Local Search: Can ChatGPT Close the Gap with Google?
A closer look at local search attitudes and behaviors from our June 2025 consumer study.
Google has long been the go-to site for local search and discovery. That's been true, arguably, since the advent of Google Maps in 2005, 20 years ago.
Other than perhaps Facebook or Amazon, Google has not faced a truly formidable competitor until now. And ChatGPT has emerged as potentially more threatening than either Facebook or Amazon. That's because it has the capacity to totally replace Google's core capabilities: research, discovery and purchase-decision support.
Marketers and pundits tend to discuss the relationship between traditional Google and ChatGPT (or AI) as a mostly zero-sum proposition: AI or Google. But it turns out to be more complicated. It's an "and story," at least for the time being.
