TLDR
Google's AI Overviews appeared on more than 80% of brand-name searches by late September 2026, up from roughly 26% at the start of the month. In Ahrefs' sample of big-brand summaries, Wikipedia was the most cited source. Neither tracker has published Australian figures.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Chris Long searched the names of 100 big companies in Google on 30 September and found an AI Overview sitting above the results for 93 of them.[1]
Long, co-founder of the US search consultancy Nectiv, posted the result the same day, saying he had run the check with a scraping tool that morning. Brand searches had been the part of Google that marketers treated as their own, and a company's site usually ranks first for its own name.
Two tracking firms have since measured the change. DemandSphere, which counts across all markets and devices, found an AI Overview on 26.12% of the branded queries it tracks on 1 September.[2]
By 27 September the share had reached 90.48%. It was 82.06% on 29 September, the last day in the data.[2]
Ahrefs, which looked only at US desktop results, put the figure at 65.1% of branded keywords in August and 82.91% on 29 September.[4]
The climb wasn't smooth. DemandSphere's rate jumped to 57.43% on 18 September and fell back to 31.15% the next day, according to a Semrush analysis of its data.[3]
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable checked several brands and saw the same pattern, except for Google's own name and news publications, Semrush reported. Google hasn't announced a change for branded queries or said whether it's finished.[3]
Share of branded searches showing an AI Overview, September 2026
Wikipedia gets the first word
DemandSphere counted an Overview as present whenever Google returned one, so its figures don't show whether the brand itself was cited.[2]
Ahrefs checked who was. Across 57 Overviews for big global brands that listed their sources, Wikipedia was cited in 41.[4] YouTube appeared in 38.6% and LinkedIn in 22.8%, though Ahrefs said those pages weren't necessarily the brand's own.[4]
In 48 of the 63 brand Overviews in its weekly panel, the summary took position one.[4]
"Competitors/external sources can now control the narrative of your brand directly in the search results," Long wrote. He also told brands to "expect CTR to now go down on your branded searches".[1]
No Australian numbers yet
Neither firm has published figures for Australia. DemandSphere blends every market into one count and Ahrefs covers US desktop only, so it isn't known how far the change reaches into local brand searches.
AI Overviews have run in Australia since October 2024. So an Australian shopper searching a retailer, bank or telco by name may now read Google's summary of it first, drawn from Wikipedia entries, videos and LinkedIn pages the company doesn't control.
For a brand team, checking it takes one search: what the Overview says, which sources it cites, and whether it repeats old prices, reviews or complaints. Earlier Prompt the Market reporting on AI Overviews and lost clicks is in the search archive.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is a Google AI Overview?
Why does it matter that AI Overviews now appear on branded searches?
Is there Australian data on how often AI Overviews appear for branded searches?
Do the DemandSphere and Ahrefs figures conflict?
James Dore is Strategy Director at Bushnote, a leader in SEO and AEO in Australia. He writes on search, AI and the technology decisions shaping government and industry.
