AI Overviews are expanding across commercial intent search [Study]

AI Overviews are impacting more than informational search.

In our six-month analysis of over 600,000 keywords across 10 industries, AI Overviews grew an average of 71% across search engine results pages (SERPs) with commercial intent.

At the same time, the trend of AI Overviews appearing on SERPs with Google Ads continues to grow.

Google’s move to extend AI Overviews into a wider variety of SERPs is disrupting not only informational searches, but also searches with commercial intent and advertising value.

Key takeaways

Google Ads and AI Overviews now appear together on the same SERP roughly 2x more often than they did a year ago
The appearance of AI Overviews for commercial-intent queries grew 71%
The appearance of AI Overviews for transactional-intent queries decreased by 5%
Finance saw the largest growth in commercial queries triggering AI Overviews of any industry, up 231% in six months
Keywords with an AI Overview had a higher average cost per click (CPC) than keywords without AI Overviews across most industries

Methodology

This study builds on our previous AI Overview research, which showed that AI Overviews were expanding rapidly across informational search and increasingly appearing alongside Google Ads.

For this new analysis, we examined more than 600,000 keywords from the Semrush U.S. desktop database between November 2025 and April 2026. We segmented those keywords by industry, search intent, and cost per click (CPC) to understand how AI Overview visibility varies across different types of searches.

From there, we measured:

The share of keywords that triggered AI Overviews each month
How often AI Overviews coexisted with Google Ads on SERPs
How AI Overview appearance varied across industries, intent categories, and CPC ranges

Google Ads and AI Overviews increasingly coexist

AI Overviews are appearing alongside Google Ads twice as often as they were a year ago.

Our earlier research found that SERPs containing both Google Ads and AI Overviews grew by 394% toward the end of 2025. There was a noticeable jump in September that remained high throughout the holiday shopping season, which is when commercial search activity peaks for many industries.

Although overlap between AI Overviews and ads declined in early 2026, the general upward trend remains.

What this means

Google isn’t limiting AI Overviews to low-intent informational searches. Ads and AI Overviews appearing together more often is a sign that Google sees value in AI Overviews showing up on the same searches where advertisers pay for clicks.

AI Overviews are expanding across commercial-intent search

During the six-month study period, the share of commercial SERPs with an AI Overview grew 71%. Meanwhile, the average share of transactional SERPs with an AI Overview fell 5%.

Note: Commercial intent keywords represent someone in research mode, evaluating options, comparing products, or looking for deals. (“Peet’s cold brew vs Starbucks cold brew,” “Dunkin iced coffee flavors.”) Transactional intent keywords signal someone in action mode, ready to buy or convert. (“Pickup truck for sale,” “sandwich places near me that deliver.”)

AI Overviews appeared far more often for commercial keywords than for transactional keywords across every industry in our dataset. But the size of the gap between these two types of keywords was different across industries.

It was particularly large in Internet & telecom, Finance, and Travel.

But in Food & drink, the gap was actually flipped, with AI Overviews on 16% of transactional SERPs and 14% of commercial SERPs.

Here’s what that trend looked like across the 10 industries:

Every industry saw growth, just not at the same rate.

Finance saw the largest increase of commercial-intent AI Overviews (231.25%), followed by Computers & electronics (107.62%) and Games (76.66%).

What this means

Some industries have more commercial-intent AI Overviews than others. This could be related to the varying length of the research stage when making a decision or purchase in each category.

For example, Internet & telecom, Finance, and Travel involve high-value decisions with long research stages that can take weeks or months. And these industries are seeing the most growth in commercial AI Overviews.

Because there’s a longer research stage, there’s more opportunity for an AI Overview to potentially condense the decision making process and help the searcher move towards their decision.

But for buyer journeys with quicker research stages (like Food & drink, where you might research and pick a place to eat within the same hour), there’s not as much room for an AI Overview.

In short, the longer the research stage, the higher the likelihood of AI Overviews to play a part.

AI Overviews remain less common on transactional searches

At the same time, transactional searches as a whole saw a decrease in AI Overviews during the study period.

Most industries were relatively flat or declining. Of the top two industries with the highest share of transactional keywords with AI Overviews in April 2026 (Internet & telecom and Food & drink), neither were on a strong upward trend.

The two exceptions were Computers & electronics (which had an 80.45% positive share change) and News (with a 45.96% positive share change).

What this means

In nearly every industry, the trend of AI Overviews appearing on transactional search is going down. This is happening at the same time we’re seeing an increase in commercial intent AI Overviews.

In the commercial research phase, there’s more opportunity for an AI answer to summarize something for someone in the middle of the decision-making process. But when the search is transactional, and the person is ready to make a purchase or take action, there’s less chance of an AI Overview appearing.

AI Overviews often appear for high-CPC keywords

When we segmented keywords into four tiers of CPC, we found that AI Overviews appeared most often in the most expensive tier in nearly every industry.

That means many of the queries where advertisers compete most heavily for clicks are also likely to show an AI Overview.

Across the most expensive keywords in Jobs & education, over 60% saw an AI Overview — more than any other industry.

We also compared the average CPC of keywords that triggered AI Overviews with those that didn’t trigger AI Overviews.

In the industries with higher average CPCs, the difference was more substantial.

Jobs & education keywords with AI Overviews had an average CPC of $5.02, compared to $1.51 for keywords without AI Overviews. Finance showed a similar pattern, with AI Overview keywords averaging $4.84 compared to $2.14 for keywords without AI Overviews.

But this dynamic between keywords with AI Overviews having a higher CPC wasn’t the same in the industries with lower overall CPC.

Keywords triggering AI Overviews actually had a lower average CPC in the Internet & telecom, Games, Hobbies & leisure, Food & drink, News, and Sports categories.

Games saw one of the highest increases in commercial searches triggering AI Overviews, but that growth appears to be concentrated in lower-CPC queries rather than the highest-value keywords.

What this means

Hannah Pedri, Head of Paid Search & Social at Semrush, says the pattern lines up with what her team has been seeing.

Many of the keywords with the highest CPCs are also the keywords increasingly triggering AI Overviews. When the cost of visibility is already high, it becomes even more important to understand where Paid Search is adding value, where organic visibility can support your goals, and where you need both.

Hannah Pedri, Head of Paid Search & Social at Semrush

In industries like Jobs & education and Finance, search is part of a complex and high-value decision, like comparing universities or credit cards.

For marketers in these fields, getting visibility across the search terms in a high value research stage means finding a way to get cited in AI Overviews, paying a high CPC for a paid placement, or both.

What the growth of commercial AI Overviews means for marketing leaders

AI Overviews are now showing up deeper into the buyer journey, especially for commercial keywords.

Your brand could be competing for attention in several areas on a single results page: in the AI Overview, in the AI Overview’s list of citations, in the organic results, and in the paid placements inside or around the AI Overview.

This means it will be important to monitor the SERPs of your niche’s most valuable keywords, and track the appearance of ads and AI Overviews across them.

Google Ads still doesn’t show us which paid queries trigger AI Overviews, so there’s a real visibility gap for Paid Search teams. Semrush’s Organic Rankings data can help bridge part of that gap by showing where AI Overviews are appearing, helping marketers better understand how AI-generated results may be impacting their broader search strategy.

Hannah Pedri, Head of Paid Search & Social at Semrush

Once you have that data, you can better plan where to use your paid budget and where to aim for getting cited in the AI Overviews.

To see how AI Overviews are impacting commercial-intent terms in your niche, use Semrush. Go to the Organic Rankings tool, click “Positions,” and apply two filters:

Intent: Commercial
SERP Features on SERP: AI Overview