State of Online Reviews 2026: How AI, automation, and local search are reshaping customer trust 

Online reviews have moved from a reputation metric to a growth system for multi-location brands. In 2026, reviews play a central role in local discovery, AI-powered search experiences, and location-level performance analysis for enterprise brands. 

Summary

Birdeye’s State of Online Reviews 2026 report reveals a major shift in how multi-location brands generate, manage, and use customer feedback. Review volume grew 30.7%, driven by the widespread adoption of automated email and SMS outreach across enterprise workflows. SMS became the leading review-request channel, response rates reached a record high, and written reviews remained a strong source of customer insights.

This shift makes reviews more important to both visibility and customer trust. AI-powered search experiences increasingly use customer feedback to summarize businesses, compare local experiences, and influence discovery. Google Business Profiles are also turning reviews into action, helping customers decide whether to visit a website, request directions, call, or choose a location.

Google also remains the dominant review platform in 2025, accounting for 79.4% of reviews per location. While Google’s share declined slightly from 80.3% in 2024, Google review volume per location still grew 29.3%, reinforcing its central role in enterprise review visibility. 

For multi-location brands, the priority in 2026 is consistency. Enterprise teams need structured review programs that request feedback at the right moments, use SMS and email effectively, respond with quality and care, maintain accurate Google Business Profiles, and turn customer feedback into operational improvements across every location.

This blog breaks down the biggest online review trends shaping 2026, including review growth, Google visibility, SMS and email request strategy, response quality, AI search, Google Business Profile performance, and what enterprise brands should do next. 

What are the biggest changes in online reviews for 2026?

Birdeye’s State of Online Reviews 2026 report shows that review activity accelerated in 2025. Review volume grew by 30.7%, compared with 26% in 2024, marking the highest annual growth rate since 2021. 

But growth alone is not the story. The data shows a broader shift in how enterprise brands collect, manage, and act on customer feedback. 

Review responses reached a record high

Brands are engaging more consistently with customer feedback than ever before.

• In the 2025 report, 73% of reviews received a response
• In the 2026 report, response rates increased to 75.5%
• This marks the highest response rate recorded in the dataset

The increase suggests that review management is becoming a more established part of customer experience operations rather than a reactive support task.

SMS became the leading review request channel

The review request channel mix also changed dramatically in 2025. Last year, email accounted for 60% of review requests. In 2025, SMS became the leading channel, accounting for 54.6% of all review requests. 

This shift reflects changing customer behavior, with mobile-first communication becoming more effective for timely review collection.

Written reviews remained strong despite higher volume 

Review quality also remained resilient. Last year, 81% of reviews included comments; this year, that share held steady at 79.8%, showing that customers continued to provide meaningful feedback even as review volume scaled. 

Together, these shifts show that review programs are becoming:

• More automated
• More mobile-driven
• More integrated into customer experience workflows
• More influential in local search visibility and customer trust

For enterprise brands, the advantage now comes from improving request timing, response quality, location-level execution, and the systems used to turn review data into action. 

What is driving the surge in online review volume? 

The sharp rise in review volume reflects a structural shift in how multi-location brands collect feedback. Review generation has become more automated, more scalable, and more closely tied to customer interactions across locations.

According to Birdeye’s State of Online Reviews 2026 report, approximately 95% of email and SMS review outreach is now automated, allowing enterprise brands to trigger review requests after appointments, purchases, service visits, reservations, support interactions, and other high-intent customer touchpoints.

<preformat> For a deeper breakdown, see Birdeye’s guide to SMS vs. email review requests. 

This shift has removed many of the manual bottlenecks that previously limited review generation across locations. Corporate teams can now standardize review request workflows across regions, while local teams receive a steadier flow of customer feedback. This helps reduce gaps in review volume, ratings, and customer insight between locations.

Industries seeing the fastest review growth 

The industries with the highest review growth in 2025, including Hospitality (+50.3%), Healthcare (+36.3%), and Home Services (+24.5%), share several common characteristics: frequent customer interactions, natural post-service review moments, and mature automation workflows. 

At the same time, the data suggests that automation itself is no longer the competitive advantage. With automation adoption nearing a practical ceiling, the next differentiators will be execution quality, request timing, channel selection, system integrations, and the ability to generate richer customer feedback across locations.  

But generating more reviews is only part of the opportunity. As search becomes more AI-driven, the bigger question is how those reviews are interpreted, summarized, and surfaced when customers are making local decisions.

