Google AI Overviews Reaches 2 Billion Users and Adds Image Generation as Brand Stakes Rise

Google AI Overviews, the AI-generated summary that appears above traditional search results, has reached 2 billion monthly users across 200+ countries. The feature, which launched in limited form in 2024, now appears on roughly 47 to 64% of all search queries globally, up from 25 to 30% at launch. For brands, the expansion of AI Overviews is not a future consideration. It is the current state of search.

Image Generation Arrives

On July 14, 2026, Google began rolling out image generation inside AI Overviews. The feature, initially available in English-speaking markets, allows AI Overviews to generate custom visuals in response to user queries, not just synthesise text from existing sources. The rollout has significant implications for brands with strong visual identities: AI-generated images that appear in response to brand-adjacent queries may not reflect brand guidelines, and there is currently no mechanism for brands to influence or correct AI-generated visual representations of their products or services.

Preferred Sources: Audience Loyalty as a Visibility Signal

In June 2026, Google expanded its Preferred Sources feature from Top Stories into AI Overviews and AI Mode responses. Users can now designate specific publications as preferred, and those preferences follow them into AI-generated answers. More than 345,000 sources have been selected so far, up from approximately 90,000 at the December 2025 global rollout. According to Google, users are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source when it appears in an AI response.

Geertrui Laleman, Senior AI Search Optimisation Specialist at Semrush, described the implication directly: 'AI visibility is no longer only about being cited. It is about becoming a source people recognise, trust, and actively want to see.' For brands with existing audiences, the Preferred Sources mechanism creates a direct conversion path from audience loyalty to AI visibility. Newsletter subscribers, social followers, and returning readers are the most likely to designate a brand as a Preferred Source, and each selection increases the probability of that brand appearing in AI responses for that user.

The New Search Console Reports

On June 3, 2026, Google launched dedicated AI performance reports in Search Console, giving site owners for the first time a direct view into how their pages perform inside AI features. The reports show impressions inside AI Overviews, AI Mode, and generative Discover features, broken down by page, country, device, and date. For brands that have been flying blind on AI visibility, the Search Console reports provide the baseline data needed to begin systematic optimisation.