Why Is My Business in the Map Pack and AI Mode, but Not in Google's AI Overviews?

It is one of the questions we hear most. A business sits in Google's local pack, gets recommended in AI Mode, turns up in Gemini and even ChatGPT, and yet the AI Overview at the top of Google says nothing about it. The natural assumption is that something is broken. Usually nothing is. Google runs several different systems, each answering a different question from different evidence. This post explains where your business can appear, what each place is actually choosing, why health and other high-stakes sectors behave differently, and how to work out which gap you really have.

The short answer

Search Central's page on AI features puts it plainly: AI Mode and AI Overviews "may use different models and techniques, so the set of responses and links they show will vary".¹ The local pack works differently again, ranking Business Profiles mainly on relevance, distance and prominence.² These are not one ranking shown in different places. They are separate decisions, and a business can do well in one and not appear in another.

The local pack and AI Mode can recommend your business. An AI Overview mostly recommends pages. Those are different contests.

Where your business can appear on Google

Before comparing them, it helps to see them side by side. These are the places a local business can show up when someone searches on Google, plus the Gemini app.

These are not niche features. Alphabet's July 2026 earnings call put AI Mode at more than a billion monthly users and the Gemini app at 950 million.⁶ ChatGPT is outside Google but works on a similar split: the written answer comes from web search, while the business cards and map come from listings OpenAI says are supplied by "trusted third-party providers".⁷ Our ChatGPT post covers that in detail.

What each one is really choosing

The most useful question to ask of any surface is: is it recommending a business, or recommending a page? Once you answer that, most of the differences explain themselves.

First, check there is an AI Overview to be in

This is the step most people skip. AI Overviews are not shown on every search. Google's explainer limits them to "queries where they can add additional benefit beyond what people might already get on Search today, and where we have high confidence in the quality of the responses". The same document describes keeping them off "highly sensitive" topics, and limiting them where good information on the web is thin.⁴

Health is the clearest case. In January 2026, after a Guardian investigation into liver test ranges, AI Overviews disappeared from those searches. Google said it does not comment on individual removals, and AI Mode was still offered for the same questions.⁸

The shape of the search matters too. In independent browsing data from 900 US adults, AI summaries appeared on a small share of short searches and on about half of long ones.⁹

Many local buying searches are short: "dentist Leeds", "emergency plumber near me". Those usually lead with the local pack. So if you are tracking a list of short, high-intent local searches, many of them may never show an AI Overview at all. That isn't a visibility problem you can fix. It is a search where Google has decided the map is the answer.

AI Overviews cite pages, not places

When an AI Overview does appear, Google describes it as working "in tandem with our existing Search systems, like our quality and ranking systems". It is "built to surface information that is backed up by top web results, and include links to web content that supports the information presented".⁴ To be one of those links, a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet".¹

That is the key difference. Your Business Profile carries your business into the local pack, Ask Maps and much of AI Mode. It does far less for an AI Overview, which looks for a page that supports the answer. If the best page Google can find for "what does a private GP appointment involve" belongs to a national health service, a hospital group or a large publisher, that is what gets cited, however busy your listing is on the map below.

Why health, money and law are stricter

Google sorts some topics into "Your Money or Your Life", where bad information could harm someone. For those, AI Overviews carry "an even higher bar for showing supporting information from reliable and trustworthy sources".⁴ The guidance on helpful content applies the same to Search in general: for topics that "could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people", Google's systems "give even more weight to content that aligns with strong E-E-A-T", meaning experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust.¹⁰

In practice, the pages that clear that bar tend to belong to organisations with long track records: public health bodies, hospital groups, professional associations and established publishers. Academic research points the same way. A September 2026 study of 1,920 health searches across 12 countries found Google's AI Overviews steering users towards Google's own platforms rather than a wide spread of sources.¹¹

Put those together and the clinic's results make sense. Its profile is relevant and close to the people searching, so it wins the map. AI Mode reads Google's place data, so it recommends the clinic too. The AI Overview is summarising medical information, and for that Google wants sources with a long record of trust. A young website, however good, is not there yet.

Work out which gap you actually have

"Not in AI Overviews" can mean three very different things. Run each search you care about through these checks before deciding what to do.

1. 1

   Is there an AI Overview at all?

   Search from the area you serve, signed out or in a private window, and note whether an AI Overview appears. If it doesn't, there is nothing to win on that search. Your effort belongs in the local pack and AI Mode.
2. 2

   Who does it cite?

   Open the links in the AI Overview. Are they information pages from large organisations, directories and review sites, or the websites of local businesses like yours? This tells you what kind of page Google thinks answers the question.
3. 3

   Is it asking for information or for a business?

   "What does a root canal cost" wants an explanation. "Best dentist for nervous patients in Leeds" wants a business. You can compete for the second far sooner than the first.
4. 4

   Do you have a page that answers it?

   AI Overviews link to pages. If your site has no page that answers the question directly, there is nothing for Google to cite, however strong your profile is.

What to do about it

If the AI Overview cites local businesses and you're missing, the gap is close and worth working on. If it cites national health bodies and large publishers, accept that you may not win that search soon, and make sure you are winning the map, AI Mode and Gemini for the same question. Either way, the work that helps is the same.

1. 1

   Write the page the question deserves

   One clear page per service that answers what people actually ask: what it involves, who it suits, what it costs, how long it takes. Plain answers near the top, in your own words.
2. 2

   Show who stands behind it

   Google strongly encourages accurate bylines and information about who created content.¹⁰ For a clinic, name the clinicians, their qualifications and registrations, and who reviewed the page. Never invent them.
3. 3

   Earn mentions from sources Google already trusts

   Professional bodies, regulators' registers, local press, universities and established directories in your sector. These are the pages an AI Overview cites, and they build the reputation your own site is judged on.
4. 4

   Keep winning where you already win

   The guidance on AI features includes keeping your Business Profile information up to date.¹ The profile that wins the map is also what AI Mode, Ask Maps and Gemini read.

How to keep track of it

Because each surface makes its own decision, a single position no longer describes where you stand. Track them separately: the local pack and Maps across your area, AI Mode and Gemini for the questions customers ask, and whether an AI Overview appeared at all before you judge whether you were in it. SearchOps does this in one place, checking your Business Profile across a grid of map points and recording which AI answers name you, and which sources they draw on.