Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: How They Work, Where They Are Available and What They Mean for Clicks

What are AI Overviews and AI Mode?

AI Overviews are summaries generated by Google that appear above the classic search results and link to further pages. Google shows them only when its systems see added value compared with the regular results. Many queries therefore trigger no AI Overview at all. A short definition is in our glossary entry on AI Overviews.

AI Mode is a separate search experience. Users ask longer questions, follow up and receive a detailed answer with links. According to Google, early users asked questions in AI Mode that were two to three times longer than traditional searches.

How is an AI Overview answer built?

Both features use query fan-out. This is how Google Search Central describes it: the system splits a question into subtopics, runs several related searches and collects relevant pages. A language model writes the answer and links to the sources. The principle resembles retrieval-augmented generation.

1. The user asks a question.

2. The system derives related sub-searches.

3. It retrieves relevant pages from the Google index.

4. A language model writes the answer.

5. Google shows the answer with links to the sources.

This has a practical consequence: a page can appear in an AI Overview even if it does not rank near the top for the original query. Google says its AI features can therefore show a wider and more diverse set of links than classic search.

Where are the features available?

Both features are available in most European markets (as of November 2026). The key dates:

• AI Overviews in Europe: On 25 March 2025 Google announced the launch in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. At launch, signed-in users aged 18 and over saw the feature.

• AI Mode: On 7 October 2025 Google announced AI Mode in more than 35 new languages and over 40 new countries and territories, bringing the total to more than 200, according to the Google blog. It went live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on 8 October 2025.

• Current status: Google’s help centre lists AI Mode countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Personalisation in AI Mode requires users to be 18 or older.

What do studies show about click-through rates?

Three widely cited studies measure fewer clicks on organic results when an AI Overview appears. All three rely on US or English-language data. All three measure correlations, not causes.

Google sees it differently. Its documentation states that clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are higher quality, with users more likely to spend time on the site. Google does not publish comparison figures there.

TechTafel has found no comparable public study with a disclosed methodology for European markets. The US figures therefore indicate a direction (a one-to-one transfer would be bold).

What can website owners do?

Google names no special rules for AI Overviews. A page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet. According to Search Central, there are “no additional requirements”. Google Search does not need special AI text files either, and that includes llms.txt.

1. Check indexing: The URL Inspection tool shows whether Googlebot can fetch the page and whether a nosnippet rule blocks content by accident.

2. Answer questions directly: Put the answer in the first sentence below a subheading and make every paragraph understandable on its own. Our primer What is GEO? explains the approach.

3. Maintain structured data: Google requires markup to match the visible text. Our article on structured data shows how.

4. Measure: The new Search Console report shows which pages appear in AI features. It has been available to all sites since 31 August 2026.

5. Decide deliberately: The Search generative AI setting in Search Console removes a site from AI Overviews, AI Mode and the AI features in Discover.

The exclusion setting has clear effects. According to the Search Console Help, an excluded site receives neither traffic nor impressions from these features. Elsewhere in Search, the choice is not used as a ranking signal. It does not control AI training either. Google-Extended in robots.txt handles that.

Google is only one part of AI search. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini cite their own sources, and Search Console does not cover them. Our comparison of AI visibility tools shows which products close that gap. The next step is simple: open the report in Search Console and note the ten pages with the most AI impressions.