AI Overviews now appear on most branded searches, two datasets show
Google AI Overviews now show up on most searches for brand names. DemandSphere's daily tracking found them on 26.12% of branded queries on 1 September, and on 80.23% by 28 September. Ahrefs reported a similar level: 82.91% of branded keywords in US desktop results on 29 September.
The two vendors measure different things, so the numbers are not directly comparable. DemandSphere counts an AI Overview as present whether or not the brand itself is cited in it. Ahrefs reports monthly averages, so it cannot pin down the day of the jump. Neither dataset reports clicks. Google has not announced a change.
Why it matters
A branded search used to be the safest traffic a company had. The person already knew the name, and the first result was usually your own site.
If an AI-written summary now sits above that result, the summary shapes what people read about you before they reach your site. It can repeat your positioning, or it can repeat a competitor's review, an old pricing page or a forum thread.
The data does not show lost clicks, so treat this as a visibility and reputation issue first, and a traffic question second.
What to do this week
- Search your own brand name, your founders and your top products in a logged-out window. Note which queries show an AI Overview.
- Read each summary line by line. Mark anything wrong, outdated or missing.
- Check which sources the summary cites. Fix or update your own pages where they are the cause, and plan outreach where third-party pages are.
- In Search Console, compare branded clicks and impressions for September against August. Look for a change, but do not assume one.
- Repeat the check in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity so you see how each describes you.
Brand queries are now an AI search surface. Monitor them the way you monitor rankings.