Google Business Profile calls and clicks are dropping as AI answers local searches

You open your Google Business Profile, tap Performance, and the calls number is lower than it was this time last year. You start to wonder whether AI is taking your customers. The answer is partly yes. Google's AI results are changing what people see when they search for someone local, and fewer of them end up on your profile. But calls and clicks are dropping by less than you might fear, and some of that drop is in how Google counts them. Here's what the numbers show, what they don't, and what to check before Thanksgiving.

Is it true? Yes, partly

The biggest drop is in how often profiles get seen. Birdeye's "State of Google Business Profile 2026" report says impressions per location fell 53.8% year over year. Over the same period, customer actions fell only about 5%. Birdeye blames AI-powered results for the drop in impressions.

Calls and clicks fell more in other data:

• Calls were 15% of all customer actions in Birdeye's report, down from 17% the year before. Direction requests went up from 34% to 38%.
• An analysis of 179 profiles found US calls down 11.9% and website clicks down 12.5% year over year in Q2, while direction requests rose 21.1%.
• DigitalShift Media, a marketing agency, says calls from its own clients' profiles fell about 18–22% in January and February 2026 compared with the same months in 2025. Their rankings stayed mostly flat.

So calls and clicks are down somewhere between 5% and about 20%, depending on whose numbers you read. Direction requests are going up. Nobody has published clean numbers for trade businesses yet, and these changes are recent. The data is early and it doesn't all agree.

What AI is changing on the page

You know the usual Google result: a map with three businesses under it, each with a call button. That's the map pack, and it's where a lot of trade calls have come from. Google is now sometimes showing something else in that spot.

In January 2026, Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google was showing AI Overviews where the local pack used to be. Some businesses saw their visibility drop by 50% or more. Joy Hawkins, a local search expert, said these AI-powered local packs replace the three-business pack, send less traffic to profiles, and move clicks toward ads. Glenn Gabe, another search consultant, said the AI packs often show only one or two businesses, and many of them have no call button.

Some agencies go further and report that Google removed the tap-to-call button from regular map listings on mobile, while paid ads like Local Services Ads still show one. Google hasn't announced that, so don't treat it as settled.

People also get answers without tapping anything. If the AI answer already shows your phone number, hours and address, someone can dial you or drive over without ever touching your profile. That person still found you, but your dashboard never counted it.

Check whether it's really you

Before you blame AI, make sure you're reading the dashboard correctly.

The "Calls" number in Performance counts taps on the call button, not calls that actually came through. Joy Hawkins at Sterling Sky points this out. If someone reads your number off the screen and dials it by hand, that call doesn't show up. Google also shut down the old chat and call-history features on July 31, 2024, so comparisons that go back that far may not line up.

Here's how to check fairly:

1. Compare the same months year over year. Look at September this year against September last year, not September against June. Trade work has seasons.
2. Look at each action type on its own. Your total interactions can go up while calls go down. Check calls, website clicks and direction requests separately.
3. Don't judge a partial month. Two weeks of October against all of last October will always look bad.
4. Check your rankings next to your calls. DigitalShift Media's rule of thumb: if you still show up as high as before but calls are dropping, the cause is probably the page layout or the button, not you losing ground.

If your rankings are steady and only the call taps are down, your profile probably isn't the problem. Google changed the page around it.

What the numbers don't tell you

Look at who these studies are about. Birdeye's data comes from large brands that use its software, and it doesn't say how many locations it looked at. The 179 profiles came from 34 US law firms. DigitalShift's numbers come from its own clients. None of these studies looked at handymen, siding crews or cleaners.

How often AI answers show up on local searches also varies a lot. One tracking source put AI local packs at roughly 8% of keywords in December 2025, and rising. Other sources give very different figures. Nobody can tell you for sure how often it happens on searches like "siding repair near me" in your town.

My advice is not to panic over one bad month. Watch it over a few months, compare against last year, and go by what your phone and your jobs actually tell you.

What I'd do: fifteen to thirty minutes, three evenings a week

None of this takes a big project. It takes regular small work.

Evening one: keep the profile accurate. - Make sure your primary category matches the work you most want, like "Siding contractor" and not a general category. - Check your hours. Only list hours when you really answer. - List your services and add a few new job photos. A finished job from this fall is better than a stock picture. - Keep your business name, address and phone number exactly the same everywhere they appear online.

Evening two: keep reviews coming. - Ask every happy customer, right when the job's done. DigitalShift suggests aiming for about 3–5 real reviews a month. - Reply to every review, good or bad, in a sentence or two.

Evening three: make it easy to reach you anywhere. - Put your phone number at the top of every page on your website, along with a "text us" option. Plenty of people would rather send a photo of the rotted trim than call. - Use profile posts and Q&A to answer the basic questions people ask, like service area, what you do and don't do, and how estimates work. - Track where your calls come from. Put a separate tracking number on your profile, or simply ask every caller "How did you hear about us?" and write it down. A notebook works.

The main thing is to treat Google as one door into your business, not the only one. Customers also ask ChatGPT and Google's AI who to call, and right now lead sellers and directories are often the ones getting named in those answers. I worked in siding and handyman work for years and took every call myself. Customers loved that, and it burned me out. That's why the path on this site starts with catching every call. Then it's getting the review, then showing up on Google, then getting named by AI. Each step makes the next one easier.

Bottom line

The map is getting harder to click through. Impressions are falling hard. Calls and clicks are down too, but much less, and more people are just getting directions and showing up. Nobody has solid numbers for trade businesses yet, so check your own dashboard properly before you decide anything. People still search for a contractor, and they'll still find one. Your best chance of being that contractor is having the most reviews, the clearest profile, and a website that answers their questions and makes it easy to call or text you.