Streets Ahead: Google’s Search Labs and Optimizing for AI Search

In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses Google’s Search Labs latest experiment and optimizing local pages for AI search.

Google’s Search Labs Tests AI for Business Leads

The News  Last week, Google’s Search Labs introduced a new experiment called “Ask for me,” an AI-powered feature designed to call businesses on your behalf to gather details like pricing and availability for services—think a manicure at a nearby nail salon or an oil change at a local auto shop. Google promises responses within 30 minutes.

Rose Yao, VP of Search Product, Verticals & International at Google, confirmed on X:

“In case you’re wondering … this is using the same underlying Duplex tech that’s used to make restaurant reservations via Search/Maps.”

For those unfamiliar, Google Duplex debuted in 2018 as a tool for handling real-world phone conversations using AI. While advanced, its robotic tone can sometimes give away its AI nature, making it feel spammy to those unfamiliar with these types of calls.

Yao also noted that the current Google Search Labs experiment is focused on auto shops and nail salons. Businesses can opt out—though as of now, there’s no clear information on how to do so.

Why This Matters  Although still an experimental feature that may never see a full public rollout, “Ask for me” , if widely adopted, could create a new channel for generating highly active, qualified leads—especially for businesses that are responsive, prepared, and open to engaging with AI-driven inquiries.

However, success will depend on businesses recognizing these AI-powered calls and not mistaking them for spam. Those that adapt early and ensure their availability to answer inquiries accurately and promptly could gain a competitive edge—boosting customer engagement, increasing bookings, and potentially driving higher conversion rates.

Optimizing for AI Search

The News  One of the most common questions from customers—one many SEOs hear regularly—is: “How should I be optimizing my local pages for AI search?”. The answer typically comes down to two key areas:

1. Train the AI by clearly describing what you do, what customers should expect from someone in your field, and how you stand out from the competition. The more explicit and structured your information, the better AI models will understand and surface your business.
2. Optimize your local pages for AI readability—ensuring they are well-structured, easily crawlable, and quick to load.

A recent article from Search Engine Journal dives deep into this second point, offering actionable recommendations for making your local content more accessible in the AI-driven search landscape. Some key takeaways include:

• Metadata still matters – Use clear meta titles and descriptions that highlight key business details, and implement local business schema to help AI better understand your page. Don’t forget OpenGraph tags to enhance how your content appears in previews.
• Speed is critical – While Google has long prioritized fast-loading pages, AI crawlers have even tighter timeouts—sometimes as short as 1-5 seconds. To avoid missing out on AI-driven traffic, prioritize HTML over JavaScript and aim for sub-1-second load times.

Beyond offering strong technical SEO recommendations, the article also provides tools and resources for testing how AI agents currently perceive, access, and interpret your content.

Besides offering up great, detailed optimization advice that you should absolutely review and put into practice as soon as possible, the article also provides resources for confirming if your page is currently accessible and useful for AI, and how AI agents perceive and access your content.

Why This Matters LLMs don’t have their own Google Business Profile—which means Local Business Pages are often the most reliable structured data source AI crawlers use to verify key business information.

If pages are poorly structured, difficult to index, or nonexistent, the business may not appear in AI-driven search results. The good news? You have full control over this information.

• Audit the local pages regularly to ensure they are optimized for AI search.
• Work with a partner who understands how to structure pages for maximum visibility in an AI-driven landscape.