Google has started showing small-business owners exactly what its automated assistant has collected about them by phone. Search Engine Land reported on September 14, 2026 that a "Collected info" tab is now live in the Google Business Profile dashboard. You can review each detail and delete anything wrong. Check it this week.
What is the Collected Info tab?
It is a new section of your Google Business Profile dashboard that lists details Google gathered from automated phone or chat conversations with your business, rather than from anything you typed in yourself.
Google’s own wording inside the panel, quoted by Search Engine Land on September 14, 2026, is blunt: "This info was collected in phone or chat conversations with your business. It’s used to match your business with customers looking for services like yours." Search Engine Roundtable’s write-up of the same rollout describes the kind of detail involved as "everyday details—like whether you offer curbside pickup, have dedicated customer parking, or accept walk-ins."
If you have ever had a staff member answer an unexpected automated call asking whether you do same-day service, that answer may already be sitting in your profile, shaping which searches you appear in. Until now there was no place to look at it.
Where do I find it in my dashboard?
Open your Business Profile from Google Search or Maps, click "Edit business profile", and look for the "Collected info" tab.
Per Search Engine Land’s September 14 report, Google says the feature is currently limited to "select regions, languages, and business categories" and "may not be available for all users". So if the tab is not there yet, you are not doing anything wrong — it has not reached your category or country. Put a reminder in for a month’s time and check again. Google did not publish a Canadian availability list, so treat your own dashboard as the only reliable answer.
Can I edit what Google collected, or only delete it?
You can delete, not edit. That distinction matters more than it sounds.
Search Engine Roundtable’s coverage of the rollout is specific on this point: owners can view a collected detail and click "Delete" to remove it from Google Search and Maps, but cannot rewrite it in place. So if Google has recorded that you accept walk-ins and you stopped six months ago, your only move is removal — and then setting the correct attribute yourself through the normal profile fields, where you control the wording.
| Collected info (automated) | Attributes you set yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it comes from | Automated phone or chat conversations with your business | Your own entries in the Business Profile dashboard |
| Can you edit it? | No — delete only | Yes |
| Can you delete it? | Yes, per detail | Yes |
| Who answers for you | Whoever picked up the phone that day | You |
| Availability | Select regions, languages and categories | Everyone |
Why does this matter for AI search, not just Maps?
Because the same structured facts that decide whether you show up in the local pack are the facts an AI assistant reaches for when someone asks it a question with a location in it.
When a customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Mode for "an appliance repair shop in Scarborough that does same-day", the answer is assembled from whatever the model can find that is stated plainly and attributed to a source. A profile that says you do same-day service is a usable fact. A profile that says the opposite because a summer student answered a robocall in July is a usable fact too — just the wrong one, and one that quietly removes you from a set of searches you would have won.
This is also a reminder that your own website is not the only thing feeding AI answers about you. In two experiments published in Search Engine Land on September 14, 2026, Zeeshan Yaseen tracked brand citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode and found that third-party placements outperformed the brand’s own content — in the 30-day cold-start test, earned placements drove 85.8% of citations against 14.0% for the brand’s own listicle. Those are two case studies, not a law of nature, but the direction is one we see constantly: the things other sources say about you carry more weight than the things you say about yourself. Your Google Business Profile is the most important of those other sources, and it is the one you can actually control.
What to do this week
- Open the Collected info tab. Business Profile → Edit business profile → Collected info. Read every line. If the tab is not there, note the date and check again in a month.
- Delete anything inaccurate, then replace it properly. Remove the wrong detail, then set the correct service, attribute or hours through the standard profile fields so the accurate version is the one on record.
- Brief whoever answers your phone. Tell your front desk that automated calls from Google are real and that their answers end up on your public profile. Agree in advance on the answers for your three most-asked questions: hours, service area, and whether you do same-day or emergency work.
- Re-check your core facts. Hours, service area, categories and services are what both Maps and AI assistants quote. Fix them once and they pay you back for months. If local visibility is where your leads come from, our SEO service handles this kind of profile hygiene as standard.
Frequently asked questions
Does deleting collected info hurt my local rankings?
There is no evidence either way, because Google has not said. What we do know is that inaccurate attributes cost you visibility for searches you would otherwise match, and can cost you a booking when a customer arrives expecting walk-in service you do not offer. Removing a wrong detail and setting the correct one yourself leaves Google with the same amount of information about you — just information that is actually true. That is the safer position.
Why is Google calling my business in the first place?
Google has used automated calls for several years to verify everyday operational details that change often and that businesses rarely update themselves — holiday hours, whether you are taking walk-ins, whether curbside pickup is still running. The Collected info tab does not stop the calls. It just means you can finally see what came out of them, which is a meaningful change from the previous situation.
What if the Collected info tab is not showing for my business?
Then it has not rolled out to your region, language or business category yet. Search Engine Land quoted Google on September 14, 2026 saying the feature is limited to "select regions, languages, and business categories". Nothing is wrong with your account and there is no setting to switch on. Keep your hours, services and attributes accurate in the meantime, and check the tab again in a few weeks.
Does this apply to businesses with more than one location?
Yes, and it is worth more attention if you have several. Each location has its own profile and its own collected details, and each one was shaped by whoever answered that location’s phone. Check them individually rather than assuming the main location’s record represents the rest.
Not sure what your profiles are telling Google — or telling ChatGPT? We will audit your Business Profile and your local search visibility free within 48 hours. Get in touch here.
Sources: Search Engine Land, "Google Business Profiles rolls out Collected Info", September 14, 2026; Search Engine Roundtable, "Google Business Profiles New Collected Info"; Search Engine Land, "Two GEO experiments challenge conventional AI visibility advice", September 14, 2026.