The news: Banking is the most AI-driven search category in the US, per our Industry KPI data via Pi Datametrics. In Q4 2025, AI Overviews appeared in 77.4% of tracked banking queries. It beat out retail categories including makeup (72.4%) and electricals (64.3%), underscoring how extensively Google has integrated genAI into financial information searches.

Why it matters: The prevalence of AI Overviews reflects the nature of banking search behavior. Consumers often use Google to research products, compare borrowing and savings options, and understand complex topics when making financial decisions. Because these searches are typically informational and question based, they’re well suited to the AI-generated summaries that answer users' questions directly on search result pages.

For banks, this changes what it means to be visible in search, as their brand and content can be surfaced within AI-generated responses and influence decisions before consumers ever visit a bank's website.

Implications for banks: As AI Overviews answer more queries directly, traditional SEO metrics like rankings and clicks provide only part of the performance picture. Marketers now need to understand how often their brands are recommended or cited by AI systems. EMARKETER's “AI Visibility Index” complements search-based metrics by tracking brand mentions in AI-generated responses, offering a more complete view of digital visibility as search evolves.

Go deeper: Want more AI Overview benchmarking data? PRO+ subscribers have access to Industry KPIs, our collection of more than 400 benchmarks in marketing and retail and ecommerce across a range of industries and countries. Click here for more information.