Driven Metrics research · November 3, 2026
How many Google searches have AI Overviews depends on what you count. An AI Overview is the AI-written summary Google places above the regular results. In this report, an AI Overview rate is the share of searches, keywords or result-page crawls in a sample that showed one. The denominator decides the answer: a panel of real searches counts popular queries many times, a keyword database counts each keyword once, and a vendor’s tracked set counts only the keywords that vendor chose.
Driven Metrics built this report from the latest published readings in 19 studies and reports by 15 organizations, released between 2025 and October 2026. The inputs include Pew Research Center’s browsing panel, Comscore’s US search panel, two academic papers, and tracker data from BrightEdge, Conductor, Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking and others. We grouped every reading by what it counts, paired readings from the same study to isolate method effects, calculated monthly growth for nine tracker windows, ranked industries across four studies, and projected a best estimate for real US searches. We did not run our own crawl or survey. Every input links to its original publisher.
Driven Metrics estimates that about 44% of real US Google searches showed an AI Overview in October 2026 (range 39.4% to 49%), projected from Comscore’s US desktop panel, which measured 39.4% in June 2026. Published rates for the same feature run from 3.47% to 88%, and the median by measurement type ranges from 8.1% to 78.3%, a 9.7x spread. Coverage rose in every tracker we followed, by a median of 2.71 percentage points a month. Healthcare ranked first in all four industry studies, and question-form searches showed AI Overviews up to 4.72 times as often as the average search.
Key statistics
- About 44% of real US Google searches showed an AI Overview in October 2026, according to a Driven Metrics projection from Comscore panel data (range 39.4% to 49%).
- Google AI Overviews appeared on 39.4% of US desktop searches in June 2026, up from 25.8% in July 2025, according to Comscore’s Q2 2026 AI Intelligence Report.
- Published AI Overview rates ranged from 3.47% to 88% across 17 readings from 2025 to 2026, a gap Driven Metrics traced mainly to what each study counts.
- AI Overview coverage rose a median 2.71 percentage points a month across eight rising tracker windows from 2025 to 2026, according to a Driven Metrics analysis.
- In July 2025, BrightEdge’s tracked keyword set showed AI Overviews 1.71 times as often as Comscore’s panel of real searches, a Driven Metrics same-month comparison found.
- Healthcare had the highest AI Overview rate in all four industry studies Driven Metrics compared, from 48.75% of searches (Conductor, Sep-Oct 2025) to 88% of tracked keywords (BrightEdge, Dec 2025).
- Question-form searches showed AI Overviews 4.72 times as often as the average trending search (64.7% vs. 13.7%) in a Washington University in St. Louis audit of 55,393 searches in March and April 2026.
- AI Overviews appeared on 82.5% of US brand searches but 40.4% of German brand searches in October 2026, according to SE Ranking’s study of 1,000 brand keywords per country.
How many Google searches have an AI Overview in 2026?
Our best estimate is about 44% of real US Google searches as of October 2026. That figure comes from the measurement type closest to what people actually search: panels and clickstream data that count every search a person runs. Comscore’s US desktop panel recorded AI Overviews on 39.4% of Google searches in June 2026, and Similarweb’s 2026 Generative AI Landscape Report put the US figure at more than 40%.
