A new study shows that Google’s AI Overviews appear in nearly half of all search results and take up to 48% of mobile screen space.
Conducted by Botify and DemandSphere, the research analyzed over 120,000 keywords across 22 websites.
The study, conducted between August and September, finds that traditional SEO metrics like click-through rates may no longer give a complete picture of search performance.
When AI Overviews show up with featured snippets—which happens 60% of the time—these can occupy up to 76% of mobile screens, pushing regular listings out of view.
While strong organic rankings remain crucial, with 75% of AI Overview mentions coming from top-12 ranked pages, businesses need to adapt their strategies to the rise of AI in search.
Here are more highlights from the study.
Zero-Click Search
The study highlights a trend toward zero-click searches, with 60% of searches now resolved without users clicking links.
This shift creates a new challenge for businesses dependent on organic search traffic.
Search Volume & Keyword Length
Key findings about search patterns include:
Keywords with under 1,000 monthly searches triggered AI Overviews 55% of the time
Long-tail keywords (5+ words) generated AI Overviews in 73.6% of cases
Commercial intent queries showed AI Overviews 19.4% of the time
Informational queries triggered the feature 58.7% of the time
Crawlability Issues
The research showed that Google misses crawling about 50% of pages on large websites, while Bing misses 20% of pages that get organic traffic from Google.
The report notes: