What triggers an AI Overview? What forms of queries are probably to generate an AIO, and that are comparatively protected? Can we predict the place AIOs will seem, and even goal SERPs with out them?
To reply these questions, we analyzed our database of 146 million SERPs and explored how usually AI Overviews appeared for 86 totally different key phrase traits, from YMYL to CPC to question size.
Throughout our knowledge set, AI Overviews seem for 21% of key phrases. However taking a look at particular key phrase classes, some classes have as excessive as a 60% probability of triggering an AI Overview, and others as little as 1%.
- AIOs seem on 21% of all key phrases.
- 99.9% of AIOs seem on Informational intent key phrases
- AIOs are 1.9x extra frequent for non-branded key phrases than branded key phrases
- AIOs seem on 46% of seven+ phrase queries
- AIOs seem for 57.9% of all query queries
- 44.1% of Medical YMYL queries set off an AI Overview
- Solely 6% of reports queries set off an AI Overview
- The classes with highest AIO share are Science (43.6%), Well being (43.0%), Pets & Animals (36.8%), and Folks & Society (35.3%).
- The classes with lowest AIO share are Procuring (3.2%), Actual Property (5.8%), Sports activities (14.8%), and Information (15.1%).
- Solely 4% of NSFW queries set off AIOs
- Solely 7.9% of native searches set off an AI Overview
About this knowledge
All knowledge is from September 2025. Key phrase classes are derived from our inside key phrase categorization techniques.
If you happen to’re an Ahrefs person, you may entry this knowledge your self. Simply head to Key phrases Explorer and use the SERP options filter to see all key phrases that set off an AI Overview, and filter by dozens of variables like intent, quantity, and progress charge:
You too can analyze any model, web site, or product’s visibility in AI Overviews utilizing Model Radar.
Simply enter your model to research your mentions, citations, estimated impressions, and even share of voice throughout hundreds of thousands of AI Overviews:
AI Overviews seem on 20.5% of all SERPs (29,991,998 out of 146,122,391).
Put one other manner, most web sites can count on to compete with a Google-branded, AI-generated weblog put up for 1 in each 5 of the key phrases they aim.
We are able to use this charge as a baseline to see whether or not totally different key phrase traits—like intent, size, or CPC—make it roughly seemingly for AI Overviews to set off.
Right here’s a chart summarising our findings. Question sorts with a constructive distinction from the baseline (i.e. bars on the appropriate of the mid-line) usually tend to set off an AI Overview; these with a detrimental distinction (bars on the left) are much less more likely to set off an AI Overview.
99.9% of key phrases that set off AI Overviews are Informational in intent. 5.5% of AIO key phrases are thought of Industrial, 1.2% Transactional, and simply 0.1% Navigational.
Sidenote.
Key phrases can have a number of intent classifications, therefore the whole summing to better than 100%.
| Intent | Depend | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Informational | 29,959,542 | 99.9% |
| Navigational | 26,413 | 0.1% |
| Industrial | 1,657,560 | 5.5% |
| Transactional | 366,400 | 1.2% |
Relative to the baseline charge of 20.5%, we are able to see that AIOs are barely extra more likely to seem for Informational key phrases, however vastly much less more likely to seem for different intent sorts, particularly Navigational. Simply 0.09% of Navigational key phrases set off an AI Overview:
| Intent | AIO SERPs | Complete SERPs | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Informational | 29959542 | 140287290 | 21.4% |
| Navigational | 26413 | 2909989 | 0.9% |
| Industrial | 1657560 | 38117465 | 4.3% |
| Transactional | 366400 | 17806400 | 2.1% |
76.3% of key phrases that set off AIOs are thought of non-branded (e.g. website positioning instruments), with the remaining 23.7% categorised as branded searches ( e.g. Ahrefs).
| Label | Depend | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Branded | 7,095,160 | 23.7% |
| Non-branded | 22,896,838 | 76.3% |
AIOs are 1.9x extra more likely to seem on non-branded queries, triggering on 13.1% of all branded queries and 24.9% of non-branded queries in our SERP database.
| Label | AIO SERPs | Complete SERPs | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded | 7095160 | 54150524 | 13.1% |
| Non-branded | 22896838 | 91971867 | 24.9% |
In comparison with the baseline, AI Overviews not often seem for 1-3 phrase queries, however usually set off for 5-7+ phrase queries.
