Glossary
AI Overviews
Last reviewed: 2026-05-12
AI Overviews (AIO) is Google’s AI-generated answer surface shown above traditional Search results. AIO draws on Google’s index plus the Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets; FAQPage schema is the highest-leverage AIO-citation signal.
Frequently asked
- What are Google AI Overviews?
- AI Overviews (AIO) is Google's AI-generated answer surface that appears above the traditional Search results list for many queries, summarising answers and citing sources.
- How does AIO choose sources?
- AIO draws on Google's Search index plus the Knowledge Graph and Featured Snippets. Pages with valid FAQPage schema, strong E-E-A-T signals, and KG presence are more likely to be cited.
- Can publishers opt out of AIO?
- Google offers crawl-level controls (Google-Extended) but no granular opt-out of AIO specifically. Most publishers benefit from inclusion via stronger citation patterns.