AI technology is evolving rapidly, transforming how users interact with digital assistants and how search traffic is delivered across different devices. In this blog, we explore two emerging trends that shed light on the current state – and near future – of AI-powered experiences:
A recently filed Google patent outlines how AI assistants might be evolving beyond simple keyword detection, tapping into real-world context to craft more engaging and relevant responses. While filing a patent doesn’t guarantee active implementation, it offers a fascinating glimpse into where the technology may be headed.
Here are the five contextual signals identified:
Breaking it down:
Why it matters:
This highlights how AI systems are being designed to go beyond static responses, offering more adaptive, human-like interactions rooted in real-time awareness.
Takeaway:
Google’s patent showcases how future AI assistants could become deeply personalised, using contextual signals to enhance both relevance and user engagement.
A recent analysis of traffic sources for AI-generated search reveals a surprising trend: the overwhelming majority of referrals are coming from desktop devices. The lone exception? Google Search.
Key referral stats:
Why desktop leads in AI referrals:
BrightEdge suggests that mobile AI apps like ChatGPT often display in-app previews of content, requiring an extra tap to visit external websites – potentially deterring mobile users from clicking through.
On the other hand, Google Search maintains a mobile majority in referral traffic, which could stem from its long-standing integration as the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser.
The Apple factor:
With Apple’s Safari controlling the default search experience on nearly a billion devices, any shift in search engine partnerships announced at WWDC could have seismic implications for mobile search traffic and referral strategies.
Takeaway:
Marketers should keep a close eye on Apple’s decisions around Safari’s default search engine. Meanwhile, AI search traffic continues to skew heavily toward desktop, reinforcing the importance of optimising web experiences for larger screens – even in an increasingly mobile world.
These insights underscore two big shifts:
As always, staying ahead means understanding how these innovations affect user behaviour – and being ready to adapt.
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Earlier this year, Google opened up testing of a new AI-powered search feature, AI Mode – designed not just to enhance the search experience, but to compete with rising conversational search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity AI. As AI continues to transform how people find and interact with information, Google’s market share has faced pressure. This introduction of AI Mode may be Google’s strategic response to reassert its dominance in this evolving space.
Unlike traditional search updates, AI Mode introduces a fully conversational, in-search experience – allowing users to ask complex queries and receive dynamic, AI-generated responses directly within Google. This reduces the need to click through to websites, reinforcing the trend of zero-click searches that has already contributed to declining organic traffic across many industries over the past year.
This shift doesn’t just impact queries of an informational nature – Google is already exploring ways for AI Mode to assist with transactions, including purchasing products on users’ behalf. Combined with ChatGPT’s recent partnership with Shopify and their upcoming in-app checkout capabilities, we can see that even ecommerce websites and transactional searches are likely to be impacted by reduced search-driven website visits.
In light of these changes, traditional SEO metrics such as rankings and traffic volumes are no longer enough. Search impressions, visibility, and overall conversions (especially for ecommerce) are becoming the true indicators of performance in an AI-driven search landscape. To stay ahead, it’s crucial to optimise your website for this new mode of discovery – and that’s where we can help.
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It’s no surprise to anyone that Google now displays AI-generated answers in search results when they believe these responses can be helpful to the user. We’ve been aware of this addition to SERPs since the Search Generative Experience test launched back in May 2023, but a lot in the SEO industry has changed since then.
As search engines evolve, so too do the strategies for optimising content. With the recent increase of AI-generated summaries, and the new AI Mode addition to Google search results, many businesses are left wondering: is it worth optimising for these AI Overviews (AIO)? How do I prepare my website to make the most of these new AI features?
At Varn, our Innovation team carried out an analysis of how Google’s AI Overviews are impacting search visibility across different industries. This article delves into the findings of our research, where we reviewed the search results associated with thousands of keywords in order to uncover frequency of AI appearance, how often they overlap with traditional organic listings and SERP features, and what this means for SEO strategies moving forward.
Our previous AI Overviews analysis was carried out when this feature was still called Search Generative Engine (SGE), in January 2024. At that moment, across a smaller dataset, we found that overall 55% of the results overlapped with the organic listing results, which meant that over half of the AI Overviews citations were drawing from content already ranking on page one. This gave us an early indication that traditional optimisation efforts were still playing a role in AI-powered visibility.
