AI Overviews at 43%: What It Means for Organic SEO
According to new data reported by TechCrunch, Google's AI Overviews now appear in 43% of searches. This is no marginal trend. It's a structural shift in how users access information online. As a result, the SEO strategies built over the past few years need a deep rethink.
The impact on organic visibility is direct. When Google generates a summarized answer at the top of the SERP, the click-through rate of traditional results drops significantly. B2B and retail sectors, where informational queries are frequent, are among the most exposed. As a result, generic, low-authority content risks losing even more traffic in the coming quarters.
At SHM Studio, we're following this evolution closely. In this article, we offer a strategic reading of the data, with concrete, actionable takeaways for marketing managers. We also point out which SEO levers still work and which approaches it's time to drop. In short: adapting is no longer optional. It's a competitive necessity.
The context: Google's SERP isn't what it used to be
For years, Google's Search Engine Results Page followed a relatively stable logic. Since 2024, however, the gradual rollout of AI Overviews has radically redrawn the interface. These generative answer blocks appear at the top of the page, above any traditional organic result.
The new data cited by TechCrunch is unambiguous: AI Overviews appear in 43% of searches on Google. That means nearly one search in two already returns an AI-generated summary before users even scroll down to the organic links.
This isn't just another algorithm update. It marks a change in the very way people use search. Marketing managers need to understand what that means in practice, and act accordingly.
The numbers that really matter
43% is a significant threshold, but it needs context. Not all queries trigger an AI Overview with the same frequency. Informational searches, the ones that start with
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