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Yes. An AI operator can post updates, request and respond to reviews, and keep your Google Business Profile accurate day to day. Real job photos and factual changes to the business itself still need you.
An AI operator like Ares can run the ongoing work of a Google Business Profile: posting, requesting reviews, replying to reviews, and keeping listed information current. It cannot take photos of a job it wasn’t at, or decide your business now offers a service it doesn’t.

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What does it mean to “manage” a Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile is defined as the free Google listing that shows your hours, reviews, photos, and service area when someone searches your business name or searches “near me” for what you do. Managing it means keeping that listing active and accurate rather than treating it as a one-time setup task. That includes posting updates, answering reviews as they come in, requesting new ones, and correcting hours or categories when they drift out of date. Most owners set the profile up once, add a few photos, and never touch it again. A profile that hasn’t posted in eight months reads differently to Google’s ranking systems than one that’s active weekly, and differently to a customer comparing you against the next listing down.

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Can AI actually manage a Google Business Profile today?

For the recurring, rules-based part of it, yes. Writing and scheduling posts, sending review requests after a job closes, and replying to reviews in a consistent voice are tasks an AI system can do reliably and continuously, which is exactly the work that gets skipped once it’s just sitting on a human’s to-do list. Google notes that a large share of local searches carry local intent, meaning the person wants to visit, call, or book something nearby, soon. A stale profile loses to an active one, regardless of who’s keeping it current. Where it gets more complicated is verification and anything Google treats as a factual claim about your business. AI can draft a response to a one-star review in seconds. Whether that response is the right tone for your specific customer, or whether the complaint needs the owner to step in personally, is a judgment call worth keeping a human in the loop for.

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What does Ares automate, and what still needs you?

Ares runs the repeatable side of Google Business Profile management as part of its ongoing operator work, not as a one-off audit:
  • Scheduling and publishing posts (offers, updates, seasonal reminders) on a regular cadence.
  • Sending automated review requests to customers after a job closes, timed to when they’re most likely to respond.
  • Drafting and posting responses to incoming reviews, positive and negative, in a consistent tone.
  • Flagging listing details that look stale, like hours or service categories, so they get corrected instead of sitting wrong for months.
  • Escalating a review or message to the owner when it needs a personal response rather than a templated one.
A few things stay with the owner on purpose:
  • Uploading real photos from actual completed jobs. Ares doesn’t fabricate photos of your work, and it shouldn’t.
  • Verifying the profile with Google (postcard, phone, or video verification) when Google requires it.
  • Making factual changes to the business itself, like adding a genuinely new service line, changing your legal name, or updating your actual service area.
  • Deciding how to handle a review that involves something legally or reputationally sensitive, where a templated reply isn’t enough.

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GBP management options: DIY, AI operator, or local SEO agency

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Why does profile activity affect whether you get called at all?

BrightLocal’s consumer research consistently finds that most people check reviews before choosing a local business, which means a profile with no recent reviews, or unanswered negative ones, is doing quiet damage every day it sits untouched. An unanswered one-star review from four months ago is often the first thing a new lead sees. Speed matters here the same way it matters for lead response generally. A Harvard Business Review study by Oldroyd and McElheran found that companies contacting a lead within an hour were roughly seven times more likely to have a meaningful conversation with that lead than companies that waited even a little longer. Review requests run on a similar clock: ask right after the job while the experience is fresh, and response rates run meaningfully higher than a request sent weeks later, if one gets sent at all.

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A hypothetical example: a residential landscaping company

This is an illustrative walkthrough, not a claimed Ares client outcome. Say a landscaping company has 40 reviews on Google, the newest one nine months old, and three unanswered one-star reviews sitting on the page. The owner knows the profile needs attention but it never makes it to the top of the list. If that company handed the ongoing work to an AI operator, every closed job would trigger a review request within a day or two, new reviews would get a reply within hours, and the profile would post something new every week or two instead of going quiet. The owner would still upload photos from the crew’s actual work and step in personally on anything sensitive. The profile starts looking like an active business again, not an abandoned listing with a five-star average from two years ago.

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How does Ares fit if you decide to hand this off?

Ares manages Google Business Profile activity as one part of a broader operator role, not as a standalone GBP tool. It runs alongside instant lead response by SMS, email, and chat, follow-up and nurture sequences, and appointment booking, so a review request and a lead’s booking confirmation come out of the same system instead of three disconnected tools. For businesses also running paid traffic, the same operator can manage Meta ad campaigns with owner approval required before any spend goes live. Multi-location businesses get one fleet dashboard instead of a login per profile. Pricing is $299 a month standard, or $100 per seat for enterprise, with billing details covered in account settings. On the roadmap, not live yet: Google Local Services Ads management is planned as a separate capability from standard Business Profile work.

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Where does this still need a human?

An AI operator will not verify your listing with Google on your behalf, will not photograph a job it wasn’t present for, and should not be the one deciding how to respond when a review accuses you of something serious. It also won’t decide your business needs a new service category. That’s a real decision about what you sell, not a listing update. If you’re weighing whether to hand off more than just the profile, the fire-your-agency question and the broader agency-versus-tool comparison cover where the line sits for ad management and lead response too.

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Frequently asked questions

Yes. Ares drafts and posts responses to incoming reviews in a consistent tone, and escalates anything that needs a personal reply from the owner instead of a template.
No. Photos need to come from real completed jobs. Ares handles posting, review requests, and review responses, but photo uploads stay with the owner or crew.
Not necessarily. It replaces the recurring execution work, posting, review requests, and responses, that many agencies charge extra for. Genuine local SEO strategy work, like citation building or backlink outreach, is a separate skill set.
Ares can draft and post a response within hours of a review coming in, rather than whenever an owner or agency staffer gets around to checking the profile.
Not yet. Local Services Ads management is on the roadmap as a separate capability from standard Google Business Profile management, which is live today.
It’s included in Ares’s standard plan at $299 a month, or $100 per seat for enterprise, alongside lead response, booking, and ad management rather than billed as a separate add-on.