How online reviews affect AI search and local SEO

AI search is changing how customers discover and evaluate local businesses. Review content is increasingly surfaced in Google AI Overviews, local search results, and LLM-powered answers, making review quality an important visibility factor for multi-location brands.

Reviews help AI and search systems understand:

• Customer experience quality
• Local relevance
• Trust and credibility
• How individual locations perform in their markets

Detailed written reviews are especially valuable. Comments that mention service quality, staff interactions, product availability, wait times, location experience, and customer outcomes give search systems more context to summarize what customers can expect before they visit a website, call, book, or choose a location. A customer may not read every review on a profile. Instead, AI may summarize the pattern for them: 

“Customers praise this location for fast service but mention longer wait times on weekends.”

 That kind of summary can influence trust before a customer clicks, calls, or visits. 

Birdeye’s State of Online Reviews 2026 report found that 79.8% of reviews included written comments, giving enterprise brands a strong base of customer language to support discovery and decision-making. High-consideration industries generated even deeper feedback, with Real Estate reviews averaging 409 characters, and Assisted Living reviews averaging 400 characters.  

AI search visibility depends on more than rankings
Birdeye’s State of AI Search 2026 report shows that discovery is shifting from traditional search rankings to citation-backed AI answers. AI engines rely on a trust stack that includes owned site content, profile content, citation networks, and review and social proof layers. For multi-location brands, this means reviews work best when they are supported by accurate profiles, structured location pages, and trusted third-party validation. 

he strongest review signals for local SEO and AI search include:

• Review volume: A steady flow of reviews shows that locations are active and regularly serving customers.
• Review recency: Recent reviews give search systems and customers current information about the business.
• Written comments: Detailed comments provide context about service quality, staff behavior, product availability, and location-specific experiences.
• Ratings consistency: Strong ratings across locations help protect brand trust and reduce performance gaps between markets.
• Response quality: Relevant responses show engagement and reinforce trust with customers evaluating the business.
• Profile accuracy: Reviews work best when paired with accurate Google Business Profile details, including categories, hours, addresses, phone numbers, and links.

For enterprise brands, the review strategy needs to connect with local SEO and Google Business Profile management. Every location needs recent reviews, useful written feedback, thoughtful responses, and accurate profile information so it can become easier to discover, evaluate, and choose across local and AI-powered search. 

Should multi-location brands use SMS or email for review requests? 

SMS became the leading channel for review requests in 2025, accounting for 54.6% of all review requests and overtaking email for the first time. This marks a clear shift from the email-led review request strategy that dominated through 2023.

The better channel depends on the customer journey, industry, and timing of the request. SMS works best when the customer interaction is recent and action-oriented, such as after an appointment, service visit, purchase, or completed job. Email remains important for longer journeys, reminder sequences, booking workflows, and industries where customers expect more detailed communication.

Three-channel trends stand out: 

• SMS leads in high-frequency industries: Healthcare, Home Services, and Automotive use SMS heavily because customers often have a clear post-service moment when they are ready to share feedback. 
• Email remains important in workflow-driven industries: Hospitality is still heavily email-dependent, with 84.5% of review requests sent through email due to booking system workflows. 
• Both channels face engagement pressure: Email open rates dropped to 53.7% in 2025, while SMS click-through rates declined slightly to 6.2%. 

For multi-location brands, the goal is not to choose one channel universally. Enterprise teams need to map request channels to customer journeys, test performance by location and industry, and optimize timing, message clarity, and sender trust across both SMS and email.

Why does review response quality matter more in 2026? 

Customers do not just read reviews; they also evaluate how brands respond to them. A thoughtful response shows that the brand is listening, acknowledges the customer experience, and has a process for taking action when needed.

The State of Online Reviews 2026 report shows that businesses responded to 75.5% of reviews in 2025, up from 73% in the previous report. This was the highest response rate recorded in the dataset. The smaller year-over-year increase also signals that response coverage is maturing as more brands adopt established online review management strategies and workflows.

The next priority is response quality. As review volume grows, enterprise teams are using automation to keep pace, but generic replies create risk. Consumer trust in online reviews declined from 79% in 2020 to 42% in 2025, underscoring the importance of authentic, contextual responses. 

The report shows that about 60% of review responses are written by humans, while 40% are automated. The strongest review programs use AI and automation to improve coverage and speed while keeping human oversight for sensitive, detailed, or high-impact reviews.

