Our research indicates that Google is now returning AI-powered map packs for 44% of commercial-intent legal searches. Additionally, on average, 70% of the law firms featured in AI map packs differ from those in traditional map packs.
Last months Joy Hawkins from Sterling Sky shared on Twitter that Google was beginning to deliver AI-powered map-packs for certain local searches:
This sparked some questions of immediate interest to law firms (and really any business that relies on Google maps for lead generation):
- How often is Google showing AI-powered map packs?
- Do they show different firms in AI map packs than in the traditional map pack?
- What types of searches / keywords are most likely to trigger AI map packs?
For reference, below are two screenshots: The first shows a traditional local map pack, and the second shows an AI-powered map pack:
Key Findings
We ran a mini-study of legal searches across desktop and mobile. We found four results that we think law firms who invest in organic search marketing should be aware of:
1. AI map packs appear in 44% of mobile legal searches.
- The upshot: Your rank reporting just got more complicated. If you have reports set up to show you how you rank in the map pack, those reports might show that you no longer show up at all, because in 44% of cases the traditional map pack is being replaced by the AI map pack.
2. About 70% of the law firms shown in AI map packs are not the same firms shown in traditional map packs.
- The upshot: Just because you rank well in the traditional local pack, doesn’t mean you’ll show up in the AI-powered map pack. This change could be responsible for a decline in leads for your firm.
3. On desktop, AI Overviews appear 55% of the time — and in 77% of those cases, the firms they suggest are completely different than the firms in the 3-pack.
- The upshot: Even if your firm dominates local SEO and the map pack, Google’s AI may still recommend different firms above you, which may be causing a decline in leads.
4. Google was more likely to show the AI-map pack when the search had a modifier like “Affordable,” “best”, “top” and “free consultation”.
- More: While our sample size was very small (see methodology) we found that “Affordable,” “best”, “top” and “free consultation” language was strongly associated with AI map packs, while classic “practice area + city” or “near me” queries never triggered them in this sample.
Here’s a video of me talking about this:
@mchuckgreen Does your law firm have a plan for AI powered map packs? #legalmarketing #lawyersoftiktok #seo #lawfirmseo ♬ original sound – Matt Green
Why This Matters
- First and foremost, this matters because if your firm has seen a decrease in leads from Google over the past few months, this could – at least partially explain why.
- It also matters because it throws off reporting. For example, if your ranking report used to show that you ranked #1 in the traditional local pack for “best personal injury lawyer” but now it shows you not ranking at all, it could be that an AI local pack has replaced the traditional local pack. This doesn’t necessarily mean you no longer rank at all – but it might, since our findings show that 70% of law firms that show in the traditional local pack do not rank in the AI local pack.
- Beyond the AI-map pack, the study reveals that Google displays AI overviews 55% of the time for transactional legal searches. This means that your data could be misleading. You could still have strong visibility in the local map pack, but if you aren’t also being suggested in Google’s AI overview – which almost always shows above the local pack – it could explain a decline in leads.
What to Do Next
- First, assess your data. And I don’t mean rankings and traffic. I am new leads and new cases that come from Google local. If over the last couple of months these metrics are down compared to the previous year, it may be at least in part due to this change.
- Next, have conversations with your marketing agency / SEO provider about what specifically can be done to maximize your visibility in AI-powered search results.
- Finally, don’t overreact. The truth is that there is still a ton of overlap between what’s required to rank well in traditional search results and what’s required to have strong visibility in AI results. The key is to be aware of the current landscape and take intentional steps to ensure that your firm remains as visible as possible.
Note: All content from this point forward was produced with the help of generative AI, but reviewed and edited by me, Matt Green, a human being.
Full Data Breakdown & Supporting Analysis
For readers who want to go beyond the headlines, here’s a deeper look at what the data actually showed.
How Often AI Features Appear (Mobile vs Desktop)
We analyzed 54 total legal searches — 27 on mobile and 27 on desktop.
Mobile Results
| Feature | % of Searches | Count |
|---|---|---|
| AI Map Pack | 44% | 12 / 27 |
| Traditional Map Pack | 56% | 15 / 27 |
| AI Overview | 37% | 10 / 27 |
Important note: On mobile, AI Map Packs often replaced the traditional map pack rather than appearing alongside it.
