Quick Tip: Should I Optimize My Practice for Ask Maps?
Yes, and there’s not much choice about it. Google officially discontinued the old Q&A feature on Business Profiles, replacing it with AI-driven answers powered by Gemini. The new experience, called Ask Maps, generates responses in real time instead of pulling from pre-written answers. Since patients can no longer read a static list of Q&As you wrote yourself, your best move now is making sure the data behind your profile is accurate enough for the AI to represent you well.
Why?
For years, practices could post their own questions and answers on their Google Business Profile to get ahead of common patient concerns. That control is gone. Instead of scrolling through user-submitted Q&As, patients now ask a question directly and get an AI-generated answer sourced from the practice’s website, Business Profile, reviews, and other listings.
Users are now talking directly to Google’s AI about your business, and the AI answers for you based on whatever it can verify. If your source data is well structured and clear, your business appears polished and trustworthy. If it’s messy or incomplete, the AI may fill the gaps with assumptions or third-party information you don’t control. Instead of providing answers, you need to be feeding the AI the raw material it uses to write the answer for you.
Best Practices
✔ Keep your Google Business Profile hours, services, and contact info fully accurate
✔ Build out an FAQ page on your website with clear, well-structured answers and FAQ schema markup
✔ Stay active on your profile with regular posts, since engagement appears to help maintain visibility
✔ Respond to reviews promptly, since reviews now feed into AI answers too
✔ Periodically search your own practice and test what Ask Maps says about you, correcting the source data if it’s wrong
Common Mistakes
The biggest dental marketing mistake in this scenario is trying to correct the AI’s answer directly, which isn’t possible. You have to fix the underlying source data instead, whether that’s your Business Profile fields, website content, or reviews. Another common miss is leaving an old, sparse Business Profile untouched and assuming it’ll sort itself out. With no more manual Q&A to fill gaps, thin profiles are more likely to get filled in with guesses or outdated info pulled from elsewhere online.
Old Q&A vs Ask Maps
| Old Q&A | Ask Maps | |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes the answer | Business or public users | AI (Gemini), generated in real time |
| Editable | Yes, you could post and edit | No, answers aren’t directly editable |
| Source of truth | Whatever you typed | Website, Business Profile, reviews, and other listings |
| What you control | The exact wording | The underlying data the AI pulls from |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still add new questions and answers to my Google Business Profile?
No. New content can no longer be added, and new business profiles are created without the Q&A feature entirely.
What happened to my old Q&A content?
Existing Q&A content may still be visible on some profiles, but it’s frozen and cannot be updated, and it will eventually be removed as Google finishes the transition.
What is Ask Maps exactly?
Ask Maps is Google’s new AI-powered feature that uses Gemini to answer user questions about a business in real time, pulling from Business Profiles, reviews, photos, and websites.
Is Ask Maps available everywhere yet?
As of March 2026, Ask Maps was still limited to the USA and India on Android and iOS, with a desktop version expected to follow.
What should I do with my old Q&A content before it disappears?
Move your best existing questions and answers over to your website’s FAQ page, with schema markup, so that information stays accessible to AI systems even after the old Q&A feature is fully removed.
Adrian Lefler is the CEO and Co-Founder of My Social Practice and a recognized dental marketing expert with nearly two decades of experience. He is a trusted voice in dental marketing, AI in dentistry, and emerging technology, and he hosts BYTE SIZED, a podcast focused on dental AI, innovation, and technology.
