Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: what changes for local businesses in Nice, Cannes and Monaco

Since 22 July 2026, Google has shown Google AI Overviews at the top of its results in France and offers AI Mode, a conversational search tab. For a local business the effect is easy to state: some searches now end in an answer written by Gemini, and the links cited in that answer take the clicks that used to be split across ten blue links.

I do SEO for businesses in Nice, Cannes and Monaco (and remotely anywhere in France). Below: what Google says about how it picks sources, what the studies measure, and what I put in place so a restaurant, a law firm or an estate agency gets cited.

What are AI Overviews and AI Mode?

An AI Overview is a summary generated by Google’s AI, shown above the classic results, with links to the pages that support the answer. It does not appear on every query. Google says it only shows one when its systems decide it adds something beyond classic Search.

AI Mode is a separate tab in Google Search. You ask a long question, compare options, follow up, as in a conversation. Answers are longer and cite more sources.

Both rely on what Google calls query fan-out: the model runs several related searches in parallel (subtopics, variants) and builds an answer from the pages it finds. For “sea view restaurant Nice for a birthday”, it might search the restaurants around the port, the reviews and the group menus at the same time.

When did they arrive in France?

Milestone	Date
AI Overviews launch in the US	May 2024
AI Mode launches in the US	May 2025
AI Mode expands to 200+ countries and territories, French language included (Belgium among them), France left out	7 October 2025
AI Overviews and AI Mode switched on in France, on desktop, mobile and the app	22 July 2026

France waited two years because of the neighbouring-rights dispute between Google and press publishers (the French competition authority fined Google €250 million in March 2024). The rollout is gradual, so what you see depends on the account, the device and the query.

How does Google choose the sources it cites?

Google answers this fairly clearly in its Search Central page AI features and your website (updated December 2025) and in a guide published in May 2026 on optimising for its generative AI features.

What they say:

• To be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet in Google. Google states there are no additional technical requirements.
• Answers rely on the usual ranking systems: the model retrieves pages from the index (grounding), then writes from them.
• The site must also stay included in generative AI features through the Search Console setting. Owners can now opt their site out.
• You don’t need an llms.txt file, special markup or “AI” schema.org: Google says outright that Search ignores those files. Structured data is still useful for rich results, as long as it matches the visible text.
• There is no need to chop your content into small chunks. Creating a page for every query variant can even count, for Google, as scaled content abuse.
• Google asks for first-hand content (real experience, a point of view of your own) rather than a summary of what already exists.
• For local businesses, Google names the Google Business Profile as a way to be visible in AI answers.

My take: “no special optimisation” is true technically and misleading in practice. Fan-out multiplies sub-queries, so a page that precisely answers “how much does a notary cost for a purchase in Cannes” is more likely to be retrieved than a generic homepage. It is still SEO, with a higher bar for precision.

How much do AI Overviews cut clicks?

The studies agree on the direction, less on the size:

• Ahrefs (February 2026), 300,000 keywords: when an AI Overview appears, the click-through rate of the position-one page is 58% lower than it would otherwise be. The first version of the study (April 2025) measured 34.5%.
• Pew Research Center (July 2025), real browsing data from 900 US adults: people clicked a classic result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% without one. Links inside the summary were clicked in 1% of visits.
• Seer Interactive (November 2025), 3,119 informational queries: organic CTR on queries with an AI Overview fell from 1.76% (June 2024) to 0.61% (September 2025). Brands cited in the overview got 35% more organic clicks (a correlation, Seer notes, not proof of cause).

These are US figures, mostly on informational queries. Google, for its part, says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are “higher quality” (people spend more time on the site). Both can hold: fewer visits, more decided visitors. For a local business, being cited becomes the condition for keeping a share of the clicks.

Local Pack or AI Overview: how Google handles local searches

On a purely local query, the map with its three listings (the Local Pack) is still the main answer. Whitespark’s study (May 2025, 540 manual queries in three US cities) shows it well: the Local Pack appeared on 93% of local-intent queries (“dentist in Phoenix”), AI Overviews on only 15%. On informational questions (“how much does a lawyer charge”) and hybrid ones (“should I get a lawyer after a car accident in Phoenix”), it flips: 92% and 97% AI Overviews.

AI Mode mixes everything. According to Whitespark’s guide to it (May 2026), on a local search it often shows a small map, listings with ratings and reviews from Google Business Profile, and a column of sources (websites, directories, articles, review sites). Reviews carry a lot of weight.