| Measurement type | Source and sample | Period | AI Overview rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trending and news | NewzDash (trending news, US) | Jun 2025 | 3.47% |
| Trending and news | SIGIR ’26 paper (trending queries) | Dec 2025 | 8.1% |
| Trending and news | WashU audit (55,393 trending searches) | Mar-Apr 2026 | 13.7% |
| Keyword databases | Semrush (10M+ keyword database) | Nov 2025 | 15.69% |
| Keyword databases | SISTRIX (100M+ German keywords) | Feb 2026 report | just over 20% |
| Keyword databases | Conductor (21.9M US searches) | Sep-Oct 2025 | 25.11% |
| Real searches | Pew Research (900 US adults’ browsing) | Mar 2025 | 18% |
| Real searches | Comscore (US desktop panel) | Jun 2026 | 39.4% |
| Real searches | Similarweb (US searches) | 2026 report | more than 40% |
| Real searches | SIGIR ’26 paper (real-user query sample) | Dec 2025 | 51.5% |
| Branded searches | Ahrefs (branded crawls) | Sep 2026 | 73.3% |
| Branded searches | SE Ranking (1,000 US brand keywords) | Oct 2026 | 82.5% |
| Tracked keyword sets | BrightEdge (tracked set, 9 industries) | Feb 2026 | ~48% |
| Tracked keyword sets | Advanced Web Ranking (8,000 keywords) | Aug 2026 | 64.99% |
| Tracked keyword sets | Ahrefs (non-branded crawls) | Sep 2026 | 78.3% |
| Tracked keyword sets | Peec (500,000 buying-intent prompts) | Apr 2026 | 86.7% |
| Tracked keyword sets | Semrush (400 commercial keywords) | Aug 2026 | 88% |
| Driven Metrics median: trending and news | 3 readings | 2025-2026 | 8.1% |
| Driven Metrics median: keyword databases | 3 readings | 2025-2026 | 20% |
| Driven Metrics median: real searches | 4 readings | 2025-2026 | 39.7% |
| Driven Metrics median: branded searches | 2 readings | 2025-2026 | 77.9% |
| Driven Metrics median: tracked keyword sets | 5 readings | 2025-2026 | 78.3% |
| Driven Metrics best estimate: real US Google searches | Projected from Comscore’s June 2026 reading at its own Jul 2025 to Jun 2026 pace | Oct 2026 | about 44% (range 39.4% to 49.0%) |
Each row is the most recent published reading from that source. Rates measure different units (searches, keywords, crawls or prompts), so they are not interchangeable. Driven Metrics rows are our calculations; the best estimate method is in the Methodology section.
We projected forward from Comscore because it is the only real-search panel with two published points a year apart. Comscore’s rate rose 13.6 points in 11 months, or 1.24 points a month. Carrying that pace four months from June to October 2026 gives 44.3%. The high end, 49.0%, uses Ahrefs’ faster July to September 2026 pace for non-branded searches (2.4 points a month). The low end assumes no growth after June. Comscore’s figure covers desktop searches, and no source we found publishes a 2026 mobile rate for real searches.
Two other real-search readings bracket the estimate. In March 2025, 18% of the searches made by 900 US adults in Pew Research Center’s browsing panel produced an AI summary. A SIGIR ’26 conference paper that replayed a sample of real user queries in December 2025 found AI Overviews on 51.5% of them.
Everything above 50% in Table 1 measures a chosen set of keywords, not the searches people run. That does not make those numbers wrong. It makes them answers to a different question, which the next section breaks down.
Why do AI Overview trackers report such different numbers?
Method choices explain most of the gap. When we paired two readings from the same study that differ by one choice, the AI Overview rate moved by 9.08 to 42.1 percentage points. Country had the largest effect and volume weighting the smallest, and even the smallest gap equals about seven months of growth in Comscore’s panel (9.08 points at 1.24 points a month).
| Method choice | Source | Period | Lower reading | Higher reading | DM calc: gap | DM calc: ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany vs. US (brand searches) | SE Ranking | Oct 2026 | Germany: 40.4% | United States: 82.5% | +42.1 pts | 2.04x |
| High-volume vs. low-volume brand names | SE Ranking, brand keywords | Oct 2026 | Over 1M searches: 63.3% | Under 50,000 searches: 85.2% | +21.9 pts | 1.35x |
| Same month, broad set vs. tracked set | Comscore; BrightEdge | Jul 2025 | Comscore panel: 25.8% | BrightEdge tracked set: 44% | +18.2 pts | 1.71x |
| Personalized vs. signed-out results | Advanced Web Ranking via Xponent21 | Aug 2026 | Non-personalized: 64.99% | Personalized: 75.24% | +10.25 pts | 1.16x |
| Monthly average vs. single best day | Ahrefs, branded crawls | Sep 2026 | September average: 73.3% | Sep 29 snapshot: 82.91% | +9.61 pts | 1.13x |
| Keyword count vs. search-volume weighting | Semrush, 400 commercial keywords | Aug 2026 | Each keyword counted once: 88% | Weighted by search volume: 97.08% | +9.08 pts | 1.10x |
Gap = higher reading minus lower reading, in percentage points. Ratio = higher reading divided by lower reading. The Comscore and BrightEdge pair compares two sources in the same month. Advanced Web Ranking figures are as reported by Xponent21.