For multi-location brands, response management now needs a balance of speed, accuracy, and governance. Teams should define when AI can be used, when a review needs human review, and how sensitive responses should be approved, especially in regulated or trust-sensitive industries such as Healthcare, Legal, Finance, and Property Management. The goal is not just to reply faster, but to make every response feel relevant, compliant, and consistent with the brand’s voice across locations. 

How are online review trends changing across industries? 

Online review trends vary by industry because customers leave feedback at different moments, through different channels, and on different platforms. High-frequency industries tend to generate more reviews, while high-consideration industries often receive more detailed feedback.

The data also shows that no single review strategy works across every sector. Each industry has different platform dependencies, automation maturity, compliance needs, and customer expectations. 

1. Hospitality: Fastest review growth and strongest platform diversification 

Hospitality recorded the highest review growth of any major industry, with review volume increasing 50.3% from 2024 to 2025. It also had the lowest Google review share among major industries, with Google accounting for only 38% of Hospitality reviews. This makes Hospitality a clear example of why enterprise brands cannot rely on Google alone. Expedia, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and other travel platforms still play a major role in customer decision-making. 

2. Restaurants: Reputation management extends beyond Google 

Restaurants show a similar need for platform-specific review management. While Google remains the leading review platform for restaurants, Yelp and OpenTable each account for approximately 5% of restaurant reviews. These are meaningful shares because both platforms influence dining discovery, reservations, and customer comparison. For multi-location restaurant brands, reputation management needs to extend beyond Google to the platforms customers use when deciding where to eat. 

3. Healthcare: Automation growth with stronger governance needs 

Healthcare continued to grow through SMS and automation. Review volume increased 36.3% from 2024 to 2025, while Healthcare’s blended star rating improved from 4.00 to 4.20. The industry is also becoming more SMS-led, with 59.8% of review requests sent through SMS, and automated responses now making up approximately 52% of Healthcare review replies. For healthcare organizations, the bigger priority is governance: response workflows need approval rules, compliance controls, and human oversight for sensitive feedback. 

4. Real Estate: Higher-quality reviews and stronger ratings 

Real Estate recorded the largest star rating increase of any industry, rising from 3.93 in 2024 to 4.3 in 2025. It also had one of the highest comment rates at approximately 88% and the longest average review length at 409 characters. Because real estate decisions are high-consideration and deeply personal, customers tend to leave more detailed feedback, giving brands richer insight and giving search systems more context to understand local experiences. 

5. Retail and Automotive: Review volume pressure and platform enforcement 

Retail and Automotive saw pressure on review volume, but for different reasons. Automotive review volume declined 1.0%, likely due to Google’s 2024 review cleanup, even though the industry still generates the highest review rate per location. Retail saw a sharper 23.5% decline, driven by platform enforcement and email engagement pressure. These sectors need closer monitoring of review trends, Google activity, channel performance, and review request quality to protect visibility and trust. 

Key takeaway: Review strategy should match the customer journey, platform mix, and compliance needs of each industry. The strongest enterprise programs do not apply one review playbook across every market; they adapt request timing, platform coverage, and response governance by sector. 

Want the full industry breakdown?
Download the report for complete benchmarks by sector, including review growth, Google share, response rates, rating changes, review quality, and platform breakdowns. 

How does Google Business Profile turn reviews into customer action?  

Google Business Profile (GBP) connects reviews to customer action. After customers read reviews, they often use the profile to visit a website, request directions, call a business, or compare nearby locations. This makes GBP more than a visibility tool. It acts as the bridge between customer trust and local conversion. 

Birdeye’s State of Google Business Profile 2026 report shows that 76% of businesses now have verified profiles, up from 71% in 2024 and 64% in 2023. Verification is now a baseline requirement for local visibility because it helps brands maintain accurate location information and unlock engagement features that customers use when they are ready to act.

GBP engagement is concentrated around three high-value actions: 

• Website visits account for 47% of interactions
• Direction requests account for 38%
• Phone calls account for 15%

These actions show why reviews and profile accuracy need to work together. Strong reviews can build trust, but incomplete hours, outdated photos, incorrect phone numbers, or missing links can still weaken conversion.

This makes business listing management a critical part of review performance for multi-location brands. GBP management requires consistent ownership across every location, with verified profiles, accurate business details, recent visual content, working links, and a steady review response process. Together, these elements help customers move from reading reviews to choosing a location. 