Desktop Results
| Feature | % of Searches | Count |
|---|---|---|
| AI Overview | 55% | 15 / 27 |
| AI Map Pack | 0% | 0 / 27 |
| Traditional Map Pack | 93% | 25 / 27 |
Important Note: AI Map Packs did not appear on desktop in our dataset, but AI Overviews appeared more than half the time, often above both organic results and the map pack.
How Different Are AI Map Packs From Traditional Map Packs?
To measure how disruptive AI Map Packs really are, we compared:
- Firms shown in AI Map Packs on mobile
- vs.
- Firms shown in Traditional Map Packs on desktop
Only comparable searches (same query + city) were used.
AI Map Pack vs Traditional 3-Pack: Firm Overlap
Across 9 comparable searches:
| Overlap | # of Searches | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 0 firms shared | 3 | 33% |
| 1 firm shared | 4 | 44% |
| 2 firms shared | 2 | 22% |
| 3 firms shared | 0 | 0% |
Each pack contains 3 firms, so we also calculated overlap at the firm level:
- Total firm placements: 27
- Shared firms: 8
- Overlap rate: ~30%
- Non-overlap rate: ~70%
In plain terms: Roughly 7 out of 10 law firms shown in AI map packs are different from those in traditional map packs. This quantifies the core insight: AI visibility and traditional local visibility are not the same thing anymore.
Desktop: AI Overviews vs. Traditional Map Packs
We also analyzed how firms suggested in AI Overviews on desktop compared to those appearing in the traditional local 3-pack.
We looked at 13 searches where:
✔ AI Overview appeared
✔ Traditional map pack appeared
AI Overview vs Traditional 3-Pack Overlap
| Overlap | # of Searches | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 0 firms shared | 10 | 77% |
| At least 1 shared | 3 | 23% |
| Full overlap | 0 | 0% |
On average, the similarity between AI Overview firms and map pack firms scored: 0.056 on a 0–1 similarity scale
Translation: They almost never match.
This means that on desktop:
- Law firms dominating the map pack are often completely different from those recommended in the AI Overview.
- Since AI Overviews frequently appear above the map pack, this reduces the practical value of map pack dominance alone.
Which Search Types Triggered AI Map Packs Most Often?
Even within your small dataset, some clear patterns emerged:
| Query Type | AI Map Pack Rate |
|---|---|
| “Affordable” | 100% |
| “Best [City] Lawyer” | 100% |
| “Free Consultation” | 75% |
| “Who are the best…” | 25% |
| “Practice Area + City” | 0% |
| “Near Me” | 0% |
Why this matters:
AI Map Packs seem to trigger more frequently when:
- A user signals shopping / decision intent
- Words like “best,” “affordable,” or “free consultation” are used
By contrast, traditional locality-driven searches like “lawyer near me” didn’t trigger AI Map Packs once in this sample.
AI Map Packs by Practice Area
Here’s how often AI Map Packs appeared by practice area (mobile only):
| Practice Area | AI Map Pack Rate |
|---|---|
| Personal Injury | 50% |
| Family Law | 50% |
| Employment Law | 40% |
| Criminal Defense | 33% |
While the sample is small, personal injury and family law queries were more likely to surface AI Map Packs than criminal defense.
Methodology
To conduct this mini-study, we manually tracked how Google displayed local results for a curated set of 54 legal searches — 27 on mobile and the same 27 on desktop — across multiple U.S. cities and practice areas, including personal injury, family law, criminal defense, and employment law.
For each query, we recorded:
- Whether an AI Overview appeared
- Whether an AI-generated local map pack appeared
- Whether a traditional local 3-pack appeared
- The law firms listed in each of those features
To measure overlap and differences between result types, we compared:
- Firms shown in AI Map Packs (mobile) vs. firms shown in traditional map packs (desktop) for the same query
- Firms mentioned in AI Overviews (desktop) vs. firms shown in the traditional 3-pack
All law firms mentioned within AI Overviews were treated as AI suggestions for comparison purposes. We then calculated both raw firm overlap percentages and normalized similarity scores to quantify how aligned (or misaligned) these result sets were.
This study represents a point-in-time snapshot of Google’s evolving AI search experience (collected in late November 2025), not a long-term or exhaustive dataset. However, it provides a reliable directional view into how AI-driven search features are already impacting local visibility for law firms.