The best-known disagreement, roughly 25% from Conductor against 48% from BrightEdge, is mostly method and partly timing. Conductor’s 25.11% comes from 21.9 million US searches analyzed from September 15 to October 12, 2025. BrightEdge’s 48% is its February 2026 reading, and its own series read about 46% in September and 44% in October 2025. Comparing the same months, BrightEdge’s tracked set ran 1.79 times Conductor’s rate. In July 2025 it ran 1.71 times Comscore’s panel, while Semrush’s 10-million-keyword database ran 0.95 times Comscore, almost level with it.
Five choices drive most of the differences we found. The first is the unit: a search, a keyword, a crawl or a prompt. The second is who picked the keywords, since curated commercial sets tend to lean toward the informational and comparison queries Google covers most. The third is weighting, which works in both directions: Semrush’s commercial set rose from 88% to 97.08% when weighted by search volume, while SE Ranking found the highest-volume brand names triggered AI Overviews less often than smaller ones (63.3% vs. 85.2%). The fourth is personalization and location, where Advanced Web Ranking’s personalized results ran 10.25 points above signed-out results in August 2026 and 15.64 points above in March 2026. The fifth is timing, because a single-day snapshot can sit well above a monthly average.
How fast is AI Overview coverage growing?
AI Overview coverage rose in every tracker we followed, by a median of 2.71 percentage points a month across eight rising windows. The largest decline in our dataset was Semrush’s 10-million-keyword series, which fell from a 24.61% peak in July 2025 to 15.69% in November 2025. BrightEdge’s monthly series also dipped, from about 47% in August 2025 to 44% in October, before reaching 48% in February 2026.
| Tracker | What is counted | Window | Start to end | DM calc: change | DM calc: pts per month | DM calc: relative change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comscore | US desktop panel searches | Jul 2025 to Jun 2026 | 25.8% to 39.4% | +13.6 pts | +1.24 | +52.7% |
| BrightEdge | Tracked keywords, 9 industries | Feb 2025 to Feb 2026 | 31% to 48% | +17 pts | +1.42 | +54.8% |
| Semrush (10M+ keywords), rise | Keyword database | Jan 2025 to Jul 2025 | 6.49% to 24.61% | +18.12 pts | +3.02 | +279.2% |
| Semrush (10M+ keywords), pullback | Keyword database | Jul 2025 to Nov 2025 | 24.61% to 15.69% | -8.92 pts | -2.23 | -36.2% |
| Semrush (400 commercial keywords) | Fixed commercial panel | Sep 2025 to Aug 2026 | 45.75% to 88% | +42.25 pts | +3.84 | +92.3% |
| Advanced Web Ranking, non-personalized | 8,000 tracked keywords | Mar 2026 to Aug 2026 | 49.43% to 64.99% | +15.56 pts | +3.11 | +31.5% |
| Advanced Web Ranking, personalized | 8,000 tracked keywords | Mar 2026 to Aug 2026 | 65.07% to 75.24% | +10.17 pts | +2.03 | +15.6% |
| Ahrefs, non-branded | US desktop crawls | Jul 2026 to Sep 2026 | 73.5% to 78.3% | +4.8 pts | +2.40 | +6.5% |
| Ahrefs, branded | US desktop crawls | Jul 2026 to Sep 2026 | 61.3% to 73.3% | +12 pts | +6.00 | +19.6% |
| Driven Metrics median of the eight rising windows | +2.71 |
Change is in percentage points. Points per month = change divided by months in the window. Relative change = change divided by the starting rate. BrightEdge values are approximate (~) as published; BrightEdge describes its own growth as 58%, while 31% to 48% calculates to 54.8%.
Slower-moving measures describe the whole search market, and faster ones describe narrow keyword sets. Comscore’s panel gained 1.24 points a month and BrightEdge’s tracked set 1.42 points. Semrush’s fixed panel of 400 commercial keywords gained 3.84 points a month, from 45.75% in September 2025 to 88% in August 2026, as Google extended AI Overviews into comparison, review and pricing searches.
