Google Tests AI Overview Without Action Buttons in Local Pack

What Google Is Testing

Journalist Barry Schwartz, from Search Engine Roundtable, documented a new variant of AI Overview applied to the local pack (the results block with a map and businesses that appears in searches like "restaurant near me"). In this version, on mobile, the traditional local pack disappears completely. In its place, an AI-generated summary appears that uses Google Business Profile data, but without much of the elements that historically appear there.

Missing in this variant: reviews, address, business hours, and the action buttons (call, get directions, visit website). Schwartz was able to reproduce the behavior and published screenshots comparing the tested version with the standard version of the local pack, which keeps these elements.

Who Detected the Test First

Local SEO expert Joy Hawkins reported the behavior on X before Search Engine Roundtable's coverage, describing the experience as the worst AI Overview variant she had ever seen in the local vertical.

I'm seeing a new version of the AI powered local pack in the last few days. On mobile, every time I get this version, the traditional local pack is gone. It uses the Google Business Profile but yet removes a ton of its features (reviews, address, hours etc). This is probably the ugliest version of the AI Overview I've seen in local thus far. Hoping this one reverts soon.

Joy Hawkins, local SEO expert, via X

Why This Directly Hits the ROI of Those Managing Local

For growth and martech teams, the local pack was never about ranking position: it's about action. Clicking the call button, requesting directions, and clicking through to the website are the events that have historically converted an impression into a lead or physical visit, especially for service businesses (clinics, repair shops, restaurants, service providers).

If AI Overview replaces the local pack and arrives without these buttons, the user gets the information (name, perhaps a summarized address in the text), but loses the direct path to action. In practice, this tends to push whoever was searching to another step: scrolling the page, opening Google Maps separately, or simply giving up and searching for another option that appears with a button.

In short: when the action layer disappears, the metric that matters most to whoever controls the budget (attributed calls, direction clicks, website visits coming from local search) drops even before any ranking decline. The problem isn't losing position; it's losing conversion even while being well positioned.

This Isn't the First Change, and Probably Won't Be the Last

Schwartz notes that AI Overview versions applied to local have been circulating for about two years, and that the format changes frequently without formal notice from Google. This creates an uncomfortable pattern for those who work with local: the pack that converted well last month can, without any announcement, turn into a summary without action this month.

The table helps clarify the essential point: the data source is the same (the Business Profile keeps feeding the summary), only the interaction layer disappears. This also suggests that keeping the profile complete and up to date remains mandatory, even if the buttons momentarily don't appear in the AI surface.

What to Monitor While the Test Runs

Since this is a test, not a rollout confirmed by Google, the right reaction isn't to redo the entire strategy, but to set up instrumentation to detect the impact early:

• Compare the volume of calls attributed to the Google Business Profile (the profile's own insights report) before and after noticing the visual change in search;
• Use call tracking numbers segmented by the "Google Maps/Business Profile" source to isolate a drop specific to this channel, rather than general traffic;
• Monitor local brand and category queries in Search Console, looking at CTR, not just impressions, since the metric most sensitive to this change is the click, not the position;
• Ask your team to test the query itself on different phones and networks, because Google's test rollouts tend to be partial and vary by user, location, and device;
• If you use a local rank tracking tool, check whether it already flags the presence of AI Overview in the SERP, not just the position in the three-result map pack.

The GEO Angle Left for Later

Even without an action button, AI Overview continues pulling from the Business Profile the data that feeds the generated summary. This reinforces, rather than reduces, the importance of keeping category, description, reviews, and Q&A in the profile complete and accurate: it's the raw material Google summarizes.

The blind spot is that, if the AI interface definitively beats the traditional pack, the value of optimizing to appear well in the summary starts competing with the value of recovering the action layer, currently absent in this variant. Until Google confirms or reverses the test (as Hawkins hopes will happen), the safest approach is to measure your own local funnel rather than react to the news in isolation.