Google representatives are scheduled to preview upcoming AI Search changes affecting local discovery during a September 24 webinar, giving local marketers a date to watch for new information about how Search and Gemini evaluate businesses and locations. For now, however, the announcement is a preview of a preview: no specific new ranking signal, Business Profile feature or AI Search product change has yet been disclosed.
The session was announced by Search Engine Journal, which says Google and Uberall will join its live webinar on Thursday, September 24 at 11 a.m. ET. The speaker lineup includes Caroline Dissaux, Business Development Lead for Search & Gemini at Google; Bonnie White, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Adecco supporting Google on Google Business Profile partnerships; Krystal Taing, VP of Solutions at Uberall; and Search Engine Journal Executive Editor Katie Morton as host.
The promotional page says attendees will get a first-hand look at “Google's next AI updates” and what each change means for local discovery. It also frames the session around the signals that help AI Overviews and Gemini understand, compare and recommend individual locations. That is potentially significant for local SEO, but the distinction matters: these are descriptions of what the webinar intends to cover, not documentation of updates that Google has already announced publicly.
September 24 is the disclosure date to watch
Search Engine Journal says the live session will focus on what is changing in Google's AI-driven local discovery and on five strategy fixes intended to help multi-location brands respond. According to the announcement, Google's participants will discuss what comes next in Search and AI innovation, while Uberall will translate those changes into local marketing actions.
That makes September 24 the relevant date for substantive reporting. Until the speakers explain the changes, headlines should avoid implying that Google has already revealed new local ranking factors or launched new Business Profile capabilities. The current source does not name the updates, provide product documentation or describe a rollout schedule.
This distinction is particularly important because promotional webinar language is designed to encourage registration. Phrases such as “what's next,” “first-hand look” and “next AI updates” establish the subject of the event, but they do not provide enough technical detail to determine whether Google will announce new features, explain existing systems, clarify signal usage or preview changes that will arrive later.
The local SEO question is shifting from ranking to recommendation
The framing of the webinar nevertheless reflects a real change in how local visibility is being discussed. Traditional local SEO has often focused on rankings in the local pack and Maps results. AI interfaces introduce another layer: the system may compare several businesses, summarize their differences and recommend one or more locations directly inside an answer.
Search Engine Journal describes the new test for multi-location brands as whether AI Overviews and Gemini know enough about each location to recommend it and whether the underlying details are accurate. In that model, visibility is not simply about appearing in a ranked list. A business needs enough machine-readable, consistent and persuasive evidence for the AI system to understand what the location offers and when it is a good fit for a user's request.
That does not mean conventional local SEO signals have stopped mattering. Business Profile data, website content, reviews, location information and broader web references all contribute to the information environment from which search systems can build answers. What remains unclear—and what the September 24 session may help clarify—is how Google wants businesses to think about those inputs specifically in relation to AI recommendations.
Search Engine Journal says local signals will be central
The webinar announcement says AI answers are assembled from a set of local signals Google can read and warns that inconsistent or stale information across locations can weaken a brand's ability to be recommended. It promises guidance for auditing which signals AI is reading and which are missing.
For multi-location organizations, that framing is intuitive. A brand may maintain accurate information for most stores while a subset has outdated hours, inconsistent services, weak review coverage or incomplete content. An AI system trying to answer a highly specific local query needs to resolve those inconsistencies before it can confidently recommend a location.
But marketers should not turn the promotional description into an unofficial ranking-factor list before the session occurs. The announcement does not enumerate the precise signals behind AI Overviews or Gemini recommendations, nor does it establish their relative weighting. The useful question for September 24 is therefore not “which five factors has Google confirmed?” but “what will Google's representatives actually say about the information its AI systems use for local discovery?”
Google Search, Gemini and Business Profile perspectives will share the stage
The speaker mix is one reason the event is worth monitoring. Dissaux represents Search & Gemini business development at Google, while White supports Google on Business Profile partnerships. That creates an opportunity for the discussion to connect Google's AI answer surfaces with the structured location information businesses manage through their profiles.
