Where does Google AI Overview get local business information?

Google Business Profile Help says profile information is compiled from several source classes.¹ The Google Business Profile guide explains the record itself; the map below separates the documented inputs from what Google has not promised about a particular AI Overview.

Google Business Profile Help names crawled content from an official website as an example of public information used to compile Business Profile information.¹ Separately, Google Search Central’s “AI features and your website” says a page is eligible to appear as a supporting link in an AI Overview only when it is indexed and eligible for a Google Search snippet.² Eligibility is a condition for consideration, not a promise that Google will crawl, index, serve, or use that page in a particular answer. The answer about Business Profile and AI search covers that relationship in more detail.

Yes, potentially. Google Search Central says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use “query fan-out,” which issues multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources to develop a response.² Google also says the models and techniques can differ, so the responses and links can vary. Query fan-out is a possible retrieval technique, not a documented source order, and a displayed supporting link does not prove that it supplied every sentence in the answer.

Google Search Help warns that AI responses may include mistakes and advises checking important information in more than one place, opening supporting web links, and trying other Google Search results.³ For a local-business statement, apply that advice in this order:

1. Copy the exact business statement from the AI Overview and open each displayed supporting link.
2. Compare the statement with the business’s official website. Google specifically names crawled content from an official website as a public information source for Business Profiles.¹
3. Check the business’s Google Business Profile for owner-provided facts such as hours and location.¹
4. Check a public web reference or licensed-data source only when the displayed link or another primary record identifies it. Do not assume that every directory or review page is an AI Overview input.
5. Treat user edits, photos, and reviews as user contributions to Google’s information record, not automatically as owner-provided facts.¹
6. Check the important fact in another place and in other Google Search results. Record the exact wording, the displayed links, and the date you checked.³

Across the cited Google Business Profile Help and Google Search Central guidance, the public documentation does not state a fixed order or a field-by-field ledger that maps each local fact in one AI Overview to the official website, Business Profile, third-party data, user contribution, or Google interaction. If a supporting page clearly supports a statement, describe it as a supporting source. Do not state that Google used a particular source for that fact unless the public evidence identifies that path. The same boundary applies when comparing this question with where ChatGPT gets local business data: each provider needs its own documented source scope.

No. Google Search Central says there is no special schema.org structured data that a site must add for AI features, although structured data should match the page’s visible text.² LocalBusiness schema can describe accurate visible business information, but it is not a provenance switch that tells an AI Overview which source to select.

Google’s Business Profile guidelines tell owners to represent the business as it is recognized in the real world, keep the address or service area accurate and precise, choose the fewest categories needed to describe the core business, and maintain one profile per business.⁵ These are accuracy and profile-management checks, not a formula that guarantees an AI Overview mention.