Is it the beginning of the end for Google’s product features?

AI Overviews are quickly overtaking retail SERPs, and traditional Google product features like carousels and packs are disappearing in their wake.

Our latest analysis of several major retail brands reveals a clear trend: Google is training users for “AI Mode,” fundamentally changing how shoppers search, engage, and buy. 

This isn’t a theoretical change. It’s a real-time disruption to how products are discovered online.

If your brand relies on Google for product discovery and organic sales, it's essential to understand what's happening...and prepare your leadership team.

Watch this short video for a quick breakdown of our key findings:

 

Key insights based on data from multiple eCommerce sites:

  • AI Overviews are showing up more often

  • Around 15% of them have buying intent

  • There's a steep drop in Google product features

As further evidence that Google wiling to give up product listing real estate for AI Overviews and to direct more users to AI Mode, Google has begun testing the Ask Anything In AI Mode feature in Google Search product listings. Now, when you click on a product, this new feature appears. 

To dive deeper into the data, implications, and actions you should take, watch the full webinar and Q&A session here:

 

1. Google AI Overviews Are Rapidly Displacing Traditional Product Features

  • From spring to mid‑2025, many retail-focused transactional keywords (traditionally showing product listings/carousels) began triggering Google AI Overviews instead.

  • For one major retailer, 45% of those AI Overview–triggering keywords were transactional—up from single digits earlier in the year.

  • Concurrently, the visibility of free Google product listings has declined sharply across retailers, large and small.

2. AI Overviews Are Now Appearing for Transactional Keywords

  • Keywords like “shoes for running” or “prenatal vitamins over the counter” are showing AI Overviews—despite apparent shopper intent to buy.

  • While organic search results feature merchants and purchase options, the AI Overviews themselves remain mostly informational, even when transactional intent is clear.

3. Exception: Hyper-Transactional Queries Trigger Buying-Focused AI Overviews

  • Highly specific queries, especially those including “who sells”, “where to buy”, “where can I buy”, often shift the AI Overview into product recommendations.

  • In tests, AI Overviews for "who sells TSA-approved locks" included major retailers like Home Depot, Target, and Walmart—all of which were ranking in the results.

  • Takeaway: Your product and category pages must be well-optimized and detailed, because AI Overviews increasingly cite and recommend from those high-ranking pages.

Recommended Reading: The Overlap Between AI Overviews and Organic Rankings


4. Risk of Inertia: Waiting to Act Hurts

The trend isn’t just in the U.S.—Google UK, Australia, Japan, and other regions are all showing similar patterns: AI Overviews increasing, product features declining.

  • Ignoring this shift risks lost visibility, clicks, and revenue. Even if Google reversed course in six months, the opportunity cost by then would be substantial.

  • Brands that wait lose market share and brand mindshare, even if product listings gradually make a comeback.

5. How to Adapt to the Changing SERP

  • Continue doing the foundational SEO work: product feed optimization, product descriptions, metadata, and optimizing for topics like “where to buy”.

  • Simultaneously experiment with optimizing content for AI Overviews:

    • Add content that answers common questions—FAQ format, detailed category and product page content.

    • If informational AI Overviews appear for your priority transactional keywords, consider building rich, relevant content to match.

Conclusion:

As Google reshapes the SERP with AI Overviews, Clarity ArcAI allows you to track whether keywords trigger AI Overviews or product listings and provides insight into the content being shown in the AIO.

In addition, AI Overviews Analysis Mode in Content Fusion allows you to instantly optimize and generate content based on what performs well for your priority topics in AI Overviews.

Want to learn more about how Clarity ArcAI helps you adapt your strategy to an increasingly AI-powered search landscape? Schedule a demo today!

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