AI Overviews are AI-written answers that appear above Google’s regular search results. They now reach more than 2.5 billion people a month, and when an AI overview appears, people click regular results about half as often. Being cited in an AIO answer now matters more than ranking below it.
I'm Kara Lineal, a marketing executive for consumer products, B2C, D2C, and B2B brands that want AI built into marketing operations. I have more than 20 years of experience building consumer brands and D2C e-commerce, including a D2C channel built to $5M at 65% margin, and I now apply agentic AI to the work.
What are AI Overviews?
An AI Overview (AIO) is a short answer that Google provides as a response to a Google search. It typically sits above the regular search results. It summarizes information and links to some of the pages it used to create the answer.
AI Mode is the conversational version. It lets people have a conversation within Google Search, asking follow-up questions to explore a topic.
You may hear two terms for getting your content into these answers:
Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Both focus on helping AI systems find, understand, and cite your content.
Google says you do not need special markup or an AI-specific file to appear. Your pages must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet. The usual SEO basics still apply.
Why this matters: More AI answers, fewer clicks
The figures in the original research show the scale of the change:
Reach: Google said in May 2026 that AI Overviews reached more than 2.5 billion people a month. AI Mode had more than 1 billion monthly users.
Clicks: Pew Research Center tracked the browsing activity of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025. When an AI summary appeared, people clicked a regular result on 8% of visits, against 15% when there was no AI summary. They clicked links within the summary on just 1% of visits.
Citations: Seer Interactive's 2026 update covered 53 brands and 5.5 million queries. On informational searches with an AI Overview, brands cited in the answer averaged a 2.07% organic click rate, against 0.94% for brands that were not cited.
Read together: fewer people click, and the clicks that remain go to the sources the answer names. Plus, ranking on the first page of a Google search does not guarantee that your brand appears in the AI answer.
The takeaway: AI answers can reduce clicks to websites. Being cited may help brands capture some of the clicks that remain.
What this means for brands
Imagine a shopper asks, “Which mattress protector is best for hot sleepers?”
An AI answer may name three products before the shopper looks at regular Google search results. The products named are the ones whose details the system could find and trust: clear attributes, specs, prices, reviews, and answered questions.
Product data: Make attributes, specifications, prices, and other key information easy to find and read.
Reviews and Q&A: Include useful details about fit, feel, performance, and everyday use while using the language shoppers use in their questions.
Measurement: Google Merchant Center’s AI performance insights report shows share of voice for shopping questions in AI Mode and AI Overviews.
Complete product information does not guarantee a recommendation. It gives AI systems clearer information to work with.
What I found when I tested a brand’s AI visibility
I tested the same buyer questions for a bathroom fixtures brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, and two retailer shopping assistants. I recorded every answer.
The results showed that:
The brand appeared often but was rarely the first recommendation.
It appeared more often in general AI assistants than in retailer assistants, where shoppers are closer to checkout.
Visibility varied by product line.
Repeating the same question produced different answers.
A traditional ranking report would miss these differences. A brand can rank on page one and still lose the AI recommendation.
That is why rankings alone are not enough. You also need to know whether your brand is named, how it is described (sentiment), and whether it is recommended first.
I explain the method in What AI shopping assistants say about your brand.
What to measure alongside rankings
Citations and brand mentions: Choose 20 to 30 real questions your buyer asks. Ask them monthly in Google AI Mode and in the AI assistants your buyers use. Record who is cited and who is named first.
Search impressions and clicks: In Search Console, compare how often your pages appear with how often people click for queries that trigger AI Overviews. Use Google’s generative AI performance report to add context.
Merchant Center: if you sell products, check Merchant Center’s AI performance insights to review your share of voice across shopping stages.
Top #1 recommendation rate: Track how often your brand or product is recommended first, not just mentioned somewhere in the answer. Use those findings to identify product-page improvements. See how to build product pages that both shoppers and AI trust for what to improve.
What to watch for when buying GEO services
Watch for GEO packages that turn out to be a standard technical SEO audit with a new label, and for anyone who guarantees placement in AI answers. No one controls what Google's systems cite.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Are AI Overviews and AI Mode the same?
No. AI Overviews are a single answer above regular search results. AI Mode provides a conversational search experience where you can ask follow-up questions.
Do I need special schema or an llms.txt file to appear in AI Overviews?
No. Google says no special markup or AI text file is required. Pages need to be indexed and eligible to show in search.
Is GEO different from SEO?
Much of the work overlaps: accessible pages, clear answers, accurate product data, and original expertise.
The main difference is what you track. GEO looks at citations and recommendations alongside traditional rankings and traffic.
How do I know whether AI recommends my brand?
Test a consistent set of buyer questions across stages of the funnel regularly. Record the answers, citations, and top #1 recommendations.
Use Search Console and, if you sell products, Merchant Center’s AI performance insights to complement those tests.
Sources
Seer Interactive, AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update, April 24, 2026
Google Search Central, Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search
AI-assisted research and drafting; independently reported, verified, and edited by the author.
