Knowledge base v2.13.0 · Community edition · data through 2 October 2026
Topic · The state of Search
Google says users like AI Overviews, search more because of them and visit a wider range of sites; the last two of these Day 1 keynote claims match what Google has published, in its March 2025 AI Mode launch post (people are using Search more than ever) and its AI features guide (a greater diversity of websites, and higher-quality clicks from results pages with AI Overviews). Day 3's marketing research added that people who use AI Mode or AI Overviews feel more confident about purchase decisions and visit more brand websites (Google's research, not in its published documents). On clicks, Google's August 2025 post says total organic clicks are relatively stable but shifting between sites, with fewer clicks for quick-answer questions, while a community speaker reported falling clicks on informational and now local queries, and AI features on more commercial results, for the brands the speaker tracks; neither side gave figures. AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic is counted in Search Console's Performance report under the Web search type, and GA4 setups that separate out LLM traffic do not capture it. A second recording of Day 1 added the keynote's figures: AI Overviews and AI Mode send more than a billion clicks a week to the web, 2.5 billion people use Google's AI-powered search experiences, and 77% of their users make decisions faster (the last not in Google's docs); Google presents the two as one experience, where a user can start with an AI Overview and continue in AI Mode, while still offering traditional search as a choice. Gary Illyes said a multi-part query that no single article covers can be answered by a synthesised AI answer that helps users decide where to go. Author’s view: Google's I/O 2026 keynote gives 2.5 billion as AI Overviews' monthly active users, so cite the figure that way.
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Google says users like AI Overviews and search more because of them, with early feedback overwhelmingly positive and satisfaction highest among 18–24 year olds.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence slide photo, transcript
Google says AI Overviews help with new types of questions and lead users to visit a greater diversity of sites, with more total sites shown on the results page.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence slide photo, transcript
Google said AI Overviews and AI Mode are integrated into one seamless AI experience in Search.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence transcript
Google said its AI-powered responses in Search alone, AI Overviews and AI Mode, send more than a billion clicks per week to the web.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence transcript
Google said it offers users a choice between AI Mode, AI Overviews and traditional search rather than focusing on one experience.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence transcript
Google's keynote said 2.5 billion people worldwide use its AI-powered search experiences (the keynote did not say which feature or which period).
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence transcript
Google said 18 to 24 year olds are more engaged than ever with the AI-powered features in Search: they requery and ask more, and more complex, questions, which leads to more searches.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence transcript
Google said 77% of users of AI Overviews and AI Mode are able to make decisions faster because of them.
Speaker Lino CattaruzziIn Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotesEvidence transcript
Google said a multi-part query, such as a white three-row SUV for two teenagers and a car-sick dog, cannot be satisfied by a list of links because no single article covers every aspect, while AI Overviews and AI Mode can synthesise an answer that helps users decide where to go.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 1, 11:35 · What's new in the world of SearchEvidence transcript
AI Overviews and AI Mode work together: a user can start with an AI Overview and continue the conversation in AI Mode.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 1, 11:35 · What's new in the world of SearchEvidence transcript
The keynote's '2.5 billion people worldwide' named no feature, but Google's I/O 2026 keynote (May 2026) gives exactly that figure as AI Overviews' monthly active users, so cite it as AI Overviews monthly users, not as users of all AI features.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 1, 11:00 · Welcome and opening keynotes
Nik Vujic said GA4 setups that separate out traffic from LLMs do not capture visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Speaker Nik VujicIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said most people in the room had probably seen clicks decline over the past couple of years because AI now takes part of the demand by summarising information from websites, a shift that hit informational queries first.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker said the loss of clicks on informational queries to AI summaries probably happened for a good reason, with benefits for the user journey (the word 'benefits' is an uncertain reading of the recording).
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
In data a community speaker tracks for particular brands, local search terms have started to lose clicks too as AI features appear on more results pages.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
A community speaker reported, calling it worrying, that AI features have started to appear more often on results pages for commercial search terms too, in data the speaker tracks for particular brands.
Speaker not identifiedIn Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your usersEvidence transcript
Google's headline finding was that people who use AI features such as AI Mode or AI Overviews feel much more confident about their purchase decisions.
Speaker Pablo PérezIn Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middleEvidence transcript
Google's research found that people who use AI run more searches than people who do not.
Speaker Pablo PérezIn Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middleEvidence transcript
Google's research found that people who use AI also visit more brand websites, because it is simply easier.
“the people that are using AI, they search more, and they also visit more websites of brands.”
Speaker Pablo PérezIn Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middleEvidence transcript
Google's AI features guide says traffic from sites appearing in AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the overall search traffic in Search Console and reported in the Performance report within the Web search type.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-07
In an August 2025 post, Google's Head of Search wrote that total organic click volume from Google Search to websites had been relatively stable year-over-year and that Google was sending slightly more quality clicks (clicks where users do not quickly click back) than a year earlier; the post gave no figures.
Publisher Google blog (6 August 2025)Annotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google's August 2025 post on AI in Search said traffic is shifting between sites, decreasing for some and increasing for others, and that for some questions where people want a quick answer they may be satisfied with the response and not click further.
Publisher Google blog (6 August 2025)Annotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google's AI features guide says clicks from search results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the site.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google's AI Mode launch post (March 2025) said that with Google's new AI features people are using Google Search more than ever, as they get help with new and more complex questions.
Publisher Google blog (5 March 2025)Annotates Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middle
Google's AI features guide says that with AI Overviews people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 15:30 · Mastering the messy middle
The click decline described on stage is what many individual sites report, while Google's published position (August 2025) is that total organic clicks are relatively stable but shifting between sites, with fewer clicks for quick-answer questions; neither side gave figures, so measure the trend per site and per query type rather than assuming a market-wide fall.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 14:20 · Lightning session L: Understanding SERPs and your users
Google said AI Mode is growing almost exponentially and that people are searching more because of it, not less.
Google says users like AI Overviews and search more because of them, with early feedback overwhelmingly positive and satisfaction highest among 18–24 year olds.
Google said a multi-part query, such as a white three-row SUV for two teenagers and a car-sick dog, cannot be satisfied by a list of links because no single article covers every aspect, while AI Overviews and AI Mode can synthesise an answer that helps users decide where to go.
Queries of five or more words are growing in volume 1.5 times faster than shorter queries. The slide footnote cites Google internal data on global English-language queries, for a comparison period that starts in November 2022 (the remaining dates are only partly legible).
AI Overviews and AI Mode work together: a user can start with an AI Overview and continue the conversation in AI Mode.
Google said AI Overviews and AI Mode are integrated into one seamless AI experience in Search.
Nik Vujic said GA4 setups that separate out traffic from LLMs do not capture visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The regular Search Console Performance report still shows all traffic including AI features, while the generative AI view shows only impressions from AI surfaces.
Google's AI features guide says traffic from sites appearing in AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the overall search traffic in Search Console and reported in the Performance report within the Web search type.
The regular Search Console Performance report still shows all traffic including AI features, while the generative AI view shows only impressions from AI surfaces.
Google's research found that people who use AI run more searches than people who do not.
Google says users like AI Overviews and search more because of them, with early feedback overwhelmingly positive and satisfaction highest among 18–24 year olds.
Google's research found that people who use AI also visit more brand websites, because it is simply easier.
Google says AI Overviews help with new types of questions and lead users to visit a greater diversity of sites, with more total sites shown on the results page.
Track AI feature visibility in the Generative AI performance report
Rests on 11 claims, 1 of them in this topic