Brief

AI Overviews Appear in Most Major Brand Searches, Study Finds

Data from Ahrefs, DemandSphere and independent scrapes reveal AI‑generated search overviews now cover the majority of big‑brand queries in the U.S.

By Felo News Desk · Published Fri, 09 Oct 2026 19:28:28 GMT

Analysis of U.S. desktop search results shows AI Overviews are now present for a large share of major brand queries, according to a panel tracked by Ahrefs and corroborated by other industry counts.

What happened

Ahrefs examined Google’s U.S. results for the exact names of 100 global brands each week from July 1 to September 30, publishing the final numbers on October 2. On July 1, five of the 98 usable results displayed an AI Overview; by September 30, that number had risen to 63 of the 100 brand‑name queries.

In a separate scrape using SerpApi, Chris Long, co‑founder of Nectiv, reported on September 30 that 93 of 100 enterprise brands showed an AI Overview, though he did not release the full brand list.

DemandSphere’s daily series, released on October 1, tracked branded keywords across all markets and devices. Their data indicated AI Overviews appeared in 26.12 % of branded keywords on September 1, climbed to 90.48 % on September 27, and settled at 82.06 % on September 29.

What the reports add

Ahrefs also ran a broader crawl of 92.5 million branded‑keyword results out of 232.8 million U.S. desktop crawls between July and September. Their monthly share of branded queries triggering AI Overviews rose from 61.3 % in July to 73.3 % in September, a 12‑point increase, while non‑branded queries grew only 4.8 points to 78.3 % in September. On September 29, AI Overviews were present in 82.91 % of U.S. desktop results for branded keywords.

Both Ahrefs and DemandSphere note that their methodologies differ: Ahrefs’ “panel” used exact brand‑name searches, while DemandSphere counts an AI Overview regardless of whether the brand itself is cited in the overview.

What was said

Chris Long told SearchEngineJournal, “ran a quick scrape with SerpApi this morning and found that 93 out of 100 enterprise brands had AI Overviews present for them.”

Ahrefs did not provide click‑through data or detail how often a brand’s own site is referenced within the overviews.

How it came about

The surge follows Google’s rollout of AI‑generated answer boxes, known as AI Overviews, which summarize search intent and often include external links. Earlier Felo coverage explained how Google’s AI Overviews now embed more external links, affecting analytics for site owners (Google AI Overviews now include more external links).

Key facts

AI Overviews appeared for 63 of 100 major brand queries by September 30, 2026. (searchenginejournal.com)
Chris Long’s independent scrape found AI Overviews for 93 of 100 enterprise brands on September 30, 2026. (searchenginejournal.com)
DemandSphere reported AI Overview presence rose from 26.12 % on September 1 to 90.48 % on September 27, 2026. (searchenginejournal.com)
Ahrefs’ broader crawl showed AI Overview coverage of branded keywords increased from 61.3 % in July to 73.3 % in September 2026. (searchenginejournal.com)