When you search something on Google today, you will often see a paragraph of AI-generated answer before any website links, with a handful of sources named beside it. That block is an AI Overview (it grew out of what Google first called SGE, the Search Generative Experience). It pushes the traditional results further down the page.
For a local business this changes the game twice over. If Google summarizes "best time to replace a roof in Wisconsin" and cites your article, you get visibility and trust without anyone clicking a competitor first. If it summarizes and cites someone else, you may never get seen at all, even if you rank well on the old links below.
You cannot buy your way into an AI Overview, and you cannot force one. You earn a mention the same way you earn an AI citation anywhere: clean, well-structured, genuinely useful pages that answer the question better than the alternatives, with the entity information that tells Google exactly who and where you are.
Search "do I need a permit to finish my basement in Wauwatosa" on Google. The AI-written answer at the top, with two or three little source links, is an AI Overview. Being one of those sources is the goal.
Go deeper: What Is GEO? Generative Engine Optimization for Local Businesses.
This is part of our AI search (GEO) work.