Key Takeaways
- Google's AI now answers most searches for a brand name: Ahrefs found AI Overviews on 82.91% of US desktop searches for brand names as of September 29, 2026, up from a 61.3% average in July.
- The jump happened in September, without an announcement: DemandSphere saw AI Overviews on 26.12% of the branded searches it tracks on September 1. By September 27, it was 90.48%.
- The AI leans on what other sites say about you: Across nine AI platforms, 82% of the sources behind answers to buying questions were third-party sites. The brands' own pages made up 3%.
- If your business isn't showing up, a competitor is: In a September study of 8,016 local businesses, 40.3% were never recommended by AI for a single one of their services.
- Search your own name this week: We list 5 things to check, from the facts Google shows about you to counting the visits AI sends your way.
Think about how a lot of your best jobs start. A neighbor says, "Use Rivera Plumbing, they were great." The homeowner doesn't search for "plumber near me." They type your name into Google to find your number, check your reviews, or see if you're open.
For years, that search showed your website, your Google Business Profile, and a few review sites. Now, on most searches for a brand name, the first thing people see is a summary written by Google's AI. Most of that change happened in September.
Then there are the searches where customers don't know your name yet. Someone asks Google or ChatGPT about "water heater replacement in Canton," and the AI answer often names a few businesses. If your business name isn't showing up in those answers, a competitor's is.
In this post, we'll look at what the new data says, what it means for a local business, and five things you can check this week.
What does the new data say?
Ahrefs, a search data company, checked 92.5 million US desktop search results for brand names between July and September 2026. As of September 29, AI Overviews appeared on 82.91% of them.[1]
The monthly average shows how fast this moved. It was 61.3% in July, 65.1% in August, and 73.3% in September. Ahrefs also looked closely at 100 big brands. When an AI Overview showed up for one of them, it sat in the very first spot on the page 76.2% of the time.
A second company saw the same thing. DemandSphere tracks branded searches every day, across all devices. On September 1, it found AI Overviews on 26.12% of them. By September 27, that number was 90.48%, and it was still 82.06% on September 29.[2]
Google didn't announce the change. So most business owners have no idea it happened.
What counts as a branded search?
A branded search is any search that includes a business's name. "Rivera Plumbing" is one. So are "Rivera Plumbing reviews," "Rivera Plumbing hours," and "is Rivera Plumbing any good."
These are some of the most valuable searches a local business gets. The person already knows who you are, and they're usually one step away from calling. In other words, this is the search that turns a referral or a yard sign into a booked job.
Does this apply to small local businesses?
The short answer is that the studies don't say. Ahrefs looked at big brands and only measured desktop searches. DemandSphere didn't say what kinds of brands it tracks. Nobody has published numbers for searches like "Rivera Plumbing" or "Oak Street Dental" yet.
But the same Google system produces both kinds of results. If AI Overviews now show up on most searches for big brand names, it's reasonable to expect more of them on searches for local names too. The fastest way to find out is to search your own business and look.
Pro tip: Search on your phone in a private browser window, so Google doesn't show you a version shaped by your own past searches.
Where does Google's AI get its information about a business?
Mostly from sites other than your own. In Ahrefs' check of big brands, Wikipedia showed up as a source in 71.9% of the AI Overviews, YouTube in 38.6%, and LinkedIn in 22.8%.
Another study points the same way. NP Digital, a marketing agency, looked at 9 million AI answers across nine AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews. For questions where someone was ready to buy, 82% of the sources were third-party sites. The brands' own pages made up just 3%.[3]
A plumber or a dental office won't have a Wikipedia page. So for a local business, the third-party sources are more likely to be Google reviews, Yelp, Facebook, the Better Business Bureau, and local news. No study has measured that for local names yet, but it's where the information about most local businesses lives.
What happens when your business doesn't show up?
Someone else gets named instead. Most new customers never type your name. They type the job and the town. When an AI answers that kind of question, it names a few businesses, and if yours isn't one of them, a competitor is.
A September study shows how often that happens. Insites, a company that sells audit software, checked how seven AI assistants handle 8,016 local businesses, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews. AI knew 99.1% of the businesses. But 40.3% were never recommended for a single one of their services when a customer asked for one.[4]
The gap was clear in ChatGPT. It knew a business by name 96.0% of the time, but it recommended that business only 27.8% of the time. So an AI can know exactly who you are and still send the customer to someone else.
