Google AI Overviews Now Push Users Into AI Mode — 93% of Sessions End Without a Click
What happened
Google has started pushing users from AI Overviews directly into AI Mode within Search, according to Search Engine Roundtable's September 2026 webmaster report. The "Show more" button that previously expanded an AI Overview now drops searchers straight into AI Mode — a full-screen, conversational interface powered by Gemini 3.7 Flash.
AI Mode passed one billion monthly users in 2026, and research shows that approximately 93% of AI Mode sessions end without a single click to any external website. For local businesses, the impact is stark: AI-generated local results surface only 32% as many unique businesses as traditional local map packs.
Google Search Console has also started showing AI Mode queries in its reporting, and a new generative AI performance report has expanded to more users — confirming Google is tracking this shift internally.
What this means for tradespeople
When a homeowner searches "emergency plumber near me" or "best electrician in Manchester," Google is increasingly answering that question itself — with AI — rather than showing a list of businesses to click through. If AI Mode picks three plumbers to recommend instead of showing the usual map pack of twenty, being one of those three is everything.
The signals AI Mode uses to select businesses are the same ones that have always mattered: a complete Google Business Profile, genuine customer reviews, consistent citations across the web, and mentions on trusted sites. But the margin for error has shrunk dramatically. With fewer spots available in AI-generated answers, a half-finished profile or a 3.8-star rating that might have been fine in a traditional search result now means you don't appear at all.
Around 48% of UK consumers already use conversational AI to find local businesses. That number is only going one way.
What to do about it
Focus on the fundamentals that AI can read and trust. Keep your Google Business Profile completely filled out — services, hours, photos, and service area. Reply to every review (AI systems weight businesses that engage with customers). And keep collecting fresh reviews — 74% of consumers now look for reviews written in the last three months.
The businesses that show up in AI-generated answers will be the ones with strong, recent, authentic review profiles. Everything else is noise.
Source: Search Engine Roundtable