A Semrush study published on 21 October 2026 found Google AI Overviews on 88% of tracked commercial keywords, up from 45.75% a year earlier. Here is what it means for your SEO and how to get your brand cited.
01A Semrush study published on 21 October 2026 found Google AI Overviews on 88% of 400 tracked commercial keywords in August 2026, up from 45.75% in September 2025.
02Weighted by estimated search volume, Google AI Overviews appeared on 97.08% of the commercial searches in the Semrush panel.
03Review searches saw the biggest jump in the Semrush study, from 30.14% to close to 90% AI Overview coverage.
04The Semrush study covers US desktop only and includes no click or conversion data, so Indian brands should test their own keywords.
Google AI Overviews now appear on 88% of the commercial keywords Semrush tracks, up from 45.75% a year earlier. If you sell anything online, assume an AI summary now sits above your best organic ranking on almost every “best”, “vs”, “reviews” and “pricing” search.
That is the headline finding of a Semrush study published on 21 October 2026. It tracked a fixed set of buying-intent searches every month for a year, and the jump is steepest on the queries that sit closest to a purchase.
Semrush tracked 400 commercial keywords on US desktop from September 2025 to August 2026 and found AI Overviews on 88% of them by August 2026, up from 45.75%. Weighted by estimated search volume, coverage hit 97.08%, so almost every commercial search in the panel showed an AI summary.
The panel covered three industries (banking, ecommerce and software) and five modifier groups that marketers write content for every week: alternatives, best X for Y, price or cost, reviews, and brand vs brand. Semrush checked each keyword once a month for an AI Overview.
Review searches changed the most. Semrush found AI Overviews on 30.14% of “reviews” keywords in September 2025 and close to 90% by August 2026, a 59-point jump. “Best X for Y” searches rose 53.4 points to 96.12%, the highest coverage of any modifier group in the study.
| Modifier | Sep 2025 | Aug 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 30.14% | About 89% | +59 pts |
| Best X for Y | 42.72% | 96.12% | +53.4 pts |
| Price or cost | 43.59% | 82.05% | +38.5 pts |
| Alternatives | 48.44% | 82.81% | +34 pts |
| Brand vs brand | 63.41% | 86.59% | +23.18 pts |
Ecommerce moved furthest by industry. Its coverage climbed from 32.62% to 85.11%, and ecommerce price or cost searches went from 4.76% to 71.43%. Banking review searches went from 13.79% to 89.66%. Three combinations hit 100%: banking best X for Y, software alternatives and software best X for Y.
It matters because these are the searches that sit closest to revenue. When an AI Overview answers “best CRM for small teams” before the organic results load, the page in position one gets less attention, and the brands Google cites inside the summary shape the shortlist.
Semrush itself says ranking first probably won’t send the traffic it did a year ago. That line is a prediction, not a measured result. The study contains no click, traffic or conversion data, a gap PPC Land pointed out in its coverage on 23 October 2026.
Your ranking report now measures the second thing a buyer sees. The first thing is a summary you don’t control.
Separate studies published the same week add context on clicks. Marie Haynes analysed 12 months of GA4 data across 100 websites and found ChatGPT sent sessions equal to just 0.62% of Google organic, while Google drove 96.5% of total conversions. The SEO Works found organic search sent 39 times more traffic than AI assistants across 95 sites.
Read the fine print: Semrush’s panel is 400 keywords, US desktop only, with small cells of fewer than 30 keywords per industry and modifier on average. One keyword can move a cell by several points. Treat the direction as solid and the exact percentages as indicative.
The Semrush study does not include India, mobile or any non-US market, so no published figure tells you how many Indian commercial searches show an AI Overview today. Indian brands should measure their own keyword set rather than assume the 88% figure carries over.
Our view: the direction is the same, because Google runs AI Overviews in India and most Indian commercial searches happen on mobile, where the summary takes even more of the screen. Check it yourself in an incognito window for your top 20 money keywords this week.
You get cited by being present on the sources Google pulls into the summary for your commercial queries: your own comparison and pricing pages, review platforms, YouTube reviews and roundups. Semrush’s own example, a “mailchimp vs klaviyo” summary, cited Klaviyo’s guide for one option and Zapier for the other.
Here is the PingTalks order of work, based on Semrush’s recommendations and what we see in AI search audits. Our full playbook on getting cited by AI Overviews and ChatGPT goes deeper on each step.
Pro tip: Compare clicks and impressions for these queries in Search Console month over month. Rising impressions with falling CTR is the AI Overview signature. Our guide to Search Console features most marketers never use shows how to filter for it.
No, not on this data alone. The Semrush study shows where AI Overviews appear, not what they do to clicks or sales, and Google organic still drove the overwhelming share of conversions in the Marie Haynes dataset. Rebalance content work towards citation-worthy pages instead of moving budget.
Paid search has its own AI Overview questions, since ads can now show in and around the summary. Track those changes in our running log of Google Ads updates and our guide to AI search marketing.
The 88% figure comes from a small, US-only panel, but the trend is too steep to ignore. Commercial search now opens with an AI answer. Keep ranking, but add one new metric to your monthly report: whether your brand appears in the AI Overview for your 20 most valuable keywords, and who gets cited when it doesn’t.
In a Semrush panel of 400 US desktop commercial keywords, 88% showed an AI Overview in August 2026. Weighted by estimated search volume, the figure was 97.08%.
The study covered banking, ecommerce and software. All three ended between 85% and 91% AI Overview coverage in August 2026, with ecommerce rising from 32.62% to 85.11%.
The Semrush study does not measure clicks, so it cannot answer this directly. Check Search Console for rising impressions with falling CTR on your commercial queries to see the effect on your own site.
No published figure covers India, because the Semrush study used US desktop data only. Indian brands should check their own top commercial keywords on mobile and desktop.
Keep comparison and pricing pages current with clear, quotable answers, and be present on the review sites and YouTube reviews Google cites for your category. Then track citations monthly for your most valuable keywords.
Digital Evangelist and Entrepreneur at Clickseek Digital. A results-oriented marketing leader with an 18+ year track record driving transformative growth for diverse global businesses. Expert in performance marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and market expansion within B2B SaaS, Consumer-Tech, Fintech, Travel/Hospitality, and CRM/ITES Solutions sectors. IIM alumnus with a strong analytical background and a string of accolades, including "Top 50 Most Influential E-Commerce Professional of India" and "Top 100 Digital Marketer of India."
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