Google moved brand AI Overviews into the knowledge panel spot. What changed, and what can you do?
Since about October 31, 2026, Google has been showing AI Overviews in the right-hand column of many desktop brand searches, the space where the knowledge panel used to sit. Google has not announced the change, and you cannot edit the AI text directly, but you can influence the sources it summarizes.
For many brand searches on desktop, Google now places an AI Overview in the right-hand column, the spot where the brand's knowledge panel used to appear, while the brand's own website leads the main results. Search Engine Roundtable reported the change on November 2, 2026, with examples for Apple, Zillow, Coca-Cola and Google, and as of November 10 Google has not announced it or said whether it is a test.
That matters because the first description many people now read about your company is written by a model, not by you. You cannot type over that text. You can, however, change what it is built from: your own site, the Knowledge Graph facts Google holds about you, and the third-party pages the overview cites. This guide covers what changed, what the panel contains, and a practical plan to influence it.
Key takeaways
- The change: AI Overviews for many brand queries moved from the top or middle of the results into the right column on desktop, effectively replacing the knowledge panel there.
- Not announced: Google has published no statement, and the published examples use US results.
- Brand AI Overviews were already common: trackers reported them on most branded queries by late September 2026.
- No edit button for the AI text: you influence it through your site, a claimed knowledge panel, consistent entity facts and the third-party sources it cites.
- Audit monthly: search your brand, screenshot the panel, check every claim and fix the source of any error.
What changed for brand searches in early November 2026?
Until late October 2026, when Google showed an AI Overview for a brand name it usually sat at the top or in the middle of the main results column, with the knowledge panel on the right. Search Engine Roundtable reported on November 2 that for many brand-related keywords Google had moved the AI Overview into the right-hand column instead. The SEO consultant Chris Long described it as Google "showing AI Overviews for brand terms in the right column" instead of a knowledge panel.
The change appeared gradually. On October 27 a user posted that the knowledge panel was showing an "AI-generated" label. On October 31 David McSweeney noted that AI Overviews for branded searches were "generally in a right panel on desktop (or in some cases further down the page)." By November 2 the pattern was visible across many large brands.
| Date (2026) | What was observed | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| September 30 | AI Overviews showing for most large brand names, usually mid-page | Search Engine Roundtable, citing Chris Long |
| October 27 | Knowledge panel showing an AI-generated label | Post on X, cited by Search Engine Roundtable |
| October 31 | Brand AI Overviews generally in a right panel on desktop | David McSweeney on X |
| November 2 | AI Overviews in the right column for Apple, Zillow, Coca-Cola, Google and others | Search Engine Roundtable |
| November 3 | No Google announcement; examples limited to US results | PPC Land |
We checked again on November 10, 2026 and found no Google announcement, help page or Search Central post describing the layout. Treat it as an observed change that may still vary by query, device and market.
How common are AI Overviews on brand searches?
The move to the right column matters because brand AI Overviews were no longer rare. Several trackers measured a sharp rise during September 2026. The figures below come from different methods and keyword sets, so compare the direction rather than the exact numbers.
| Source | Sample | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Long (via Search Engine Roundtable, Sept 30) | About 100 brands tested | 93 showed an AI Overview |
| DemandSphere (via PPC Land) | Tracked branded keywords | 26.12% on September 1, 90.48% on September 27, 82.06% on September 29 |
| Ahrefs (via PPC Land) | 92.5 million US desktop crawls of branded keywords, July to September | Monthly average rose from 61.3% (July) to 65.1% (August) and 73.3% (September); 82.91% on September 29 |
| Ahrefs bare brand-name panel (via PPC Land) | 100 names from Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2025 | 63 of 100 had an AI Overview by September 30, versus 5 of 98 usable results on July 1 |
Put simply: if your brand gets meaningful search volume, there is a good chance Google already writes a summary of you, and the November layout makes that summary the most prominent block beside your own listing.
What does the right-column panel show?
The published examples mix generated text with structured facts. Based on the screenshots described by Search Engine Roundtable and PPC Land:
| Brand searched | What appeared in the right column |
|---|---|
| Apple | An "AI Overview" label, store rating and review count, delivery, returns and payment details, a link to apple.com, a generated description and fact rows such as customer service number and founders |
| Zillow | A category label, fact rows for chief executive, presidents and founders, with zillow.com leading the main column |
| Coca-Cola | A generated line citing Wikipedia and a date row sourced to loc.gov |
| Search Engine Roundtable | The claimed panel header with "Suggest edits" and "Learn more" links, then the AI Overview with a description and a latest posts module |
Two details stand out. First, the brand's own website still leads the main column in these examples, so the change moved the AI summary aside rather than above you. Second, a claimed panel kept its "Suggest edits" header, but Google has not explained whether suggested edits reach the AI-written text below it.
Where does Google get what it says about a brand?
Two systems feed the panel. The structured fact rows come from Google's Knowledge Graph. Google's Knowledge Panel Help says those facts come from public sources, licensed data and "factual information received directly from content owners," including people who suggest changes to panels they have claimed.
The generated text is an AI Overview, which summarizes pages from Google's index and links to some of them. Ahrefs' analysis, reported by PPC Land, found that among brand AI Overviews with source lists, Wikipedia was cited in 41 of 57, YouTube in 22 and LinkedIn in 13. Your own site is one source among several, and often not the most cited.
