AI Overviews have absorbed a large share of informational local queries, but transactional 'near me' searches still resolve to the map pack and organic results. The visibility game has split in two: being the cited source in the answer, and being the obvious choice below it.
In practice that means structured data, consistent entity signals and review velocity matter more than ever, while thin city pages matter less than they ever did. Businesses that invested in genuinely useful location content are being quoted; the rest are invisible in both layers.
Our recommendation: audit which of your queries now trigger AI answers, restructure those pages answer-first, and double down on GBP signals for the queries that still resolve to the pack.