What Are AI Overviews? A Complete Guide

Google released AI Overviews as a built-in knowledge panel that comes with your search results. Picture an AI helper that gives you the information you need straight away.

Here, we’ll discuss AI Overviews in more detail, including what they are, a comparison to ChatGPT responses with prompts, and their impact on the future of search and web publishing.

Key Takeaways

• Google’s AI Overviews provide brief text snippets that appear at the top of search results.
• AI Overviews differ from other generative AI tools, as they work directly within search, the results are more concise, and sources are often cited.
• Google suggests that AI Overviews could increase clicks. However, sentiment among web publishers and SEO experts is mixed.

What Are AI Overviews?

First off, let’s begin by defining what an AI Overview is, although the name itself does so pretty well!

AI Overviews are short snippets of text that sometimes appear at the top of your search results in Google.

They appear directly below the search query and above all website URLs (as pictured above) and aim to provide users with a quick answer to the question they are asking.

They’re one of the first steps of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), which aims to use generative AI to provide users with the answers to their queries as quickly as possible.

The answers are generated using a range of sources from search results for the subject in question.

Using the example above for “How to Tidy Your Shed,” you can see that as part of the AI Overview, sources are listed on the right of the screen. Not only does this help address AI hallucinations, but it also allows you to quickly fact-check and learn more about the subject.

When were AI overviews released?

The May 2024 rollout of AI Overviews was met with mixed reviews. In their timeline outlining the release, Ahrefs notes that initially, AI Overviews produced errors or “dangerous and wrong answers.”

Search Engine Land reported on Google’s response to the press, in which Google highlighted a number of ways it intended to improve the feature, such as enhancing detection mechanisms for “nonsensical queries” and limiting the use of user-generated content to reduce the risk of providing “misleading advice.”

Are they on every search query?

Currently, Google is still in the process of rolling out AI Overviews and they aren’t currently available on every search query.

However, Google’s announcement on October 28, 2024, highlights that they’ll be rolling it out in 100 more countries, showing signs that SGE will become an important part of Google’s search engine. 

AI-Generated Results From Prompts vs. AI Overviews

As part of this guide, we also wanted to dive deeper into the difference between AI-prompted results and the results within an AI overview.

AI Overview result

Using our example from earlier, here is what Google’s AI Overview was for “how to tidy your shed”:
“Here are some tips for tidying up your shed:

Declutter

Remove everything from the shed, take inventory, and put items back in an organized manner. 

Clean

Use a broom and leaf blower to remove dust and cobwebs, and wash windows and fixtures with warm water and dish soap. 

Add shelving

Shelves are a great way to keep your shed organized and save space. You can also try floating shelves to make your shed feel more open. 

Hang hooks

Large hooks can be used to hang tools like shovels, rakes, and trowels. You can also hang your garden hose on the wall to save vertical space. 

Install a pegboard

A pegboard on the wall or back door can help keep your shed organized. 

Hang tools on the exterior

Use a magnetic strip on the shed wall to store small metal or garden tools. 

Repurpose bookshelves

You can use bookshelves to store gardening items, small toolboxes, or planters. 

Maintain

Keep your shed well-maintained.”

ChatGPT result

Now, here’s what we got when putting that same question into ChatGPT:

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As expected, the results are significantly more wordy, but the general premise is the same. For example, the AI Overview offers eight tips, whereas the ChatGPT version offers 11, each slightly more in-depth.

So, it appears that some backend tweaks were made to keep the overviews to the point.

As for the source of information, the AI Overview provides a clear link to some specific resources, whereas ChatGPT is much less specific with where it gathered the information.

AI Overviews and Web Publishing — Final Thoughts

In their May 2024 announcement, Google noted that initial findings on AI Overviews indicated that links which appear in AI Overviews see more clicks.

“And we see that the links included in AI Overviews get more clicks than if the page had appeared as a traditional web listing for that query.” - Google, May 2024

Publishers, however, are not all happy with the feature. Search Engine Land described a case study where traffic dropped on several sites following the release of AI Overviews.

So, how can you monitor the impact on your site? In a separate article, Search Engine Land recommends that a good way to monitor the impact of AI Overviews on click-through rate (CTR) is to review SERP (search engine results pages) tools, Google Analytics, and Search Console to evaluate how often your site appears in AI Overviews and analyze if its impacting clicks.

Additionally, SEMrush offers a number of tips on how to potentially optimize for AI Overviews, including using long-tail keywords and writing high-quality content.

The key takeaway? The overall sentiment around AI Overviews is mixed. Is this Google’s answer to the rise of generative AI in search? One thing’s for sure, it’s not going anywhere any time soon.

Read more about AI from a content marketing perspective in our top guides:

• How AI is Revolutionizing the World of Content Marketing
• Copywriters and AI — Best Practices For Using AI Tools as a Writer
• What Is Search Intent? How Is AI Changing Search Intent Marketing?