Getting recommended by AI Mode no longer depends on your Local Pack position. A study of 1,120 local queries found that 28.5% of businesses appearing in the Local Pack were missing from AI Mode for the same search. Two systems, two selections.
Worse for your tracking: 999 businesses appeared only in AI Mode, never in the Local Pack. In other words, you have competitors your local rank tracker cannot see.
I’m Florian Zorgnotti, an SEO and GEO consultant based in Nice. What follows covers how that selection works, why query phrasing changes everything, and what it means for a business on the French Riviera since the French rollout of 22 July 2026.
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- Two distinct systems: 28.5% of Local Pack businesses are missing from AI Mode, and 999 businesses appeared only in AI Mode.
- Phrasing decides: a bare service query can return no listings at all, while the same query with a geographic mention returns them consistently.
- Review volume matters, by sector: 49% more reviews at the median for businesses visible only in AI Mode, reaching 337% among plumbers.
- The pattern flips for professional services: AI Mode there favours educational content over business listings.
Are AI Mode and the Local Pack two different systems?
Yes, and the gap has been measured. Local SEO Data ran 1,120 local queries across seven verticals and thirteen cities, querying AI Mode and the Local Pack simultaneously. The result: 28.5% of Local Pack businesses did not appear in AI Mode for the same query, an overlap of 71.5% with a 95% confidence interval between 69.2% and 73.8%.
Comparing only the top three results from each source, overlap drops to 48%. On the podium, one business in two changes.
The most telling figure for competitive monitoring sits elsewhere. The study recorded 999 businesses appearing only in AI Mode, never in the Local Pack. If your local tracking stops at the 3-pack, you don’t know those competitors exist.
A complementary observation from Sterling Sky points the same way: AI-generated local packs surface roughly 5,943 unique businesses where the classic 3-pack surfaces 18,330 across the same query set, about a third of the usual coverage. AI packs often show one or two businesses instead of three.
In my view, this is what local businesses in Nice will discover most abruptly. Many of my local clients built years of work around a 3-pack position. That position does not transfer automatically into AI Mode.
Why query phrasing changes everything
Because AI Mode doesn’t systematically read a service query as local intent. It’s the study’s most counter-intuitive result, and its most actionable.
Tested alone, the query “divorce lawyer” returned no business listings across the ten cities tested. The same query with “near me” appended brought listings back in 100% of cases, 38 out of 38.
Applied to the Nice market, that means “avocat divorce” and “avocat divorce Nice” aren’t two variants of one keyword. They’re two distinct engine behaviours. On the first, AI Mode may answer with explanatory content without naming a single firm. On the second, it switches into business recommendation mode.
The practical consequence is direct. Before concluding you’re excluded from AI Mode, test three phrasings systematically: the service alone, the service plus the city, and the service plus a qualifier such as “best”. An absence on the first tells you nothing about your real visibility.
Phrasings to test for a business in Nice
- Service alone: “plumber”, “osteopath”, “web agency”.
- Service plus city: “plumber Nice”, “osteopath central Nice”.
- Service plus district: “plumber Nice Libération”, “restaurant Old Nice”.
- Use-case phrasing: “who to call for a leak in Nice on a Sunday”.
- Comparative phrasing: “best osteopath in Nice for sciatica”.
What role do reviews play in AI Mode’s selection?
A major one, but it inverts by sector. That nuance is what the French guides systematically omit.
In consumer service sectors, businesses visible only in AI Mode showed 49% more reviews at the median than those visible only in the Local Pack. Among plumbers, the gap reached 337%, with a median of 546 reviews on the AI Mode side against 125 on the Local Pack side.
For professional services, lawyers and medical specialists, the pattern flips. Businesses present in AI Mode had fewer reviews, and AI Mode more often skipped business listings altogether in favour of educational content.
| Type of business | AI Mode behaviour | Priority lever |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer services (plumbing, heating, restaurants) | Shows listings, favours high review volumes | Review velocity and volume |
| Professional services (lawyer, medical specialist) | Favours educational content over listings | Practice-area expertise content |
| Local retail | Depends heavily on geographic phrasing | Listing consistency and local mentions |
If you’re a lawyer or practitioner in Nice, stacking reviews won’t be your main lever. Producing practice-area expertise content and earning citations from well-regarded directories will weigh more.
Your Google listing becomes a data source for AI
The Google Business Profile is changing function. It used to convert a searcher through a call or directions. It now also feeds AI systems verified data on your hours, services and reputation.
One figure illustrates the shift. According to Birdeye’s State of Google Business Profile 2026, impressions per location fell 53.8%, while customer actions such as calls, clicks and direction requests declined only about 5%.
Read both numbers together. Fewer people browse your listing, but those who reach it arrive with riper intent, the AI having already done the comparison upstream. Your funnel narrows at the top.
What matters from there is the quality of the raw material you supply: accurate categories, detailed services, genuinely current hours, filled attributes, strict consistency between your listing, your site and directories. An inconsistency in name, address or phone between two sources gives the AI a reason to set you aside in favour of a competitor whose data is stable.
