Google's AI-generated answers in search, known as AI Overviews, now appear in 43% of searches, up from 15% a year ago, according to a new report from market intelligence firm Similarweb1,2.
The data marks a rapid expansion of AI's role in Google Search. Similarweb characterized what began as an AI layer on top of search as having become "an integral part of the search journey itself," with Google funneling users into AI Overviews and then into its more conversational AI Mode.
Visits to AI Mode rose from 126 million in June 2025 to 279 million by May 2026.
The shift is changing user behavior. Similarweb's data shows the average length of Google searches has risen over the past year, suggesting users are replacing short keyword-based queries with longer, more conversational ones designed for AI. The change also appears to increase the time users spend on Google's platform, rather than using it solely as a tool to discover external websites.
ANALYSIS The trajectory from 15% to 43% AI Overview penetration in roughly one year indicates that AI-generated answers are becoming the default search experience for a large share of queries, not a niche feature.
The expansion has drawn concern from publishers, who are losing traffic as Google itself becomes the destination for information rather than a gateway to external sites.
ANALYSIS The concurrent growth in AI Mode visits — more than doubling from June 2025 to May 2026 — suggests that AI Overviews are functioning as an on-ramp to deeper AI-driven interactions within Google's ecosystem, compounding the platform's hold on user attention.
Similarweb described the broader dynamic as a shift from an era of simple blue-link results to one in which Google sources its answers from the websites it indexes and presents them directly.