Does AI search replace Google for local businesses?

What the traffic data shows

Statcounter measures where visits to the websites running its tracking code come from, based on more than 3 billion page views a month. Its October 2026 figures for the United States put search engines at 85.72% of referrals, social networks at 14.22% and AI chatbots at 0.06%. Among search engines, Google sent 85.45% of U.S. referrals and Bing 9.78%.

Among chatbots the race is closer. ChatGPT sent 37.1% of chatbot referrals, Google Gemini 35.42%, Microsoft Copilot 11.23%, Perplexity 10.34% and Claude 5.7%.

There is a catch. These numbers count visits that reach a website, not questions asked. An assistant can answer a question, or name your business, without sending anyone to your site, so AI's real influence on buying decisions is likely larger than its share of referrals. As a source of visitors, though, it is still small next to search.

AI assistants still run on search

The tools that look like replacements mostly sit on top of search. OpenAI says ChatGPT search sometimes partners with other search providers and typically rewrites questions into targeted queries for them, and its privacy notes for the feature name Microsoft. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode retrieve pages from its Search index using its core ranking systems. A business that is hard to find in search indexes is usually hard for assistants to find as well.

Where AI is changing local buying

The shift is happening in research and comparison. Pew Research Center found that Google searches phrased as questions produced an AI summary 60% of the time in March 2025, and that people clicked fewer links when one appeared. Assistants are also starting to act for the customer: Google Search can call local businesses to ask about pricing and availability, and ChatGPT can find restaurant reservation times through OpenTable, Resy and Yelp.

For a contractor, clinic or shop, that means the customer may arrive further along than before: already informed, comparing two names, and ready to call.

How to tell if the balance shifts in your market

National averages hide local differences, so watch your own numbers. These signals will tell you when AI assistants deserve a bigger share of your time and budget:

• New callers saying they found you through ChatGPT, Gemini or another assistant. Ask every caller and keep a tally.
• Referral visits from AI tools growing month over month in your analytics, and turning into calls or forms rather than quick exits.
• Impressions rising in Search Console's generative AI performance report for your service pages while clicks from regular results stay flat.
• Competitors appearing in AI answers for your core questions while you do not.

What to do about it

Modern Apex is a Google Partner, and our advice to local service businesses today is to keep building on Google and search fundamentals while making sure AI assistants can read the same facts. In practice:

• Keep Google first. It still sends most visits, and your Business Profile feeds both its local results and its AI answers.
• Claim Bing Places for Business as well. It is free, and Microsoft is among ChatGPT's search partners.
• Allow OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt so ChatGPT search can show your site.
• Publish service pages with specific, checkable facts, the material assistants quote.
• Track calls and forms by source, including AI referrals, so you invest where jobs actually come from.

Keep reading

• How do AI Overviews affect local businesses?
• How do I get my business recommended by ChatGPT?
• Is SEO worth it for a small local business?
• SEO from Modern Apex
• Google Ads management from Modern Apex