What is AI Overview? And how local businesses get cited

Google’s AI Overview is the AI-generated box that appears at the top of the results for some searches: a summary of the answer, written with Gemini models, with links to the pages it draws from. It is available in more than 200 countries and over 100 languages, and it is not something you can switch off.

This guide explains how it works and answers the question that matters to a business owner: when does it appear, and where does it get the names it recommends? For that second part I use data from my study on local SEO and AI: 352 questions put to Google and the other AI engines across 23 business categories in Catania, Sicily, and the surrounding towns.

How AI Overview works

• It summarises several sources. Google breaks the question into sub-questions, runs several searches and assembles one answer, with links to the sources next to the text.
• It doesn’t always appear. It shows up mostly for detailed or informational questions; short and navigational searches often don’t get one.
• It can be wrong. Google itself warns that AI answers may contain mistakes. In the study I saw more than one case where an AI Overview gave a business another business’s address.
• It is not AI Mode. AI Mode is a separate, conversational search mode you open from its own tab; AI Overview is the box inside the normal results. More in the guide to Google AI Mode.

Can you turn it off?

No. According to Google’s help centre AI Overview is a core part of Search and can’t be turned off. You can, however, see a page without it: after searching, pick the Web filter below the search bar and Google shows only text links.

When it appears in local searches: the data

Here the study shows something generic guides don’t: for local businesses, whether an AI Overview appears depends heavily on the industry.

The rule that emerges is simple: where expertise is needed, Google answers with text; where the choice depends on the place, it shows the map. On short searches the map box with three listings appeared 9 times out of 10 on desktop and 3 out of 4 on mobile. Whitespark found a similar pattern in the US: AI Overviews on 15% of pure local searches and 92% of informational ones (Whitespark, 2025).

It is also unstable: the same search, repeated a day later, shows an AI Overview one time and not the next.

Where it gets business names from

When an AI Overview answers a search like «dentist catania» or «best restaurants catania», the answer is a list built from Google Business Profiles: name, address, opening hours, website link. On more detailed questions the sources widen. Share of AI Overview answers citing at least one source of each type:

Among the engines studied, AI Overview cites social media most often. Its sources also tend to come from page one: in the first collection, 66% of them were in the top 10 results for the same search (out of 21 answers, so an indication rather than a measurement).

What I saw myself

• Favourite sources. In the study’s first collection (October 15-16, 2026) the domains AI Overviews cited most, after business websites (36 citations), were Facebook (7), PagineGialle, an Italian business directory (6), and MioDottore and ProntoPro (4 each). No other engine cited Facebook that often.
• It changes within hours. I asked the same question («an architect in Catania to renovate my home») at 1:30 pm and at 4:00 pm on the same day: the AI Overview named four businesses the first time and four different ones the second, none in common.
• In my own field I don’t show up. On October 15 I asked AI engines eight questions a client of mine might ask («Can you recommend an SEO consultant in Catania?», «Who can build me a website with SEO included?»). AI Overviews never cited my business; ChatGPT did, twice.

How to rank in AI Overviews

In the study’s statistical model, the strongest factor for AI Overviews is appearing in many Maps searches of your category (+85% odds per doubling), more than ranking first in one: for this engine, Maps position had no measurable effect. Next come having your own website linked to the profile (about 2.7 times the odds) and reviews. In practice:

• A complete Google Business Profile: the right categories, every service, a clear description. That is what gets you into more searches. How to do it is in the Google Business Profile guide.
• A website that talks about your services, with a page for each and the city in the homepage title.
• A profile on your industry’s directory, since almost eight answers in ten cite one.
• Identical name, address and phone everywhere, so you don’t get confused with another business.

One last thing: AI Overview and AI Mode, though both are Google’s, named different businesses for the same question in half the cases. Being cited by one doesn’t guarantee the other. The full picture, engine by engine, is in the study; the work of getting cited is described on the generative engine optimisation page.