Published figures on AI answers and search behaviour, alongside original data measured across twenty B2B and industrial companies in July 2026. Every figure is attributed and every method stated.
Free to cite with attribution.
Estimates range from roughly 20 to 50 percent of queries depending on the study, the vertical and the query type. No single figure is reliable on its own, and any source quoting one without that caveat should be treated with caution.
| Finding | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| AI Overview appearance, January 2025 | ~6.5% of queries | Semrush |
| AI Overview appearance, July 2025 peak | ~25% of queries | Semrush |
| AI Overview appearance, February 2026 | 48% of queries | BrightEdge, 9 industries |
| Year-on-year increase to Feb 2026 | +58% | BrightEdge |
| Organic CTR without AI Overview | 1.76% | Seer Interactive |
| Organic CTR with AI Overview present | 0.61% | Seer Interactive |
| Informational share of AIO queries, Jan 2025 | ~91% | Published analysis |
| Informational share of AIO queries, Oct 2025 | ~57% | Published analysis |
The direction of travel is documented outside our own work. Semrush tracked Google AI Overview appearance rising from roughly 6.5 percent of queries in January 2025 to a peak near 25 percent that July across a ten-million-keyword sample. BrightEdge, measuring nine commercial industries, recorded 48 percent of queries triggering an AI Overview by February 2026. Seer Interactive measured organic click-through on those queries falling from 1.76 percent to 0.61 percent. Prevalence estimates vary by methodology and should be read as a range rather than a figure.
The composition shift matters more than the prevalence. AI Overviews began on informational queries and have moved steadily toward commercial ones. A feature that once answered general questions increasingly answers the questions buyers ask before purchasing.
Twenty commercial B2B and industrial companies were measured across three markets in July 2026 using domain-level analysis with manual verification of live results. Six findings stood out, and all six ran counter to conventional assumptions about domain authority.
| Finding | Measured |
|---|---|
| Largest company in its national category, keyword count | 71 |
| Third-largest company in the same category | 513 |
| Single-facility competitor in the same category | 11,200 |
| Highest-traffic company in one local market, Authority Score | 9 |
| A competitor in that market with 2.7× less traffic, Authority Score | 18 |
| Companies in one market showing purchased or spam backlinks | 5 of 7 |
| Companies in that market appearing in their own AI Overview | 0 of 7 |
| Cost per click, “pick and pack fulfillment services” | $32.57 |
| Keyword difficulty for that same term | 14 |
| Average difficulty across the 219-keyword cluster | 6 |
Page count is a symptom, not a cause. What actually correlates is that companies with more pages have usually decided what each page is for. Twelve undifferentiated blog posts and one clear capability page produce very different results, and the first is considerably more common.
Method: twenty companies measured 26–28 July 2026 using the Semrush US database at root domain scope, covering seven companies in one mid-size metro, four in a major metro, and nine national operators. Every AI finding was verified against a live answer. One keyword reported at 170 monthly searches was excluded entirely after manual checking found no relevant business in the top ten.
Carefully, and with the methodology attached. Prevalence figures for AI Overviews vary by a factor of more than two between published studies, because each tracks a different keyword set, geography and device mix.
Send your company and your market. We will run the same analysis against your real competitors and send back what we find.
No call required and no obligation. Read it, check it yourself, and decide. If the findings are worth discussing after that, we can talk then.