Branded searches moved fastest. Ahrefs measured AI Overviews on 61.3% of US branded keyword crawls in July 2026 and 73.3% in September, a pace of 6.0 points a month. DemandSphere’s daily branded series went from 26.12% on September 1, 2026 to 90.48% on September 27. Any benchmark collected before late September 2026 likely understates brand-query coverage today.
Which industries see the most AI Overviews?
Healthcare sees the most AI Overviews in every study that measures it, and it scores 100 on our position index. Among the eight industries we compared, real estate and retail sit at the bottom wherever they are measured. The levels differ by study, from 4.48% for real estate in Conductor’s 2025 data to 92% for electronics brands in SE Ranking’s 2026 brand study, but the order is consistent.
| Industry | Conductor: US searches, Sep-Oct 2025 | BrightEdge: tracked set, Sep-Dec 2025 | SE Ranking: US brand keywords, Oct 2026 | WashU: trending searches, Mar-Apr 2026 | DM position index (0-100) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | 48.75% | 88% | 84.3% | 26.6% | 100 |
| Finance and banking | 25.79% | 21% | 76.7% | 26.2% | 62.9 |
| Education | not reported | 85.2% | 68.8% | 17.1% | 59.3 |
| Utilities and energy | 25.4% | not reported | 83.7% | not reported | 67.9 |
| Entertainment and media | not reported | 45.9% | 73.9% | 16.3% | 49 |
| Real estate | 4.48% | not reported | 66.7% | not reported | 0 |
| Retail and ecommerce | 6.82% | 18.5% | 67.2% | 14.6% | 14.8 |
| Travel | not reported | not reported | 68.1% | 8.7% | 14.3 |
SE Ranking values are the share of brand keywords with an AI Overview in all three checks. BrightEdge healthcare and finance are December 2025; education, entertainment and ecommerce are its September 2025 snapshot. Category names differ by study: finance includes Conductor Financials and SE Ranking banking, fintech and payments; retail includes Conductor Consumer Staples, BrightEdge eCommerce, SE Ranking grocery and retail, and WashU shopping. DM position index = average of the industry’s percentile rank within each study among the industries in this table (100 = highest).
We ranked industries within each study instead of averaging raw rates, because the studies measure different query sets. A trending-news audit and a brand-keyword study should not be blended into one percentage, but they can both show which industries Google covers most. Healthcare led all four: 48.75% of searches in Conductor’s data, 88% of BrightEdge’s tracked healthcare keywords in December 2025, 84.3% of health and pharma brand keywords in SE Ranking’s study, and 26.6% of health searches in WashU’s trending audit. For health brands, that consistency makes AI Overview visibility a core search metric rather than a side metric. Our Healthcare GEO and SEO page covers how that plays out for providers.
Finance is the clearest case of method changing the answer. BrightEdge’s tracked finance keywords showed AI Overviews 21% of the time in December 2025, but 76.7% of US banking and fintech brand keywords showed one in SE Ranking’s October 2026 checks. Brand searches compress industry differences: SE Ranking’s 17 industries ranged from 58.3% to 92%, a 33.7-point spread, while Conductor’s general searches ranged from 4.48% to 48.75%, a 44.27-point spread.
Which searches are most likely to show an AI Overview?
Questions and long searches are the strongest triggers. In our lift analysis, which divides each query type’s rate by the same study’s overall rate, question-form searches ran 3.33 to 4.72 times the study average, while two-word searches, product names and trending topics ran at 0.16 to 0.44 times.
