from the traditional Q&A section to an AI-driven “Ask about this place” model.
But this doesn’t mean the information once held by your Q&A section isn’t important to your visibility. Google’s AI is now often the first touch point for a user searching for local businesses. To build your presence in this new surface, you need to provide Google’s AI as much relevant context as possible. This still comes from your GBP. The only thing that is changing is where this context sits in your profile.
Now, instead of manually populating Q&As, businesses need to provide “attributes” to feed the AI elsewhere:
1. Reviews
Review content is becoming one of the strongest signals for AI interpretation.
Google increasingly generates “review highlights” such as:
- “Friendly staff”
- “Short wait times”
- “Clean facilities”
This means, as well as serving as social proof, reviews (both the review and your response) are now semantic signals AI uses to understand and describe your business.
2. Google Posts
Google Posts are becoming a form of proxy for the disappearing Q&A section. Rather than promotional content alone, posts now function as a way to pre-answer common intent-based queries.
You can think of these details as anchor points for AI systems to latch on to when scanning business profiles for direct answers. For example, a dentist may include the following in a post: ‘Yes, we accept Bupa and Denplan for most treatments, and you don’t need a referral to book.’
Each post is less about engagement and more about eliminating uncertainty at the point of intent. It should make the case why you’re the perfect business for very specific but common customer needs.
3. The 'Products' section
Arguably, one of the most underutilised areas of Google Business Profiles in the age of AI is the ‘Products’ section. In essence, this section is becoming a lightweight FAQ schema inside Google itself; each product description can now function as an FAQ container.
AI is changing what “optimised” means in GBPs
Certain GBP optimisation techniques that worked well in the past are less effective now due to the sophisticated way Google’s AI systems define value and relevance.
For example, stock or AI-generated images may have given your profile a boost a couple of years ago, but now Google’s AI understands that they’re not related to your business and therefore do not provide any form of credibility or specific, relevant information.
But this isn’t to say that it’s no longer worth using images on your profile.
What’s important now is that images genuinely show visual context for your actual business. Replacing stock or AI-generated images with high quality images of your site, products, or team gives the AI systems clear signals to work with, which can improve the chances of achieving a more substantive presence in AI-generated answers.
In fact, human signals are becoming more important across the board. For instance, naming professionals provides much stronger trust signals than simply mentioning your ‘Expert Team’.
The new local ecosystem: beyond Google Business Profiles
Local discovery is fragmenting. GBP used to be enough on its own, but now it’s just one source used by AI when generating an output.
While Google remains dominant, AI systems and map ecosystems are pulling data from multiple locations, including:
- Yelp (sentiment analysis inputs)
- Foursquare (location intelligence)
- Apple Maps (review aggregation)
- Social platforms like Instagram (social mapping trends)
- Automotive and voice systems powered by HERE technologies
If you regularly maintain and optimise your GBP, it may appear that the work is having less of an effect, bringing the value of it into question. The problem, however, isn’t that optimisation isn’t worthwhile, but that GBP optimisation should no longer be carried out in isolation.
It is now a part of a wider location data ecosystem that feeds AI-driven discovery across multiple platforms.
So… is your Google Business Profile still worth optimising?
Yes, your GBP is absolutely still worth optimising - but not in the way it used to be.
Google Business Profiles are no longer just a local SEO listing. They are becoming a structured data input layer for AI systems.
Instead of increasing profile views and interaction, the goal is to ensure AI understands, trusts, and accurately represents your business when answering user queries. This means your Google Business Profile now doubles as a visibility tool (for when it is served), and a verification directory (for when AI takes centre stage).
This requires a shift in strategy:
- From Q&A optimisation → to review engineering
- From posting updates → to intent-driven answers
- From service listings → to structured product data
- From SEO visibility → to AI interpretability
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The rise of AI in local search does not make Google Business Profiles obsolete; they’re just as important but less visible in traditional ways. The businesses that will continue to thrive in local search are those that most effectively teach AI systems what they do, who they serve, and why they are trustworthy.
If you’re looking to adapt your strategy and ensure your business is accurately represented in AI-driven search, let’s talk. We can help you turn your Google Business Profile into a powerful data source that drives visibility, awareness, and, ultimately, business.