What Will AI-Driven Local SERPs Look Like?

[Andrew Shotland]

I thought it would be fun to ponder this before Google rolls out its AI SERPs on Feb 8th. My bet is Google will use its extensive knowledge of local business info, product inventory, etc. to create a guided chatbot experience designed to quickly determine the searcher's intent and get them to a business that has what they are looking for. I don't think monetization will be too big an issue as the further the searcher gets in the chatbot funnel, the more Google knows about their intent, thus the better they can target ads/offers, etc.

Some thoughts/pics here What Could AI for Local Search Look Like? | Local SEO Guide

Curious what you all think the AI Local SERPs will look like?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Thanks for sharing Andrew. I think the SERP will probably look similar to your screenshot. Although I think Google might keep the initial chat bot much smaller until a user actually interacts with it in order to conserve precious ad real estate space.

My initial thought about ads was that this is going to put Google between a rock and a hard place and they would have to sacrifice some ad revenue for the AI to exist. But you make some great points about how this actually creates more opportunity for Google to go even deeper with ads. That makes a lot of sense.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@Andrew Shotland
This is a great question.

Ever since I got access to ChatGPT and BingAI, I have been forcing myself to use it so I can see how user habit could evolve around AI. We always try to build innovative products, so we try these kind of experiements.

One common use case I find is that these AI products are very helpful is for searching for other tech products. Like, in the other day I was looking for a 'PDF merge and split tool' that was free. I asked ChatGPT to provide a list and then asked about the specific features. Then selected one and then went to the website and that was the best. In some cases it is wrong, but it is usually good enough. I dont see why this cannot be done around GMB and other products once these AI get these data.

Provided a chat with a very high fidelity, I think user habit will evolve around just taking to it rather than spending 'brain processing power' around going through the search result and finding it. Habit usually builds around the least resistant path. I can say for sure that I felt talking to AI was the least resistant path for me.

With Local SEO and SEO too I feel this is how it would evolve. Personally for me, after the initial pain to change habit, I find that I have reduced my Google search usage by around 40%.