2026 Predictions: The First Year Marketers Must Win Both Worlds — SEO and AI Search
A Visibility Outlook from the Semrush Leadership Team
December 19, 2025
Portugal and Belgium emerge as leaders in AI integration on SERPs, while Germany and Switzerland remain cautious.
New data from Semrush reveals a widening divide in how European countries are experiencing the rollout of Google’s AI Overviews. The latest figures show that in countries like Portugal and Belgium, AI summaries are now appearing in over 17% of desktop search results, while Germany has yet to cross the 1% threshold.
The analysis—visualized in the attached chart tracking daily SERP shares—shows that by late April:
- Portugal peaked at around 17.5% AI Overviews presence on desktop SERPs.
- Belgium closely followed with 16.8%.
- Spain consistently hovered between 14%–16%, confirming it as an early adopter in the region.
- Ireland and Switzerland, while participating in the rollout, remained more conservative, fluctuating between 10–13%.
- Germany, in stark contrast, maintained levels below 1%, indicating either a delayed rollout, regulatory hurdles, or localized testing.
Semrush data also shows which types of queries are most affected:
- 88.1% of AIO-triggering queries are informational in nature.
- Science (+22.27%), Health (+20.33%), People & Society (+18.83%), and Law & Government (+15.18%) are the industries experiencing the largest share growth of AI Overviews—indicating a rapid shift in how users get answers in these high-trust, information-dense categories.
As Google moves closer to fully AI-enhanced search, marketers, publishers, and regulators alike will be watching closely—not only how much content is generated, but where and when it appears.
