The news: AI Overviews (AIOs) are appearing more frequently in Google Search results now than they did a year ago, meaning generative engine optimization (GEO) strategies need to keep up with the presence of AI in discovery processes and the growth of zero-click searches.

• Shopping queries including “best X for Y” triggered AIOs 96.1% of the time in August 2026, a 125% jump over September 2025, per Semrush.
• AIOs also appear for 89.0% of review-type queries—up 195.4%—and 86.6% of “X-versus-Y” searches, a 36.6% increase.

The bigger picture: 45% of US publishers say AI-powered experiences are reducing click-through from search surfaces, per the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). These traffic drops could get worse as Google’s AI summaries become more constant and searchers get enough information to make decisions without clicking through or directly engaging with sites and content.

“What’s driving this shift isn’t just improvements in AI capabilities. It’s also competitive pressure. … Google is positioning itself to remain central to how consumers research, compare, and ultimately choose brands,” Leigh McKenzie, Semrush’s director of online visibility, told EMARKETER.

AIOs’ growing presence across high-intent search moments is especially consequential when converting consumers who are close to checkout and looking for final verification signals, adding the risk of brands losing visibility at critical moments.

Brands also don’t control how AI summaries present offerings and which competitors their products surface among, requiring monitoring of how value and features are characterized and categorized.

Recommendations for brands: Although 49% of US marketers have a formal or informal GEO strategy, per Plural Strategy, marketers may still be unprepared for how rapidly it’s changing discovery. As AIO appearances continue to grow, brands will need to prioritize influencing purchase decisions within search results rather than expecting consumers to visit their websites to convert.

Monitor brand mentions and citations, ensure product information is accurate across third-party sources, audit AI responses monthly, and measure the correlation between AI summaries’ rise and clickthrough rate (CTR) changes to stay on top of evolving model behavior.

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