| Study | Query type | AI Overview rate | Study baseline | DM calc: lift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WashU audit, Mar-Apr 2026 | Question-form query | 64.7% | 13.7% (all trending searches) | 4.72x |
| WashU audit, Mar-Apr 2026 | Six or more words | 58.1% | 13.7% (all trending searches) | 4.24x |
| Pew Research, Mar 2025 | Starts with who/what/when/why | 60% | 18% (all searches) | 3.33x |
| Pew Research, Mar 2025 | 10 or more words | 53% | 18% (all searches) | 2.94x |
| Pew Research, Mar 2025 | Full sentence (noun and verb) | 36% | 18% (all searches) | 2.00x |
| SIGIR ’26 paper, Dec 2025 | Explain-like-I’m-five questions | 94.6% | 51.5% (real-user query sample) | 1.84x |
| SIGIR ’26 paper, Dec 2025 | Product questions (retail) | 92% | 51.5% (real-user query sample) | 1.79x |
| SIGIR ’26 paper, Dec 2025 | Local queries | 48.8% | 51.5% (real-user query sample) | 0.95x |
| WashU audit, Mar-Apr 2026 | Not a question | 9.5% | 13.7% (all trending searches) | 0.69x |
| Pew Research, Mar 2025 | One or two words | 8% | 18% (all searches) | 0.44x |
| SIGIR ’26 paper, Dec 2025 | Product names (Amazon retail) | 17.4% | 51.5% (real-user query sample) | 0.34x |
| WashU audit, Mar-Apr 2026 | Two words | 3.4% | 13.7% (all trending searches) | 0.25x |
| SIGIR ’26 paper, Dec 2025 | Trending topics | 8.1% | 51.5% (real-user query sample) | 0.16x |
Lift = query-type rate divided by the same study’s overall rate. Ratios compare within a study only. WashU baseline is weighted by search occurrences. SIGIR baseline is its real-user query sample.
Pew found 60% of searches starting with who, what, when or why produced an AI summary in March 2025, against 8% of one- or two-word searches. WashU’s 2026 audit found the same pattern a year later: 64.7% of question-form trending searches had an AI Overview, against 9.5% of other trending searches.
Topic matters as much as phrasing. The SIGIR paper found AI Overviews on 93.8% of a benchmark set of political questions, while WashU found them on 7.5% of trending political searches. The difference is fresh news versus settled questions. Commercial searches are no longer the exception: Semrush found AI Overviews on 88% of its 400 commercial keywords in August 2026, and Ahrefs found branded crawls (73.3%) only 5 points below non-branded ones (78.3%) in September 2026.
How do AI Overview rates differ by country?
The US sees AI Overviews far more often than Germany in every comparison we found. In SE Ranking’s October 2026 brand study, 75.6% of US brand keywords showed an AI Overview in all three checks versus 29.6% in Germany, 2.55 times as often.
| Study and sample | Measure | United States | Germany | DM calc: US ÷ Germany |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking, 1,000 brand keywords per country, Oct 2026 | Average of three desktop checks | 82.5% | 40.4% | 2.04x |
| SE Ranking, same sample | AI Overview in all three checks | 75.6% | 29.6% | 2.55x |
| SE Ranking: Industrial and B2B | AI Overview in all three checks | 84.7% | 10.2% | 8.3x |
| SE Ranking: Health, pharma and medtech | AI Overview in all three checks | 84.3% | 15.7% | 5.4x |
| SE Ranking: Energy and utilities | AI Overview in all three checks | 83.7% | 9.3% | 9.0x |
| SE Ranking: Fashion, beauty and D2C | AI Overview in all three checks | 77.6% | 10.4% | 7.5x |
| NewzDash, trending news queries, Jun 2025 | Share of trending news queries | 3.47% | 0.95% | 3.65x |
Other markets in NewzDash’s June 2025 study: Australia 3.48%, Mexico 3.13%, Japan 2.25%, UK 1.30%. Peec’s April 2026 prompt set showed 90.3% outside the EU vs. 76.0% inside it (1.19x). SISTRIX reported AI Overviews on just over 20% of 100M+ German keywords (Feb 2026) and over 18% of 51M UK keywords (Mar 2025). DM calculation column = US value divided by Germany value.
The gap widens inside industries. Energy and utilities brands showed AI Overviews in every check 9.0 times as often in the US (83.7% vs. 9.3%), and industrial and B2B brands 8.3 times as often. Even trending news, where AI Overviews are rare everywhere, appeared 3.65 times as often in the US as in Germany in NewzDash’s June 2025 data.
For companies with international audiences, a US benchmark will overstate exposure in Europe. Peec’s April 2026 prompt set showed 76.0% inside the EU against 90.3% outside it.
Which AI Overview number should you use?
