Search your brand, and AI answers first: AI Overviews now show on 83% of branded searches

Branded search used to be the space a brand controlled best. Someone types your name, your site ranks first, done. Ahrefs data published on 2 October 2026 shows how quickly that is changing.

Ahrefs analysed 232.8 million US desktop search results from July to September 2026. As of 29 September, AI Overviews appeared on 82.91% of results for branded keywords. Monthly averages climbed from 61.3% in July to 65.1% in August and 73.3% in September.

In Ahrefs’ November 2025 study, the branded figure was just 13.1%. The researchers note the samples differ, but the direction is clear. The gap between branded and non-branded queries also narrowed, from 12.2 points in July to 5 points in September.

Ahrefs also tracked bare brand-name searches for 100 brands from Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2025. AI Overviews rose from 5 of 98 results on 1 July to 63 of 100 on 30 September, and 76.2% of those appeared in the first position on the page.

Across the 57 answers with source lists, Wikipedia was cited in 71.9%, YouTube in 38.6%, LinkedIn in 22.8%, Yahoo Finance in 15.8% and Facebook in 10.5%. The good news is that AI rarely mentioned competitors: only 2 of 58 answers did so explicitly. The concern is that descriptions of the brand came mostly from outside sources.

An expert quoted by Ahrefs warned that cited videos may not come from official brand channels and may contain outdated product information.

The researchers also point back to an earlier Ahrefs study that found a 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview is present. They note Google could change this behaviour, but expect AI Overviews to keep appearing on branded queries.

A separate Ahrefs tracker of domains cited by AI Overviews across more than 3 million US queries (updated September 2026) found YouTube with the largest share of citations at 22.9%, followed by Reddit at 18.5%, Facebook at 10.1%, Google at 8.8% and Instagram at 5.6%. Social and user-generated platforms dominate the list.

Semrush released an expanded AI Visibility Index in June 2026, analysing 126 million US prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. ChatGPT cited 15 sources per response on average and Gemini 3. On Gemini, the overlap between brands mentioned and domains cited could be as low as 30%.

Semrush’s example was Patagonia, which held an AI visibility score of about 79–80 throughout the study, supported by consistent descriptions across third-party sources such as REI and Reddit.

All of this data comes from the US, and there is no comparable dataset for Thai-language search, so the numbers should not be applied directly. In our view, though, the principle likely holds: AI summarises a brand from what the whole web says, not just from the brand’s own site.

For Thai brands, influential outside sources may include YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Thai review sites or forums. That is our expectation based on usage patterns, not a research finding. If information on those sources is outdated or contradictory, AI answers may be wrong too.

The Patagonia lesson is consistency. A brand that describes itself the same way everywhere, including business name, what it does, what it stands for and contact details, gets summarised more accurately. Branding does not end with a logo and a website. It includes managing core messages on every channel AI reads.

Start by searching your own brand on Google and several AI tools. See which sources the answers cite and what they say, then work through the sources one by one.

You cannot control every source, and you do not need to. Start with the sources the brand owns or can edit, make them accurate, and then earn genuine mentions through customer reviews and useful content.

• Write one core brand description and use it consistently on your site, social channels and business profiles
• Bring your YouTube channel, Facebook page and LinkedIn company page up to date
• Find outdated product or price information on third-party sites and request corrections
• Make your About page answer basic questions about the brand clearly and completely
• Repeat this check every quarter, because AI citation patterns change quickly