Google AI Overviews are tested and removed based on engagement

Google shows AI Overviews in Search largely based on whether users engage with them — and removes them when they don’t.

That’s according to Robby Stein, Google’s VP of product for Search. In a CNN interview, Stein explained how Google tunes AI-driven results as it expands ads, personalization, and visual search across its experiences.

Engagement drives AI Overviews. Google tests AI Overviews on specific query types and keeps them only if users find them useful. If users don’t click, interact, or show value, the overview disappears. The system then applies that learning to similar queries, Stein said:

• “The system will learn — so it’ll try it — and then see if people engage with it for certain kinds of questions…
• “What happens is the system will learn that if it tried to do an AI Overview, no one really clicked on it or engaged with it or valued it. We have lots of metrics. We look at that. And then it won’t show up. And then the…