Use the number that matches your question. For the whole US search market, use about 44% for October 2026. For a keyword list, a brand or an industry, use the benchmark built on the same kind of query set, and measure your own keywords the same way.
| Question you are answering | Best measurement type | Latest published benchmark | DM planning figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| What share of all US Google searches show an AI Overview? | Panel or clickstream data on real searches | Comscore: 39.4% of US desktop searches (Jun 2026) | About 44% in Oct 2026 (range 39.4% to 49.0%) |
| How exposed is my tracked keyword list? | Your own rank tracker, compared with curated tracked sets | 48% (BrightEdge, Feb 2026) to 88% (Semrush, Aug 2026) | Tracked-set median 78.3%; weight by search volume |
| How often does my brand name trigger one? | Branded keyword studies | 73.3% (Ahrefs, Sep 2026) to 82.5% (SE Ranking, Oct 2026) | Branded median 77.9% in the US; 40.4% in Germany |
| How does my industry compare? | Industry studies, read as a rank rather than a level | Healthcare first in 4 of 4 studies; real estate last in 2 of 2 among the eight compared | Use the DM position index in Table 4 |
| How much of the long tail is covered? | Large keyword databases | 15.69% (Semrush, Nov 2025) to 25.11% (Conductor, Sep-Oct 2025) | Database median 20% |
| What about news and trending topics? | Trending-query audits | 3.47% (NewzDash, Jun 2025) to 13.7% (WashU, Mar-Apr 2026) | Trending median 8.1% |
Planning figures are Driven Metrics calculations from Tables 1 and 4.
When you track your own exposure, count keywords and volume-weighted searches separately, report monthly averages rather than single days, split branded from non-branded terms, and state the country and device. A tracker that reports 85% for a commercial keyword list and a panel that reports 39.4% for all US desktop searches can both be correct.
For what happens after an AI Overview appears, see our AI Overviews citations statistics for which sources Google cites, and our AI search statistics for click and traffic effects. Our generative engine optimization page explains how brands work to appear inside these answers.
Frequently asked questions
About 44% of real US Google searches showed an AI Overview in October 2026, according to a Driven Metrics projection from Comscore panel data. Comscore measured 39.4% of US desktop searches in June 2026. Trackers that follow chosen keyword sets report higher rates, from 48% to 88%.
Studies count different things. Panels count real searches, keyword databases count each keyword once, and tracked sets count keywords a vendor selected. In paired readings from the same study, Driven Metrics found a single method choice moved the rate by 9.08 to 42.1 percentage points.
No. About 52% of BrightEdge’s tracked queries showed no AI Overview in February 2026, and only 3.47% to 13.7% of trending and news searches showed one in studies from 2025 and 2026. Short searches and product names trigger them least often.
Healthcare ranks first in every study Driven Metrics compared, with rates from 26.6% of trending health searches to 88% of tracked healthcare keywords. Among the industries we compared, real estate and retail rank lowest in general searches, at 4.48% and 6.82% in Conductor’s 2025 data.
Yes. Every tracker Driven Metrics followed rose between 2025 and 2026, by a median of 2.71 percentage points a month. Branded searches grew fastest, from 61.3% to 73.3% of US branded crawls between July and September 2026 in Ahrefs data.
Mostly, in the US. SE Ranking found AI Overviews on 82.5% of US brand searches in October 2026, compared with 40.4% in Germany. Smaller brands triggered them more often than the most-searched brand names.
Methodology
Driven Metrics compiled published AI Overview prevalence figures from 19 studies and reports by 15 organizations, released from 2025 to October 2026 and covering data from January 2025 to October 2026. We used each source’s most recent reading and grouped readings into five measurement types by what they count: real searches (panels, clickstream and replayed real-user queries), keyword databases, tracked keyword sets, branded searches, and trending or news queries.
Calculations: type medians are the median of the latest readings in each type. The best estimate is 39.4% + 4 months x (39.4% – 25.8%) / 11 months = 44.35%, with a low of 39.4% and a high of 39.4% + 4 x 2.4 = 49.0%. Gaps are higher minus lower reading in percentage points; ratios divide the two. Growth pace is the change divided by months in the window. The industry position index averages each industry’s percentile rank within each study among the industries in Table 4. Lift divides a query type’s rate by its study’s overall rate.
