AI content is not a problem. On my personal level, I even use a lot deepl translator coupled with wordai for my local service pages (money pages) and authority building blog articles when i'm lazy and it works pretty well. Just make sure you're providing value in your areas of service and everything will go smoothly.
I agree here. You can even use duplicated content on location pages. Local SEO = ranking your google maps listing in the top 3. Content doesn't matter much here. Would worry more about appending location data on the location pages.
For example: if I offer lawn care in Ventura, CA but have location pages for Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, Camarillo, and Moorpark I'll want to create a lawn care location page for each.
Lawn care in Ventura
Lawn Care in Thousand Oaks
And so on...
The lawn care company generic copy can be AI, duplicate, or whatever.
But then I populate with the same data google provides on locations.
Knowledge panel data like population, elevation, and etc.
People also search for
Colleges and universities
Direction to the business from various locations
I mix it up. Sometimes I'll name a landmark and link out to the Google result for the landmark. Or sometimes I'll hyperlink the driving directions from my business to the landmark.