Google’s AI Overviews have fundamentally changed how information surfaces online. What began as an experiment in 2024 is now a defining feature of the search landscape, appearing in up to one in five queries. For users, it means faster answers. For SEO professionals, it means a new reality: visibility doesn’t always equal clicks.
This is the next chapter of search — and the numbers tell a powerful story.
According to several 2025 studies, AI Overviews have grown rapidly:
Semrush / Datos: Present in 13.14% of U.S. desktop searches (March 2025).
Conductor: Found in 16% of over 118 million analyzed keywords.
Pew Research: Around 18% of all searches now trigger an AI-generated summary.
For long-tail queries — especially those that start with “how,” “why,” or “what” — the percentage is even higher. This reflects Google’s clear direction: faster answers, fewer clicks.
Approximately 88% of all AI Overviews appear for informational intent queries. These are searches where users are seeking knowledge rather than products, transactions, or locations.
That aligns perfectly with Google’s mission: help users get information faster. Rather than replacing websites, AI Overviews act as high-level summaries that condense top results into a single, scannable view. For the user, it’s efficient. For SEOs, it’s a paradigm shift.
Research over the past six months paints a clear picture of changing engagement behavior:
CTR impact: The #1 organic result’s average click-through rate fell from ~28% to ~19% after AI Overviews rolled out.
Ahrefs: Found a 34.5% CTR decline for top-ranking pages when an AI Overview appears.
Amsive: Recorded a 15–20% average drop, with steepest declines when featured snippets and AI Overviews overlap.
Pew Research: Users click traditional results only 8% of the time when summaries are present, compared to 15% without them.
For many websites, these aren’t hypothetical numbers — they translate to significant shifts in visibility and conversions.
No — but it does mean the playing field is changing. Traditional SEO tactics designed to win a blue link click are less reliable in an AI-driven environment. The focus now is earning inclusion within AI Overviews themselves.
The median scroll depth within AI Overviews is only 30%, meaning most users find their answers near the top. But being cited in the overview — even without a direct click — can strengthen brand authority, visibility, and perceived trust.
AI Overviews don’t eliminate the need for SEO; they reward better structured, authoritative, and contextually rich content that search engines can easily summarize.
Traffic impacts vary depending on the niche:
News and informational publishers report declines of 20–50%, with some desktop queries seeing drops beyond 56%.
Commercial queries remain steadier, since Google’s generative summaries often avoid transactional intent for now.
In short: if your site thrives on informational content, it’s time to rethink your content strategy for the AI Overview layer.
To stay competitive, SEOs must evolve their frameworks. The new priorities include:
Semantic structure: Format content to help LLMs interpret context and relationships.
Authority and citations: Build credible, verifiable signals that make your content a trusted source.
Topic depth: Write for expertise, not just keywords — topical mastery is now a differentiator.
Monitoring new KPIs: Track impressions and citations within AI-generated results using emerging tools like Otterly.ai and Profound.
AI Overviews reward quality and clarity. The more your content answers questions directly — and in natural language — the more likely it will appear in Google’s generative results.
Google’s AI Overviews represent the biggest algorithmic and behavioral shift since mobile-first indexing. Roughly 20% of searches now generate AI summaries, CTRs are falling across key positions, and zero-click experiences are growing.
But this isn’t the end of SEO — it’s an evolution. Search professionals who align with Google’s generative intent rather than fighting against it will emerge ahead.
The dust hasn’t settled — but one thing is certain:
SEO in 2025 is no longer just about ranking. It’s about being understood.