Search is undergoing its most significant transformation since the launch of Google. With the rollout of Google’s new AI Overviews, the familiar search results result page (SERP) is no longer just a list of blue links—it’s an AI-curated summary that answers questions instantly, often without requiring a click.
Google’s new AI Overviews represent a clear and significant turning point. These summaries, generated by artificial intelligence, now appear prominently at the top of the search results page. They aim to answer users’ questions instantly, often without requiring them to click through to a website. For healthcare and life sciences, the implications are both immediate and far-reaching.
We’ve analyzed current trends across the industry and emerging best practices, and we believe there is both urgency and opportunity in adapting to this new landscape.
AI Overviews are now showing up for a large number of healthcare-related queries—including both general disease information and branded terms. This isn’t happening in a vacuum. According to recent industry analyses, AI Overviews are rapidly becoming the first and often the final stop for users searching for health information.
This shift has led to a measurable drop in website traffic from organic search—especially for top-of-funnel, informational content. Some organizations are seeing a 30% decrease in click-through rates year-over-year. Users are getting what they need directly from the Overview and moving on.
What makes this more complex is that traditional search rankings no longer guarantee visibility. A website could rank in the top 3 search results and still be excluded from an AI Overview. The criteria have changed. Google's AI is looking for content that’s technically well-structured, contextually accurate, and—perhaps most importantly—seen as credible. That means content must not only demonstrate medical expertise but also be framed and coded in a way the AI can understand and trust.
And branded content is not immune. In fact, healthcare is one of the few industries where AI Overviews are frequently triggered by branded queries. This raises the stakes for message accuracy, compliance, and control over brand perception.
Behind the scenes, Google is prioritizing a new content structure called E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are no longer just human-facing principles; they are now machine-readable signals that influence whether or not your content is surfaced in an AI Overview.
To meet these criteria, content must be created or attributed to qualified experts, supported by credible sources, and regularly updated to reflect the latest clinical and regulatory information. Technical elements like schema markup—the hidden code that tells search engines what your content is about—also play a critical role.
From an organic content perspective, success now means creating material that’s not only medically sound and user-friendly but also engineered for AI comprehension. That includes structuring content with clear headings and concise answers to common questions, optimizing for relevant search terms, and implementing the right technical tags behind the scenes.
For branded or disease awareness sites, it's especially important to maintain content that supports both informational and action-oriented user journeys. While AI Overviews tend to dominate top-of-funnel queries like “what are the symptoms of [condition],” users still turn to traditional search results for queries like “[drug name] copay card” or “find a specialist near me.” These are opportunities to drive real engagement and conversion—if your content is positioned correctly.
For brands leveraging paid media, Google is already experimenting with ad placements directly within the AI Overviews. These represent a premium opportunity for visibility, especially for commercially oriented searches. However, the targeting mechanics are evolving. Rather than focusing on simple keyword matches, the system now leans heavily on contextual cues, search history, and even image inputs to determine relevance.
This means your ad creative must be more than just compliant—it must be intentional, helpful, and tailored to what the user is actually trying to achieve. Google's own AI-powered tools can generate and test ad variations in real time, but human oversight remains critical to ensure regulatory standards are upheld.
Right now, measurement is opaque. Traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics and Search Console don’t yet offer reliable insight into how often your content appears in AI Overviews or how it affects user behavior. Some new reporting tools are starting to emerge, but for the time being, visibility within these summaries is difficult to quantify.
That doesn’t mean you’re flying blind. Instead, it’s time to rethink what success looks like. Being cited in an AI Overview—even if it doesn’t lead to a click—can still build brand authority and trust. This kind of credibility is difficult to measure but extremely valuable in healthcare, where confidence and accuracy are non-negotiable.
To thrive in this evolving environment, we recommend the following strategic shifts:
Diversify your channel mix. Don’t rely solely on organic search to drive awareness. Invest in owned channels like email, educational content hubs, and social media communities to maintain a direct line to patients and HCPs.
Leverage video content. Audiences have low attention spans and health literacy. Video allows information to be more easily consumed and can be amortized in emerging discovery channels like social media and YouTube.
Focus on building authority, not just ranking. Your goal should be to become a trusted source. If your content is cited by Google’s AI, that’s a signal to users that your brand is credible—even if it doesn’t lead to a click.
Build compliance into every layer. With AI-generated content and media placements becoming more common, ensure your medical, legal, and regulatory processes are equipped to manage the complexity of new formats and placements.
AI Overviews are changing how people find and engage with healthcare information. For pharmaceutical brands, the implications are clear: visibility is no longer just about ranking—it’s about relevance, trust, and technical readiness.
Feel free to reach out if you'd like support evaluating your brand’s current visibility in AI Overviews or if you're ready to build a roadmap tailored to this new era of search.