Search visibility is becoming more selective
Birdeye’s State of Google Business Profile 2026 report found that search impressions per location declined 53.8% from 2023 to 2025, while customer actions declined by only about 5%. This suggests that fewer searches are leading to profile views, but the customers who engage are showing stronger intent.

What should enterprise brands change about review management in 2026?

Enterprise brands need a more structured approach to review management in 2026. Higher review volume, shifting request channels, stronger response expectations, and greater platform complexity require clear ownership across corporate teams, regional leaders, and local operators. 

Review management is also becoming more complex due to increased spam enforcement and filtering. Google removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews in 2024, a 40% year-over-year increase, while deletion rates accelerated further in early 2025 following deeper Gemini integration into spam detection systems.

Prioritize these actions:

• Standardize review generation across locations: Tie review requests to meaningful customer moments, including appointments, purchases, service visits, bookings, and support resolutions. This helps every location collect feedback consistently.
• Match channels to customer journeys: Use SMS for timely post-interaction requests and email for reminders, booking workflows, and longer customer journeys. Track performance by location, industry, and request type instead of relying on one channel strategy everywhere.
• Improve response quality and governance: Create standards for response tone, escalation, approvals, and human review. As automation becomes more common, generic responses create more risk.
• Encourage useful written feedback: Give customers room to describe their experience clearly. Specific comments help teams understand service quality, staff performance, product availability, and location-level issues.
• Manage Google and industry-specific platforms together: Google remains central for most businesses, but industries such as Hospitality, Healthcare, Automotive, Legal, Finance, and Restaurants also need strategies for the specialist platforms where customers research and compare options.
• Turn reviews into operational insight: Use review themes to support service recovery, staff training, location reporting, and customer experience planning. Reviews should help enterprise teams identify patterns, fix recurring issues, and improve performance across markets.

Corporate teams should set standards, monitor performance, and protect brand quality, while local teams use those systems to respond faster and improve the customer experience in each market.

What is the future of online reviews for multi-location brands?  

Online reviews are becoming part of the infrastructure of local growth. They influence how customers discover businesses, how AI search engines summarize local experiences, and how enterprise teams understand performance across locations.

The 2026 data shows that the review landscape is moving faster, becoming more automated, and requiring stronger governance. Review volume is rising, SMS is reshaping request strategy, response quality is becoming a trust signal, and Google Business Profiles are turning review activity into measurable customer action.

For multi-location brands, the next phase is not just collecting more reviews. It is building a connected review strategy that improves visibility, strengthens trust, and turns customer feedback into operational intelligence across every location.

Download the full State of Online Reviews 2026 report for complete industry benchmarks, platform breakdowns, and strategic recommendations. 

FAQs about online reviews in 2026

How Birdeye helps enterprise brands manage online reviews

Managing reviews in 2026 is no longer a single workflow. It requires connected systems for review generation, listing accuracy, AI visibility, response governance, and customer insight. 

Birdeye is the #1 agentic marketing platform for multi-location brands with 100-10,000+ locations, helping them manage this complexity from a single connected platform. Birdeye replaces manual effort with AI agents that consolidate data, surface local intelligence, and drive local outcomes at scale. 

With the Birdeye full-cycle platform, enterprise brands can: 

Build trust with Reviews AI: Generate, monitor, manage, and share reviews across 200+ sites. Reviews AI agents help enterprise teams automate review request workflows, respond with brand-aligned consistency, while keeping a human-in-the-loop for sensitive feedback. 

Strengthen local visibility with Listings AI: Keep business information accurate and optimized across Google, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, and other high-impact discovery channels. Listings AI agents help teams manage hours, categories, services, photos, links, and profile details across locations so customers and search engines see reliable information.

Win visibility in AI search with Search AI: Track how locations appear across AI-powered discovery experiences, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google. Search AI helps brands monitor AI visibility, understand citations, identify accuracy gaps, benchmark competitors, and take governed action to improve local discoverability.

Turn feedback into decisions with Insights AI: Analyze customer sentiment, reputation, and online presence to identify trends across locations. Insights AI helps enterprise teams understand what customers are saying, where performance gaps exist, and which actions can improve customer experience at scale.

The Birdeye Advantage: Consolidate. Think. Act. 

Birdeye brings reviews, listings, search visibility, and customer feedback into one system. Corporate teams get the governance and reporting they need, while AI agents give local teams the capacity to act faster and grow across every market. 

Ready to turn reviews into a growth channel? Watch a free demo of Birdeye.