Applied to the Riviera, here is what to expect and where to act:

Typical query	What Google usually shows	Main lever
”notary Cannes”	Local Pack, classic results	Complete Google Business Profile, exact category, recent reviews
”sea view restaurant Nice”	Local Pack, sometimes an AI Overview citing round-ups and reviews	Photos, attributes (terrace, view), reviews that mention the view, a “terrace” page on the site
”how much are notary fees for a purchase in Cannes”	AI Overview	A page that answers with figures, signed by the notary, with an update date
”best neighbourhood to buy a flat in Nice”	AI Overview, AI Mode for follow-ups	A neighbourhood guide (Cimiez, Mont Boron, Carré d’Or) written by the agency, with sourced prices
”Monaco Grand Prix yacht charter with crew”	AI Mode, classic results	A precise service page (dates, capacity, indicative rates), presence in industry directories
”emergency plumber Antibes Sunday”	Local Pack	Up-to-date hours (bank holidays included), call button, replies to reviews

A method to get cited in AI Overviews

This is the order I work in for a local client: SEO basics, applied with the precision fan-out demands.

1. Pages that answer a question near the top

Every service page should answer the client’s question in its first lines: price, timing, area covered, process. A Nice law firm with a page titled “Uncontested divorce in Nice: timing and cost” has a chance of being retrieved for “how long does an amicable divorce take in Nice”. A page called “Our expertise” has none.

2. One page per service, not per keyword

One solid page per real service beats ten pages for “plumber Nice”, “plumber west Nice”, “cheap plumber Nice”, which Google may class as scaled content abuse. A page per neighbourhood or town makes sense when you have something specific to say there (response times, local projects).

3. A Google Business Profile kept up to date

Google itself lists it among the things that make a business visible in its AI answers, and it is where AI Mode pulls ratings, hours and reviews from. Exact primary category, listed services, special hours (Cannes Film Festival, Monaco Grand Prix, bank holidays), recent photos, Q&A. I cover all of it in the Google Business Profile guide for Nice.

4. Many recent reviews, with replies

AI Mode reuses review content to describe a business. A review that mentions “the view over the Baie des Anges for a birthday dinner” works for you on that exact query. Ask for specific reviews and reply to each one.

5. Visible E-E-A-T signals

E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) is Google’s set of quality criteria. In practice: a named author, photos of your real work, dated figures, the same address and phone number everywhere. A local business has first-hand content; directories don’t.

6. Consistent structured data and a clean site

LocalBusiness markup (or Restaurant, LegalService, RealEstateAgent) is not required for AI, Google says, but it helps with rich results, as long as it says the same thing as the page. On the technical side: page indexed, not blocked by robots.txt or the CDN, important content in text, fast on mobile. Without that, nothing else counts.

How do you track AI Overviews in Search Console?

Yes, impressions and clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode count in Search Console. Google includes them in the Performance report, under the “Web” search type. The rules, from the official help:

• A click on an external link in an AI Overview or in AI Mode counts as a click.
• An AI Overview takes a single position in the results: all its links share that position.
• In AI Mode, position follows the same method as a classic results page, and a follow-up question counts as a new query.

Since 3 June 2026, Search Console also has a dedicated generative AI report (Search and Discover), rolled out to every site worldwide on 31 August 2026. It shows impressions by page, country, device and date. It gives neither queries nor clicks, so you cross-check with the Performance report and Google Analytics. I explain how to extend this tracking to ChatGPT and Perplexity in measuring your AI visibility.

Should you opt your site out of AI features with the Search Console setting? For a local business, I advise against it: you would vanish from AI Overviews and AI Mode and gain nothing in return.

Frequently asked questions

Are AI Overviews available in Nice and Monaco?

Yes for Nice and the rest of France, since 22 July 2026, on desktop, mobile and the Google app. The rollout is gradual, so display can vary from one account to another. For Monaco, Google has not announced a date specific to the Principality, so the simplest check is to search from there.

Do I need an llms.txt file to appear in AI Overviews?

No. Google says it doesn’t use llms.txt files for Search, AI features included. They may help other tools, with no effect on Google.

Is ranking first on Google enough to be cited in the AI Overview?

It helps, since AI Overviews rely on Google’s ranking systems, but it guarantees nothing. Fan-out looks for pages on sub-questions, and a page that ranks well for the main query can be skipped if it doesn’t answer the detail being asked.

For AI search beyond Google, read why your business doesn’t show up in ChatGPT. A Google + AI Overviews diagnosis is where my SEO & GEO service starts.