How Google’s AI Describes Your Business, and How to Keep It Accurate

Where Google’s AI talks about your business

• AI Overviews and AI Mode. Ask Google “who does web design in Romford?” or “is [business] open on Sundays?” and the answer at the top of the page is often written by AI, with links to the pages it drew on.
• Google Maps. Ask Maps, the Gemini assistant inside Google Maps, launched in the US and India in March 2026. In August, Google started rolling it out in English to Australia, Canada and more than 150 other countries and territories. It answers questions like “do they have parking?” or “do they do same-day repairs?” from your profile, photos and reviews. It’s also replacing the old public Q&A, so your customers’ questions are increasingly answered by Gemini rather than by you.
• Your Business Profile itself. Google already writes parts of it. The dashboard offers an AI-suggested description, which you approve before it’s used. Since early 2026, AI-generated service lists can appear on listings even when they differ from the services the owner entered. And in September 2026, some profiles in search results began appearing with an “AI Overview” label and a follow-up chat.

Where it gets its facts

The AI doesn’t know your business. It pieces its answers together from what’s already published:

• Your Business Profile: categories, services, description, hours, attributes, photos and updates.
• Your website: what you say you do, where and for whom, especially on your home, about and service pages.
• Your reviews: the words customers use, not just the stars. Gemini quotes review text in its answers, sometimes from reviews that are years old.
• Everyone else: directories, social profiles, local press and “best of” lists.

Wrong answers usually start where those sources disagree, or where one of them is out of date. When Search Engine Roundtable’s editor tried the new AI summary on his own company’s listing, it described the business using outdated copy from his own website.

How to keep it accurate

1. Fill in every field of your Business Profile. Choose the most specific primary category, list every service you offer with a short description, complete the attributes (online appointments, wheelchair access and so on) and keep your hours right, including special hours for bank holidays. Anything you leave blank, Google may fill in from somewhere else.
2. Write the description for people first. You get 750 characters, but the description is cut short in search results and Maps, so put what matters in the first 250 or so: what you do, where, and who for, in plain words. Google’s rules don’t allow links there, and ask you to leave out prices and promotions; offers belong in your profile updates.
3. Make your website say the same thing. Put one clear sentence near the top of your home or about page that a stranger could repeat: what you do, where, and since when. Use the same business name, phone number and area as your profile, and add LocalBusiness structured data so search engines can read those details without guessing. Update or remove old pages about services you no longer offer: the AI can’t tell they’re out of date.
4. Use the same “about” sentence everywhere. Facebook, LinkedIn, Yell, trade directories, your email signature. When the same facts appear in many places, AI tools repeat them with confidence. When they conflict, the AI has to guess.
5. Collect reviews steadily, and reply to them. Detailed reviews from real customers give the AI the most to work with. Ask with an open question (“how did we do?”) rather than a script: Google’s rules don’t allow you to ask for specific content, and rewarding reviews without saying so is illegal in the UK. Your replies are public text too, so make them specific rather than copy-pasted. There’s more in our guide to getting more Google reviews.
6. Add the ways people actually contact you. If your customers prefer WhatsApp, add it: Edit profile → Contact → Chat → WhatsApp, with a click-to-chat link. Keep your phone number verified too: since September 2026, Google Posts only accept verified numbers.
7. Watch the edits made by others. Anyone can suggest changes to your profile, and Google updates some details itself. When you’re told about a suggested edit, you have four days to accept or reject it; after that, Google may publish it. Log in at least once a month and check what’s changed.

Check what the AI actually says

Once a month, ask the questions your customers ask, in Google (including AI Mode), Google Maps, ChatGPT and Gemini: “who’s a good [your service] in [your area]?”, “is [your business] open on Saturdays?”, “does [your business] do [service]?”. Write down anything that’s wrong, then trace it back to where it came from. It’s usually an old web page, an empty profile field or an outdated directory listing. Fix the source, not the symptom.

If you use Google Search Console, look out for its Generative AI performance report, announced in June 2026 and rolling out to a subset of sites. It shows how often your pages appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It counts impressions, not clicks.

When the AI gets it wrong

• Wrong details on your profile (hours, phone number, services): correct them in your Business Profile straight away, then find out where the wrong information came from so it doesn’t come back.
• A wrong AI answer in Search: use the feedback option under the answer. It won’t change overnight, so fix the underlying source as well.
• A service you don’t offer: make sure your own services list is complete, and that nothing on your website or in your reviews suggests otherwise.

What’s changed recently

Updated October 2026. Google changes these features often, and we update this list when it does.

• October 2026: a WhatsApp button has been spotted next to Call and Directions on some business listings in Search.
• September 2026: some Business Profiles appear in search results with an “AI Overview” label and a follow-up chat.
• September 2026: owners have four days to reject a suggested edit before Google may publish it.
• September 2026: phone numbers in Google Posts must be verified.
• September 2026: Google Maps asks people to sign in to read all of a business’s reviews.
• September 2026: Google emails owners when it spots a spike in spam reviews.
• August 2026: Ask Maps started rolling out beyond the US and India.
• June 2026: Search Console’s Generative AI performance reports were announced.