Google's documentation on AI features says a page only needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet to be shown as a supporting link, with "no additional technical requirements." There is no special markup that puts your preferred sentence into the overview.
How can brands influence what the AI Overview says?
You cannot edit the overview, so work on its inputs. In our experience auditing brand results, most errors trace back to one stale or contradictory source. This is the order we use.
1. Audit your brand search results
Search your exact brand name and common variants (brand plus "reviews," "pricing," "login," "careers") on desktop, signed out, in each market you sell to. Screenshot where the AI Overview appears, what it says and which sources it lists. Note every claim that is wrong, outdated or missing.
2. Claim your knowledge panel or Business Profile
Google's help pages say the subject or an official representative can claim a knowledge panel through "Get verified on Google," and that businesses should use Business Profile instead. Once verified, you can suggest changes to the facts. Fact rows are not the same as the AI text, but correct facts in the Knowledge Graph remove one source of contradiction.
3. Make your own site the clearest source
- An About page that states, in plain sentences, what the company does, who founded and leads it, where it is based and when it started.
Organizationstructured data with your legal name, logo, URL andsameAslinks to your official profiles. Our schema markup guide shows the fields.- Pages that answer the questions attached to your name: pricing, shipping, returns, support hours, security, integrations. If the panel shows return or delivery details for retailers, make sure yours are stated plainly and match your Merchant Center data.
- The same facts everywhere. A founding year that differs between your site, LinkedIn and a press kit invites the model to pick the wrong one.
4. Fix the third-party pages it cites
If the overview cites Wikipedia, LinkedIn, YouTube, review sites or directories, correct those pages through each platform's own process. On Wikipedia, people with a connection to the subject are expected to follow the conflict of interest guideline and request changes rather than edit directly, with reliable published sources to support them.
5. Earn accurate coverage
AI summaries reflect what credible sites say about you. Useful, accurate mentions in industry publications, partner pages and community discussions give the model better material than any page you write about yourself. Our guide to ranking in Google AI Overviews covers the page-level patterns that get extracted.
6. Report clear errors
Use the feedback option on the AI Overview to report factual mistakes, with the correct information. It is not a guaranteed fix, but it is the channel Google provides.
7. Use preview controls only with care
Google says nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex limit what is shown from your pages. Applying them to brand pages removes your own wording from the inputs while third-party sources remain, so for most brands it makes the summary worse, not better.
See what AI says about your brand
A free Klepha report shows how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your brand, which sources they rely on and where competitors are named instead.
Get my free reportWhat does this mean for clicks and brand SEO?
Nobody outside Google has published click data for the new layout yet, so be careful with confident claims either way. What can be said from the examples is that your site keeps the top organic position for your own name, while the right column, which used to show curated knowledge panel facts, now leads with generated text.
That shifts brand SEO from "do we rank for our name?" (almost always yes) to "is the description beside our listing accurate and persuasive?" It is the same question we ask about ChatGPT and Perplexity, which is why we track brand descriptions across Google and assistants together. Our guide to monitoring AI brand mentions sets up that routine, and our ChatGPT Ranking service covers the assistant side. You can see how we approach entity work on our expertise page and in our case studies.
What should you do this week?
- Run the desktop brand search audit and save screenshots with the date.
- List every incorrect or missing fact and the source the overview cites for it.
- Claim or verify your knowledge panel or Business Profile and suggest fact corrections.
- Update your About page and Organization schema so the core facts are explicit and consistent.
- Correct third-party profiles through their own processes.
- Repeat the audit monthly, since Google made this change without notice and may change it again.
Sources
- Search Engine Roundtable, "Google AI Overviews For Brands Moved To Right Column", Barry Schwartz, November 2, 2026, accessed November 10, 2026. seroundtable.com
- Search Engine Roundtable, "Google AI Overviews Showing For Many Large Brand Names", Barry Schwartz, September 30, 2026, accessed November 10, 2026. seroundtable.com
- PPC Land, "Google moves AI Overviews for brand searches out of the main results", November 3, 2026, accessed November 10, 2026 (source of the Ahrefs and DemandSphere figures). ppc.land
- Google Knowledge Panel Help, "How Google's Knowledge Graph works", accessed November 10, 2026. support.google.com
- Google Search Central, "AI features and your website", accessed November 10, 2026. developers.google.com
Frequently asked questions
Why is Google showing an AI Overview instead of a knowledge panel for my brand?
Since about October 31, 2026, Google has been placing AI Overviews in the right-hand column for many desktop brand searches, the space the knowledge panel used to occupy. Google has not announced the change or explained it, and published examples so far use US results.
Can I edit the AI Overview about my company?
No. There is no way to edit the AI-written text directly. You can claim your knowledge panel or Business Profile to suggest fact changes, correct your own site and third-party profiles it cites, and report errors with the feedback option on the overview.
Where does the brand AI Overview get its information?
The fact rows come from Google's Knowledge Graph, which draws on public sources, licensed data and information from verified owners. The generated text summarizes indexed pages; an Ahrefs analysis reported by PPC Land found Wikipedia, YouTube and LinkedIn among the most cited sources.
Does the change hurt clicks to my website?
No click data for the new layout has been published yet. In the examples reported, the brand's own website still leads the main results column, while the AI Overview sits beside it on the right.
Should I use nosnippet to keep my brand out of AI Overviews?
Usually not. Preview controls such as nosnippet limit what Google shows from your own pages, but the overview can still draw on third-party sources, so you lose your own wording while other descriptions remain.