Limitations: most sources are vendors that sell AI visibility tools. Several report approximate or chart-only values, and published methods vary in detail. Comscore’s figure is desktop only. Rates measure presence, not clicks or traffic. Industry categories are mapped across studies with different definitions. All figures are as published; Driven Metrics did not collect new search data.
Have AI Overview tracking data you would like included in the next update? Contact the Driven Metrics research team at driven-metrics.com/contact-us.
Sources
- Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results. Pew Research Center, Athena Chapekis, Anna Lieb. July 22, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
- Comscore’s Latest AI Intelligence Report Shows Competition Intensifying (Q2 2026 press release). Comscore. September 22, 2026. https://ir.comscore.com/news-releases/news-release-details/comscores-latest-ai-intelligence-report-shows-competition
- Google AI Overviews now appear in 39% of U.S. desktop searches. Search Engine Land, Danny Goodwin. September 22, 2026. https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-share-us-comscore-490381
- The 2026 Generative AI Landscape Report. Similarweb. 2026. https://www.similarweb.com/corp/reports/2026-generative-ai-landscape/
- Generative search sources and Google-Extended (SIGIR ’26, arXiv 2604.27790). SIGIR ’26 / arXiv, Grossman, Liu, Chen, Smith, Borcea, Chen. April 30, 2026. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.27790
- Audit of Google AI Overview citations and claims (arXiv 2605.14021). Washington University in St. Louis, Haofei Xu, Umar Iqbal, Jacob M. Montgomery. 2026. https://arxiv.org/html/2605.14021v2
- Semrush AI Overviews Study (December 2025 update). Semrush, Jana Garanko. December 15, 2025. https://semrush.com/blog/semrush-ai-overviews-study
- AI Overviews have nearly doubled across five commercial search modifiers [Study]. Semrush, Luke Harsel. October 21, 2026. https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-overviews-commercial-modifiers-study/
- The 2026 AEO / GEO Benchmarks Report. Conductor, Conor Baker, Wesam Rafidi. Updated July 6, 2026 (AI Overview data Sep 15-Oct 12, 2025). https://www.conductor.com/academy/aeo-geo-benchmarks-report/
- AI Overviews at the One-Year Mark: Presence, Size, and What They’re Citing. BrightEdge. February 12, 2026. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/ai-overviews-one-year-presence-size-citing
- Google’s AI Overview Rollout Reveals Clear Intent Hierarchy. BrightEdge. September 11, 2025. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/googles-ai-overview-rollout-reveals-clear-intent-hierarchy
- AI Overviews healthcare insights for finance. BrightEdge. January 29, 2026. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/ai-overviews-healthcare-insights-for-finance
- AI Overviews Currently Appear for 83% of Branded Searches. Ahrefs, Ryan Law. October 2, 2026. https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-on-branded-searches/
- AI Overviews Appear on 82.5% of US Brand Searches [Study]. SE Ranking (SE Visible), Yulia Deda. October 22, 2026. https://visible.seranking.com/blog/ai-overviews-branded-searches/
- AI Overviews on branded queries tripled in September. DemandSphere, Ray Grieselhuber. October 1, 2026. https://www.demandsphere.com/blog/branded-ai-overviews-september-2026/
- AI Overviews Just Hit 75% (Advanced Web Ranking tracker data). Xponent21, Will Melton. September 1, 2026. https://xponent21.com/?p=21979
- AI Overviews: how often it appears. Peec, Tomek Rudzki. May 2026. https://docs.peec.ai/research/ai-overviews-how-often-it-appears
- AI Overviews in Germany. SISTRIX, Johannes Beus. February 25, 2026. https://www.sistrix.com/blog/ai-overviews-in-germany/
- AIO frequency rises sharply, featured snippets dropping in UK. SISTRIX. 2025. https://www.sistrix.com/blog/aio-frequency-rises-sharply-featured-snippets-dropping-in-uk/
- NewzDash 2025 Study: How Google’s AI Overviews Are Impacting News Visibility. NewzDash, John Shehata. June 2, 2025. https://www.newzdash.com/guide/newzdash-2025-study-how-google%E2%80%99s-ai-overviews-are-impacting-news-visibility-search