Uberall adds the multi-location marketing perspective. The company works with location data and local visibility at scale, and Taing is scheduled to present the five strategy fixes that Search Engine Journal says will correspond to Google's changes. This could make the webinar more operational than a general AI Search presentation, particularly for brands managing many locations.
Still, the roles of the speakers should not be interpreted as evidence that every statement in the webinar will constitute a formal Google Search ranking announcement. Product documentation, Search Central guidance and official Business Profile documentation remain the stronger references for confirmed technical behavior. Webinar comments can provide valuable context, but they should be quoted precisely and attributed to the speaker who made them.
Why local AI recommendations are harder to measure than map rankings
The growing importance of AI recommendations also creates a measurement challenge. A local rank tracker can test a defined keyword from a defined location and record where a business appears. Generative answers are less deterministic. The system may interpret the request differently, compare a different set of businesses or change the response based on context.
A query such as “best coffee shop near me” is relatively broad. A conversational request such as “quiet coffee shop near the station with outdoor seating and somewhere I can work for two hours” requires the system to combine proximity with amenities, atmosphere and user intent. The business that ranks highest for a generic local query may not be the one the AI recommends for the more constrained request.
This increases the value of accurate entity and location information. If a business offers a service but does not describe it consistently across its profile, site and other authoritative sources, an AI system may have less evidence for recommending it when that attribute becomes part of the user's request. The September webinar appears designed to address precisely this shift from generic local visibility to recommendation eligibility.
Businesses do not need to wait to fix basic data quality
Even without knowing what Google will reveal on September 24, local marketers can audit fundamentals that are unlikely to become less important. Business names, addresses, phone numbers, opening hours, categories, services and URLs should be accurate. Location pages should explain what is genuinely different about each branch rather than repeating generic copy across every city.
Reviews also deserve attention as both customer evidence and a source of descriptive language about real experiences. Businesses should not manipulate reviews or treat them as keyword containers, but they can make sure review processes are healthy, respond appropriately and investigate recurring complaints or factual inaccuracies.
The same principle applies to local content. A location page that clearly states services, accessibility information, parking, neighborhoods served, booking options and other useful details gives both customers and machines more context than a page containing only an address and a templated paragraph. None of this requires guessing at an undisclosed September algorithm update.
What marketers should listen for on September 24
The most valuable outcome would be clarity about how Google distinguishes the information used for retrieval, comparison and recommendation in local AI experiences. Marketers should listen for explicit statements about Business Profile fields, reviews, website content, third-party references, structured data, freshness and consistency—and whether Google describes any of them as new or simply reiterates established local-search principles.
It will also be important to separate AI Overviews from Gemini where the speakers do so. The two experiences can share underlying Google capabilities without being identical products or using every source in exactly the same way. A statement about one surface should not automatically be generalized to all Google AI experiences.
Finally, watch for measurement guidance. If local AI recommendations are becoming a meaningful customer-acquisition surface, businesses need ways to assess visibility and outcomes without relying on anecdotal screenshots. Any official advice on auditing AI recommendations, tracking Business Profile interactions or understanding referral and booking behavior could be as useful as a new optimization signal.
For now, the update is the scheduled preview—not the product change
The headline today is deliberately narrow: Google's Search/Gemini and Business Profile representatives are scheduled to participate in a September 24 session that Search Engine Journal says will preview upcoming AI Search changes affecting local discovery. The webinar will also include Uberall's interpretation of the strategy adjustments multi-location brands should consider.
What Google has not yet done, based on the announcement, is disclose the actual updates. There is no confirmed new ranking factor to optimize for today, no newly announced Business Profile field and no technical specification explaining a changed recommendation system. Those details, if they are revealed, belong in the follow-up coverage after the session.
That restraint matters in a fast-moving AI Search market where promotional language can easily harden into supposed ranking advice before the underlying information is public. September 24 may provide useful new guidance on how Google wants local businesses to prepare for AI-driven discovery. Until then, the best strategy is to keep local data accurate, content specific and evidence consistent—and keep the claims about Google's “next updates” proportional to what Google has actually disclosed.