Quick answer
According to Peec AI's analysis of 500,000 business-intent prompts, Google AI Overviews appeared on 86.7% of buying-intent searches in April 2026, up from 56.9% a year earlier, and on 88.5% of decision-stage queries specifically. An AI Overview that never cites a brand is a lost first impression at the single most visited search property in the world.
Google AI Overviews have gone from an occasional add-on to the default way a large share of commercial searches get answered. Two short videos below cover what we have been watching change this month.
AI Overviews, buying-intent searches
The best sourced figure we found for the scale of this shift is Peec AI's analysis of roughly 500,000 business-intent prompts: AI Overviews appeared on 86.7% of Google searches with buying intent in April 2026, up from 56.9% in April 2025, and on 88.5% of decision-stage queries specifically. We treat the exact percentage as moving month to month and platform-reported figures as worth re-checking rather than fixed, which is also why BrandWater tracks AI Overview appearance as an ongoing observation for each brand rather than a one-time number.
What rises with the AI Overview rate
Check whether your brand shows up
A free AI visibility check looks at whether a brand is named in Google AI Overview and AI Mode today, alongside ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, with the same mention and citation figures used across the rest of the site.
Sources
- 1. Peec AI: Generative Engine Optimization statistics (Apr 2026)
Cite this page
BrandWater AI Research. (2026, 21 October 2026). AI Overviews just became the default: what changed this October. https://brandwaterai.in/blog/ai-overviews-default-october-2026-video
How we work
Figures are dated and linked to their sources. Where none exist we say so. Read our methodology and AI transparency pages.