PromptScoutWhat is AI Overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries shown within a search experience that synthesize information from multiple sources. AI Overviews may include citations or links depending on the product and query.
Quick definition
AI Overviews are search summaries written by AI that appear above or within search results.
How AI Overviews works
- AI Overviews typically retrieve information from multiple documents or data sources.
- AI Overviews generate a summary that attempts to match query intent and contextual relevance.
- AI Overviews may provide citation in AI answers, enabling source attribution (AI).
- AI Overviews can change over time as sources change and systems are updated.
Why AI Overviews matters
AI Overviews matters because the overview can become the primary surface users read.
AI Overviews affects:
- visibility for publishers when users do not click (zero-click search)
- which sources get cited and the order those sources appear
- how accurately entities and concepts are described in a compressed format
Example use cases
- Monitoring whether a domain appears as a cited source for a set of commercial prompts.
- Ensuring a definition page includes a direct opening definition to support summarization.
- Comparing answer ranking across repeated AI overview outputs.