How do you know whether AI Mode recommends you in Nice?
Through structured, repeated manual checks, kept separate from your Local Pack tracking. No tool will answer this for you while native data doesn’t exist.
The minimum protocol takes five moves.
- List ten real customer queries, mixing service alone, service plus city, service plus district.
- Test each query in both surfaces, AI Mode and Local Pack, in private browsing with local geolocation.
- Record three things per query: do listings appear, are you cited, which businesses are named instead of you.
- Spot the ghost competitors, those surfacing in AI Mode without ever appearing in your usual Local Pack tracking.
- Repeat across several days. The study notes AI Mode results shift day to day, even where broad patterns hold steady.
That last caution is structural. The authors explicitly recommend regular tracking over a single check, since the specific businesses shown for a given query change from one day to the next. An isolated check measures noise.
That’s the logic I built Cockpyt AI on with Laurent Séjourné: weekly measurement across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, share of voice against competitors, a Google Analytics 4 connection linking visibility to real traffic, and a monthly GEO audit producing a prioritised action plan. Tracking prompts are generated for your activity and your geographic area. Flat price at 29 euros a month billed annually, 14-day trial with no credit card.
The action plan for a business on the French Riviera
Here is the sequence I apply with clients in Nice since the French rollout, in order of return.
- Make your listing data reliable. Exact primary category, detailed services, real hours including public holidays, filled attributes. That’s the raw material AI consumes.
- Standardise your contact details everywhere. Site, Google listing, local directories, professional networks. An inconsistency is grounds for exclusion.
- Set up continuous review collection if you’re in consumer services. Regularity weighs more than accumulated stock.
- Produce area content. Pages by district or municipality in your service area, with real situations rather than geographic filler.
- Work on local mentions. Regional press, professional directories, partnerships, associations. An unlinked mention already produces the signal.
- Track both surfaces separately, weekly, using the grid described above.
The mistakes that cost you a recommendation
- Concluding from a single phrasing. A service query without geographic mention may trigger no listings at all, regardless of your visibility.
- Tracking only the Local Pack. You then miss nearly 30% of the businesses visible in AI Mode.
- Applying the review recipe to every sector. In professional services, AI Mode favours educational content over listings.
- Leaving approximate hours. Your listing is now a data source: false data disqualifies you.
- Multiplying empty city pages. Pages generated without real content build no local authority.
FAQ
Does AI Mode replace the Local Pack in Nice?
No, the two coexist. AI Mode is a conversational tab the user deliberately opens, while the Local Pack still displays in the classic results page. Available measurements show they select businesses differently, with 28.5% of Local Pack businesses missing from AI Mode for the same query. Track them separately.
Why does my business appear in the Local Pack but not in AI Mode?
Three causes come up most often. The phrasing you tested may not trigger listings at all, in which case nobody appears. Your review volume or velocity may sit below that of the businesses AI Mode favours in your sector. Your data may be inconsistent across sources, pushing the engine toward a competitor it considers more reliable.
Do you need more reviews to be recommended by AI Mode?
It depends on your sector. In consumer services, businesses visible only in AI Mode had 49% more reviews at the median, with a 337% gap among plumbers. For lawyers and medical specialists the trend reverses: the businesses selected had fewer reviews, and AI Mode more often displayed educational content instead of listings.
Does this US data apply to Nice?
The study covers thirteen American cities and data from May 2026. No equivalent study exists yet for the French market, since AI Mode has only been live there since 22 July 2026. The selection mechanisms are identical because it’s the same system, but sector thresholds could differ on a French-language corpus.
Is my Google Business Profile enough?
It’s necessary but rarely sufficient. It supplies the verified data AI systems consume first for practical information. On comparison queries, your presence also depends on external mentions, reviews and expertise content. A perfect listing with zero mentions elsewhere leaves you fragile on competitive queries.
How long before you see an effect in Nice?
Making your listing data reliable produces a fast effect, within weeks. Work on reviews and local mentions produces results over three to six months. Since the French rollout is progressive, timestamp every check: your visibility can move without you changing anything.
Should you create a page per town on the Riviera?
Only if each page carries real, distinct content: documented interventions, specific constraints, concrete local questions. Pages generated in series with a simple town-name swap build no authority and can hurt. Three solid area pages beat fifteen empty ones.
Sources
- Noah Owsiany, “AI Mode vs Local Pack: Where Do Local Businesses Actually Appear?”, Local SEO Data, 1,120 queries, 7 verticals, 13 cities, June 2026 — localseodata.com
- “State of Google Business Profile 2026”, Birdeye, cited by Forbes Business Council, 14 May 2026 — forbes.com
- Joy Hawkins, “The State of Local SEO in 2026”, Sterling Sky, May 2026 — sterlingsky.ca
- Johan Sellitto, “Google lance officiellement les AI Overviews en France !”, Abondance, 22 July 2026 — abondance.com