A second study shows how size can tip the choice. Vaer AI ran 20,000 shopping prompts for Lightspeed, a company that makes software for retailers. When the AI was given one large store and one small store to choose between, it picked the large one 90% to 94% of the time.[5]
That study was about shopping, not services, so treat it as a warning sign rather than proof. But it lines up with the local data: being known by AI doesn't mean being picked by AI.
The search for your own name is the one you're most likely to win. Only 3.4% of the big-brand AI Overviews Ahrefs read talked about competitors. So on your name, the job is making sure the summary gets you right. On the searches without your name, the job is giving the AI enough reasons to mention you.
See If AI Recommends You or a Competitor
The free scan takes about two minutes and shows how your business comes up on Google and in AI answers next to your local competitors.
Does this cost you clicks?
Probably some, though nobody has measured it for branded searches yet. DemandSphere and Ahrefs both tracked how often AI Overviews appear, not how people clicked.
The closest data comes from a different kind of search. In February, Ahrefs re-ran a study of 300,000 informational searches, the kind where someone wants an answer to a question. When an AI Overview appeared, the top result got a 58% lower click rate on average.[6]
Branded searches are different, because the person usually wants your phone number or your website. Many will still click or call. But some will read the summary, see a rating or a complaint, and decide right there. That's why what the summary says matters as much as whether people click.
5 things to check this week
1. Search your name, then search your service
Search your business name on its own, then add "reviews," your town, "prices," and "complaints." Write down what the AI summary says each time. Look for wrong hours, old phone numbers, services you don't offer, or a complaint from years ago that keeps coming up.
Then search the way a new customer would, with your main service and your town. Do it in Google and in ChatGPT. Write down which businesses get named. If yours isn't one of them, those are the businesses customers hear about first.
2. Fix wrong facts where they live
If the summary gets something wrong, the fix is usually on another site. Update your hours, phone number, service area, and services on your Google Business Profile first. Then check Yelp, Facebook, and any directory that shows up for your name.
This is more common than most owners think. In the Insites study, 94.3% of businesses had a wrong name, website, or phone number in at least one AI assistant.
What to do: Make your business name, address, and phone number match exactly everywhere. Small differences, like "St." on one site and "Street" on another, are worth cleaning up.
3. Get reviews that mention real details
Reviews are one of the main places Google's AI can learn about a local business. A review that says "Great service" tells it very little. A review that says "They replaced our water heater the same day and cleaned up after" tells it what you do, how fast, and how you treat people.
What to do: When you ask for a review, ask the customer to mention the job you did. And reply to every review, including the bad ones, so the full story is there.
4. Make your website answer the basic questions
Your own site is a small share of what AI uses, but it's the one source you control. Your AI local business website should say plainly what you do, which towns you serve, your hours, how pricing works, and whether you're locally owned. Put each answer in a full sentence, not buried in an image.
Being locally owned is worth stating. In the Lightspeed study, adding the word "independent" to a shopping prompt raised the share of small stores the AI named from about one-third to nearly four-fifths.
If you use AI to help write your pages, read every word before it goes live. On October 1, Google updated its guidance to say "it is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing."[7]
5. Start counting the visits AI sends you
Until now, a lot of traffic from AI tools showed up as "direct" in Google Analytics, so you couldn't tell where it came from. That's starting to change. At the end of September, people on Reddit noticed that Gemini had started adding tracking tags to the links it sends to websites. Google's John Mueller replied, "Nice. I see it too."[8]
Google hasn't documented the change yet, so it's still early. But more of those visits should start showing up by name.
What to do: In Google Analytics, go to Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Switch the main column to "Session source / medium" and look for Gemini and ChatGPT. Check it once a month. Even a handful of visits tells you AI answers are sending people your way, and AI visibility tracking can show you how often you come up in the first place.
What does this mean for your business?
The search that happens after someone hears your name used to be the easy part. Your website and your profile showed up, and the customer called. Now Google's AI often sums you up first, using your reviews, your profile, and whatever else it finds. And on the searches where people don't know your name yet, the AI picks a few businesses to mention. If yours isn't one of them, a competitor's is.
So the work hasn't changed much, but it matters more. Keep your facts right everywhere, keep good reviews coming in, and make your website answer the obvious questions.
If you'd like help with that, it's what we built Pantora to do. We make local business marketing software that keeps your website and Google Business Profile up to date, helps you get and answer reviews, and tracks how AI talks about your business. You approve the work from one inbox in a few minutes a week.