Is Google Losing Ground? How AI Is Changing the Way People Search for Local Services

If you run a local business and rely on being discovered through Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), you may want to pay close attention to what’s quietly becoming one of the biggest shifts in digital behavior since the rise of smartphones: consumers are beginning to turn away from traditional search engines—and toward AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini—to find local services.

The AI Tipping Point Is Here

As of May 2025, over 52% of U.S. adults report using AI large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT on a weekly basis. This isn’t just novelty use—it’s changing how people research, make decisions, and interact with the digital world.

In fact, 62% of consumers now say they’ve used ChatGPT or Google Gemini to research a product or service. And 10% already rely on these tools as their primary way to search, bypassing Google SERPs entirely. This number is projected to grow significantly in the next two years.

What That Means for Traditional Search

The domino effect is already underway:

• Analysts project a 25% drop in organic traffic from traditional search engines by 2026.
• By 2028, that number could rise to 50% as more users lean into AI-generated answers instead of scrolling through Google Search Engine Result Pages.

This isn’t just speculation—it’s being felt in real time. Search behavior is becoming more conversational, contextual, and frictionless. People want quick, confident answers. They don’t want to dig through Yelp reviews or parse through a dozen SEO-optimized service pages buried in Google SERPs.

Local Searches Are Shifting Too

While hard data specifically on local service searches is still emerging, the trend is clear: if people are trusting AI to recommend books, create itineraries, and answer health questions, it’s only natural they’ll use it to find a good plumber, real estate agent, or pediatric dentist nearby.

Why type "best divorce attorney in Austin" into Google Search Engine Result Pages, then scroll through pages of ads and spammy listicles, when you can ask ChatGPT:

“I’m going through a divorce and live in Circle C, Austin. Who are three highly-rated attorneys who specialize in amicable settlements?”

And get an immediate, personalized, ad-free answer.

What This Means for Local Businesses

If you’re not optimizing your presence for AI, you’re already behind. But this isn’t SEO as you’ve known it. AI-optimized visibility focuses on:

• Structuring your business data so it can be read and understood by AI models
• Having clear, credible, consistent information across platforms
• Creating content that trains AI models to associate you with expertise, locality, and trust

The Bottom Line

The way people find you is changing. By 2026, being "AI discoverable" will be as important as being ranked in Google Search Engine Result Pages. The smartest businesses are already adapting.

If your local business isn’t showing up in AI tools today, you’re invisible tomorrow.