Understanding it
An AI Overview does not appear on every search: Google shows one when it judges a summary useful, more often on questions than on brand or specific product searches. Below the text, links lead to the pages used to write it.
For your website, two effects coexist. Some users find their answer without clicking. On the other hand, being one of the cited sources puts your brand at the top of the page, above the traditional results.
Google states that no special tag or file is needed: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet in the results to be picked as a source. SEO fundamentals remain the starting point.
A concrete example
Illustrative example: a prospect’s question
A business owner searches “how long does a website redesign take”. The AI Overview sums up the steps and a time range, then cites three pages.
An agency website that answers this exact question, with its steps and conditions, has a chance of being one of those three sources. A page that stays vague, or hides the answer behind a form, has almost none.
The common mistake
Judging the impact on total traffic only
A drop in clicks can come from AI Overviews, seasonality or a technical issue. Compare query by query in Google Search Console, separating the ones that show an AI Overview, before drawing conclusions.