Evidently the longer the search question, the better the possibility an AI Overview will seem. AIOs seem on simply 9.5% of single-word queries, however that determine jumps to 46.4% of all queries with seven or extra phrases.
| Question size | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 471691 | 4964588 | 9.50% |
| 2 | 2537067 | 25594777 | 9.90% |
| 3 | 5740261 | 40931537 | 14.00% |
| 4 | 6315178 | 32365814 | 19.50% |
| 5 | 5321458 | 19303206 | 27.60% |
| 6 | 3935672 | 10753233 | 36.60% |
| 7+ | 5670671 | 12209236 | 46.40% |
66.5% of key phrases that set off AIOs are categorized as questions.
| Label | Depend | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Query | 10,045,913 | 33.5% |
| Not query | 19,946,085 | 66.5% |
In complete, AIOs seem on 57.9% of all query queries, whereas non-question queries present a decrease charge of AI Overviews in contrast with the baseline, at 15.5%.
| Label | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| Query | 10045913 | 17361451 | 57.90% |
| Not query | 19946085 | 128760940 | 15.50% |
There appears to be little apparent correlation between key phrase CPC buckets and AI Overview look, with most hovering inside a few share factors of our 20.5% baseline:
| CPC (USD) | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00-0.10 | 2427764 | 8787818 | 27.6% |
| 0.10-0.20 | 847079 | 4573228 | 18.5% |
| 0.20-0.50 | 1740808 | 14057337 | 12.4% |
| 0.50-1.50 | 2435272 | 13550276 | 18% |
| 1.50-5.00 | 1511232 | 7709489 | 19.6% |
| 5.00-20.00 | 302047 | 1576723 | 19.2% |
| 20.00+ | 20943 | 132852 | 15.8% |
Nearly a 3rd (32.3%) of the key phrases that set off AI Overviews are categorised as YMYL (Your Cash or Your Life) queries.
Provided that YMYL queries are—in keeping with Google themselves—deserving of additional care and a focus, it appears stunning to see AI-generated solutions so prevalent.
In reality, AI Overviews are extra frequent for YMYL queries than regular queries. 34.3% of all YMYL queries set off an AI Overview, far larger than our 20.5% baseline. Non-YMYL queries are much less more likely to set off AIOs, at simply 17.2%:
| Label | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not YMYL | 20291372 | 117843464 | 17.2% |
| YMYL | 9700626 | 28278927 | 34.3% |
All YMYL classes—Medical, Monetary, Security, Authorized, and Different—present an elevated prevalence of AI Overviews.
That is very true for Medical YMYL queries, with 44.1% of medical queries triggering an AI Overview—greater than double the frequency at which AI overviews seem throughout all key phrases.
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not YMYL | 20291372 | 117843464 | 17.2% |
| Medical | 5924866 | 13430263 | 44.1% |
| Monetary | 2027902 | 8859397 | 22.9% |
| Security | 1215129 | 3922977 | 31% |
| Authorized | 354573 | 1499855 | 23.6% |
| Different | 178156 | 566435 | 31.5% |
This has not gone unnoticed by SEOs in the healthcare industry:
If we categorise key phrases by the trade they belong to, we are able to see that AI Overviews have hit some industries tougher than others.
In comparison with our baseline of 20.5%, the toughest hit classes are:
- Science (43.6%)
- Well being (43.0%)
- Pets & Animals (36.8%)
- Folks & Society (35.3%)
- Web & Telecom (30.3%)
- Reference (30.1%)
- Computer systems & Electronics (28.6%)
On the different finish of the spectrum, AI Overviews appear unlikely to set off for different industries, particularly these associated to commerce and information content material:
- Procuring (3.2%)
- Actual Property (5.8%)
- Sports activities (14.8%)
- Information (15.1%)
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grownup | 44106 | 3599311 | 1.2% |
| Arts_and_Entertainment | 1882795 | 14009774 | 13.4% |
| Autos_and_Vehicles | 1269893 | 6762380 | 18.8% |
| Beauty_and_Fitness | 859603 | 4679157 | 18.4% |
| Books_and_Literature | 317298 | 1526539 | 20.8% |
| Business_and_Industrial | 936352 | 5757412 | 16.3% |
| Computers_and_Electronics | 1675947 | 5862964 | 28.6% |
| Finance | 1355373 | 5451993 | 24.9% |
| Food_and_Drink | 1804833 | 9680182 | 18.6% |
| Video games | 736028 | 5362070 | 13.7% |
| Well being | 6638182 | 15436927 | 43% |
| Hobbies_and_Leisure | 303138 | 2256793 | 13.4% |
| Home_and_Garden | 1755813 | 9540446 | 18.4% |
| Internet_and_Telecom | 377053 | 1244501 | 30.3% |
| Jobs_and_Education | 1092337 | 6075319 | 18% |
| Law_and_Government | 898760 | 3889739 | 23.1% |
| Information | 746414 | 4948735 | 15.1% |
| Online_Communities | 218816 | 1071306 | 20.4% |
| People_and_Society | 1665904 | 4722623 | 35.3% |
| Pets_and_Animals | 1179593 | 3203717 | 36.8% |
| Real_Estate | 170199 | 2916211 | 5.8% |
| Reference | 1140509 | 3786834 | 30.1% |
| Science | 1281223 | 2939427 | 43.6% |
| Sensitive_Subjects | 131358 | 1242598 | 10.6% |
| Procuring | 555271 | 17343482 | 3.2% |
| Sports activities | 964484 | 6519231 | 14.8% |
| Travel_and_Transportation | 1050155 | 6675091 | 15.7% |
Nearly all key phrases that set off AI Overviews fall into the not newsy class, with simply 0.2% of key phrases categorised as very newsy.
| Class | Depend | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Not newsy | 28,256,716 | 94.2% |
| Considerably newsy | 1,714,865 | 5.7% |
| Very newsy | 20,417 | 0.07% |
Relative to the 20.5% general AIO charge, very newsy key phrases are considerably much less more likely to set off an AI Overview, suggesting that AIOs consider evergreen queries, not present information.
