Are featured snippets gone?

No — they still appear for many queries, especially navigational and short-factual ones. But for 'how to' and 'best of' queries, AI Overviews have largely replaced them.

Do AI Overviews steal clicks?

For informational queries, yes — the #1 result sees roughly 58% fewer clicks when an AI Overview appears. For sites cited within the AI Overview, clicks increase by 35%.

How do I opt out of AI Overviews?

You can't opt out without also removing yourself from Google's organic index. You can, however, use the 'nosnippet' meta tag to prevent Google from using your content in any snippet — but this hurts traditional SEO too.

AI Overviews vs Featured Snippets: What Actually Changed

The short answer

Featured snippets showed one source verbatim at the top of Google. AI Overviews synthesize multiple sources into an original AI-generated answer, with small citation links to the sources used. For publishers, the game changed from "win position zero" to "be one of the cited sources inside the overview."

Rollout timeline

May 2024: AI Overviews launched for US users after being previewed as "Search Generative Experience" since mid-2023.
Late 2024: Expanded to 100+ countries and dozens of languages.
March 2025: Semrush's 10-million-keyword study found AI Overviews on 13.14% of queries. By Q4 2025 that number had reached 25%.
2026: Healthcare and education queries now show AI Overviews on nearly 50% of searches.

What changed for click behavior

Research from multiple firms converges on similar numbers:

The #1 organic result under an AI Overview sees ~58% fewer clicks than when no AI Overview appears.
Sites cited inside the AI Overview see ~35% more clicks versus a similar non-cited position.
Overall click-through rates for informational queries are down roughly 20% since AI Overviews launched.

The lesson: being a citation source inside the overview is now more valuable than being position #1 beneath it.

What determines AI Overview citations

Google uses a combination of its organic ranking signals and additional extractability factors. Sites that consistently appear inside AI Overviews share these traits:

Already ranking in the top 10 for the target query
Clear question-shaped H2 and H3 headings
Answer capsules directly under the heading
FAQPage or HowTo schema markup
Fresh or recently updated content
Authoritative domain (measured by backlinks, not brand size)

Ahrefs' analysis of 75,000 AI Overview citations (2025) found 76% of cited pages were already ranking in Google's top 10 for that keyword. Strong SEO remains the foundation.

How to adapt your content strategy

Three shifts matter most:

Write for extraction, not just ranking. Position zero is dead; extractable answers win citations.
Prioritize commercial-intent queries. AI Overviews are less common on purchase-intent searches, so your bottom-of-funnel content is safer.
Measure citations, not just rankings. Track whether your brand appears inside AI Overviews for your target queries. Several tools (including our AEO scanner) can audit this.