Semrush tracked 400 commercial keywords for a year. The share showing an AI Overview went from about 46% to about 88%.
Dominic Coutts
Your comparison, pricing and review pages will get fewer clicks even if they hold their positions. Plan and report with that in mind.
What happened
Semrush tracked 400 commercial keywords in banking, software and ecommerce every month from September 2025 to August 2026. The share showing an AI Overview rose from 45.75% to about 88%. Review searches jumped from 30% to 89%, and "best X for Y" searches reached 96%.
What it means for you
The searches closest to a buying decision are now the ones most likely to be answered by Google before anyone clicks. A page can rank just as well and still bring in fewer visitors. The data is US desktop only, so UK figures are probably lower, but the direction is clear.
What to do
- Expect impressions to hold and clicks to fall on comparison, pricing and review pages, and judge them on enquiries rather than traffic.
- Make sure those pages give a clear, quotable answer, so Google has a reason to cite you in the overview.
- Warn whoever reads your reports before they spot the drop themselves.
Semrush
Worth doing something about this week.
You still rank. But Google's answering for you.
More signals
Get a focused review of how your business is found, where competitors win attention, and what to change to generate more of the right enquiries. You leave with a plan you can act on, whether we do the work that follows or not.