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| not_newsy | 28256716 | 136181642 | 20.7% |
| somewhat_newsy | 1714865 | 9618926 | 17.8% |
| very_newsy | 20417 | 321823 | 6.3% |
As a part of a bug bounty, Mark Williams-Cook discovered a collection of question classifiers utilized by Google as a part of their search techniques. (Learn more here.)
All however certainly one of these classes (different) are more likely than common to set off an AI Overview. On the excessive, 59.8% of all cause queries set off an AI Overview, the best share of any class on this analysis.
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| different | 6999483 | 91932424 | 7.6% |
| short_fact | 6462155 | 15700313 | 41.2% |
| definition | 5208895 | 11001131 | 47.3% |
| cause | 4603040 | 7696962 | 59.8% |
| instruction | 4394332 | 12521507 | 35.1% |
| comparability | 1292772 | 4942567 | 26.2% |
| bool | 772554 | 1346630 | 57.4% |
| consequence | 219770 | 470434 | 46.7% |
AI Overviews usually don’t set off for NSFW queries. 99.1% of the queries that set off AIOs are categorised as not NSFW:
Solely 4% of NSFW queries set off an AI Overview, far decrease than our baseline prevalence:
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not NSFW | 29732356 | 139636777 | 21.4% |
| NSFW | 259642 | 6485614 | 4% |
Relative to the 20.5% general AIO charge, all NSFW classes present a considerably decrease incidence of AI Overviews. Inside NSFW, the very best AIO charges are noticed for drug queries (12.6%) and rip-off queries (11.3%), although each stay effectively beneath the baseline.
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| not_nsfw | 29732356 | 139636777 | 21.3% |
| medication | 92771 | 735814 | 12.6% |
| grownup | 56450 | 3741704 | 1.5% |
| violence | 42805 | 554457 | 7.7% |
| weapons | 18898 | 354454 | 5.3% |
| vulgar | 18137 | 192852 | 9.4% |
| unlawful | 9706 | 190387 | 5.1% |
| playing | 8412 | 582259 | 1.4% |
| scams | 6683 | 59357 | 11.3% |
| hate | 3243 | 41337 | 7.8% |
| self_harm | 2537 | 32993 | 7.7% |
AI Overviews appear unlikely to set off for native searches (e.g. dentist close to me).
AIOs seem for simply 7.9% of queries categorised as native searches, effectively beneath the bottom charge of 20.5% throughout all key phrases, and for 22.8% of non-local queries, barely above the bottom charge.
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| native | 1757205 | 22358147 | 7.9% |
| non_local | 28234793 | 123764244 | 22.8% |
Google acknowledges 4 forms of person intent in its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines:
- Know question, a few of that are Know Easy queries
- Do question, when the person is attempting to perform a aim or have interaction in an exercise
- Web site question, when the person is on the lookout for a selected web site or webpage
- Go to-in-person question, a few of that are on the lookout for a selected enterprise or group, a few of that are on the lookout for a class of companies
99.9% of the key phrases that set off AIOs fall into the “Know” class, suggesting robust overlap between Know key phrases and our definition of Informational key phrases (which additionally account for 99.9% of AIO triggering key phrases). Google appears unlikely to set off AIOs for different intent sorts.
| Class | Depend | Share |
|---|---|---|
| know | 29,959,549 | 99.9% |
| do | 2,755,518 | 9.2% |
| visit_in_person | 628,188 | 2.1% |
| web site | 26,411 | 0.1% |
Do, Go to-in-person, and Web site all set off AIOs much less steadily than the bottom charge, with Web site queries returning them lower than 1% of the time.
The Go to in particular person AIO charge is just about on par with our Native queries class (7.1% and seven.9% AIO charge respectively); and the Web site AIO charge is an identical to our Navigational classification from earlier (each returning an AIO charge of 0.9%).
| Class | AIO SERPs | All SERPs | P.c |
|---|---|---|---|
| know | 29959549 | 140287274 | 21.4% |
| do | 2755518 | 21168986 | 13% |
| visit_in_person | 628188 | 8813799 | 7.1% |
| web site | 26411 | 2909983 | 0.9% |
Ultimate ideas
It appears crystal clear that AI Overviews are designed to set off for informational queries, notably questions and lengthy queries. They’re unlikely to set off for information queries, native searches, and NSFW queries.
However extra stunning: AI Overviews set off very steadily for YMYL queries, and particularly medical YMYL queries. Regardless of apparent dangers of hallucination, Google appears completely pleased answering essential medical queries with an AI-generated snippet.
