Search for your own business name on Google right now, and you might get an AI Overview instead of the knowledge panel you’re used to seeing.
Instead of the standard panel – hours, phone number, photos, reviews, a map pin – the top of the listing now carries an “AI Overview” label with a short, AI-written description of the business underneath it.
Tap “Show more,” and you’re dropped into an AI Mode chat where you can ask follow-up questions about the business.
Google hasn’t announced anything, but UK marketers and Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz have recently replicated it, so far only spotted on mobile. Here’s what changes.
As a leading digital marketing agency, we’ve custom-built an AI Overview Visibility checker. Check how you show up.
How This Feature Fits Google’s Bigger AI Push
This update fits a pattern Google’s been building for months: carrying search into a conversational AI follow-up. What’s new here is applying that same mechanic to knowledge panels, which pull in Google Business Profile data as well as the Knowledge Graph.
As of a Search Engine Land report published mid-July 2026, Google-owned properties, such as Business Profiles and product knowledge panels, had become the second-most-cited domain inside AI Mode responses, with citations to Google increasing more than eightfold in under three months.
Why This Matters More for Branded Search
A branded search – someone typing your business name into Google – is about as high-intent as search gets. It’s usually someone who’s already decided to visit, book, or call, and just needs the details. The knowledge panel has always been the main feature for that kind of search. If Google starts answering it with a written summary instead, you’re handing that decision-ready customer to a paragraph a model wrote, built mostly from your Google Business Profile.
Google works from whatever it can find – website copy, GBP fields, reviews – which means the accuracy of that AI summary depends on how current and complete those sources are.
What This Looks Like For Marwick Clients
Destinations & Resorts
Branded searches for a specific hotel or resort are usually late-stage; someone’s already picked you, or narrowed it down to you and one other option, and just wants the practical details before they book.
For destinations and resorts, that makes the knowledge panel some of the most valuable real estate you have. If Google’s summarising it from a half-finished GBP or an out-of-date “About” page, you risk handing a ready-to-book guest an inaccurate picture of the property at exactly the moment they need reassurance.
E-Commerce
A brand-name search for an online retailer is often someone checking legitimacy before they hand over card details: returns policy, shipping times, whether the business is based where it claims.
For e-commerce brands, a summary built from thin or generic GBP fields risks glossing over the details that build that trust. Worth checking whether the Products/Services section and site copy spell out what makes the business credible, not just what it sells.
Food & Beverage
Someone searching for a restaurant or venue by name already knows about it; they’re checking opening hours, whether it’s dog-friendly, or if it’s taking walk-ins tonight.
Food and beverage brands live or die on details like this being current. A recurring theme so far is Google pulling outdated information into its summary; for a venue, wrong hours or an outdated menu in an AI Overview could cost a booking.
Outdoor
Name searches for outdoor and adventure brands often come with a follow-up question already forming: is a trail open, does a shop stock a certain size, is a course running this weekend?
For outdoor brands, that’s exactly the kind of query the new “Show more” AI Mode chat is built to catch, pulling the user into a conversation about the business without them ever reaching the site. A GBP with a well-kept Q&A and Posts section is a more direct route back into that conversation.
How We’re Approaching This at Marwick
This isn’t something we’re waiting to see confirmed before acting on. It slots into work we’re already doing.
Google Business Profile checks are folded into the audit process alongside the technical and on-page work we already run; checking whether GBP fields are filled in properly, whether hours and contact details match the website exactly, and whether Google’s auto-generated anything on the listing that needs correcting.
Where we’re already fixing stale content, broken links, or thin metadata on a client site, we’re treating the knowledge panel the same way; another surface that needs the same level of accuracy.
If a client’s branded search starts showing an AI Overview instead of the standard panel, we’ll flag it: what it says, whether it’s accurate and what needs updating on the GBP or site to correct it; the same way we’d report on any other ranking or visibility change.
Here’s What to Check
A few things are worth doing now, before this completes rolling out:
- Treat your Google Business Profile as the primary source, not the website. Google appears to lean on GBP fields, especially the Products/Services section, more heavily than site content for these summaries. Fill it in properly, with a real description per service.
- Read what Google’s already written about you. On some listings, Google is auto-generating a “Services” list and business description without being asked. Log into the GBP dashboard and check what’s there. Where it’s wrong, you can usually edit or remove it, but only if you go looking.
- Don’t ignore review text. It’s not just star ratings feeding this. The wording customers use in reviews shapes how the AI describes what you do, so if reviews consistently miss a core service, that gap can end up in the summary too.
- Match your hours, address and phone number exactly between your website and your Business Profile. Any mismatch is a coin flip for which version gets surfaced.
- Keep the profile active. Weekly posts, fresh photos and answered Q&As read as freshness signals; part of how Google decides a listing is current enough to summarise confidently.
- Don’t count on opting out. Nothing in Google’s rollout suggests a way to turn this off for a specific listing, the same way AI Overviews generally can’t be switched off; only filtered out with the Web results toggle.
None of this is confirmed as a permanent change yet. Google tests local panel variations fairly often, and not all of them stick. But given how closely it mirrors the direction AI Mode has already taken, and how much weight Google is putting behind Gemini-powered search generally, treating it as a preview of where local search is heading seems like the safer bet than waiting for an official announcement.
How Visible Is Your Brand in AI Search?
If Google is already writing the summary that greets people searching your brand name, it’s worth knowing what AI is saying about you elsewhere too, in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
We run real, high-intent buyer questions through AI and grade how often your brand actually shows up – check out your visibility.