However, since then, Google has rebranded and expanded AIO significantly, both in terms of geographical reach and algorithm complexity. Overall, the AI industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace, where advancements in AI technologies are impacting industries globally even beyond SEO:
With the introduction of Gemini 2.0, changes in citation behaviour, and the reduced overlap between AI and organic results reported after the March 2025 core update, it seems clear that the landscape has quickly shifted. As such, a fresh round of research was needed to assess the current state of AI Overviews, further emphasising the need for agile strategies in this fast-changing space.
At Varn, we have gathered a keyword set of around 7K keywords split into different industries: Ecommerce, Health & Pharma, Travel & Tourism, Insurance, Finance, SEO & UX and B2B. These have been run through google.com in April 2025, with a VPN set in California, USA, to ensure a fair comparison with our previous test.
The new research includes a few different angles. We will be answering the following questions:
Our research explored several key dimensions. These were our findings.
Different industries exhibit varying patterns when it comes to AI Overview triggers and understanding these can provide businesses with a competitive edge. By tailoring content to address these unique triggers, companies can optimise their chances of appearing in AI Overviews, thereby enhancing their overall search visibility.
With this angle, we wanted to provide a valuable insight into how Google’s AI Overviews compile and attribute information, particularly how many distinct URLs are referenced in each AI-generated summary. The findings shed light on the complexity, diversity, and trust signals that may be influencing AIO composition.
AIOs citing only 1 or 2 sources are extremely rare, implying that Google intentionally avoids overly narrow sourcing, likely to mitigate incomplete information.
On the opposite end, AIOs citing 10+ sources may correspond to more complex or ambiguous queries, where a broader range of inputs is needed to form a satisfactory summary, though they still represent a relatively small share.
This data reinforces the idea that AI Overviews are not simply pulling from top search results, but instead curating from a contextually relevant pool of sources. With limited citation slots available (typically between 5 and 8), not all “Page 1” results will be included. Sites that demonstrate clear expertise and trustworthiness are more likely to be chosen. And given that Google pulls from diverse URLs or domains, being cited in third-party content such as industry blogs, forums or thought leadership pieces, may increase your chances of an indirect inclusion in AIOs.
The most critical aspect of the new research is again the overlap between URLs featured in AI Overviews and those appearing in traditional organic search results. Below is a graph that demonstrates how often a URL cited in AIOs has appeared within traditional Google rankings, for the same keyword(s). Overall, we see that the URLs cited in AI Overviews are not ranking in traditional results 78.6% of the time.
However, the substantial share of cited URLs that do not rank at all across all industries indicates that AIOs are pulling in sources beyond the top organic results. This fragmentation creates uncertainty for SEO visibility and makes AIOs a critical new layer of SERP analysis.
In the Insurance, Travel and Retail industries, the picture is even more extreme. Only a few URLs cited are on Page 1, while a sizable 70%+ are not ranking at all. This suggests that in these commercial spaces, Google is pulling from alternative sources such as community content, or niche publishers that provide unique value or context not captured in traditional SERPs.
This points to a broader trend where ranking well no longer guarantees visibility in AI-generated summaries.
Obviously, as AI Overviews are rolled out, the general concerns are whether these will reduce website traffic from SERPs, or more importantly, whether people are actually interacting with the sources cited in AIOs. This brings us to the question: is it worth optimising your content or strategy to target AI Overviews?
As mentioned before, Google is currently tracking clicks and impressions in AI Overviews, however, there is no way to isolate these within Google Search Console reports. This means that producing insights into visibility and click through rates has become a real challenge. While data is still emerging, early studies and industry experiments suggest:
From our dataset, we have also reviewed the average CTR for the keywords where AI Overviews are present in March 2025 vs March 2024.
One conclusion we can draw from this table is that the lower your organic Google ranking, the more your organic CTR is likely to drop since the introduction of AIOs. Whilst CTR typically drops in line with your ranking position anyway as a general rule of thumb, this drop appears to have increased over the past 12 months, potentially due to the impact of AIO search results.
In short, here at Varn we believe AI Overviews are reshaping the click landscape, not eliminating it. The sites that reshape their content strategy to be both informative and AI-digestible will be best positioned to retain, and even grow, visibility in the evolving SERP environment. Contact us if you would like us to support you with your AI visibility.
Since their rebrand and rollout in 2024, AI Overviews (AIOs) have rapidly expanded globally, now appearing in 36.3% of searches, with particularly high prevalence in Health & Pharma (47.49%) and SEO & UX (44.31%) sectors.
URLs cited in AI Overviews are not ranking in traditional results 78.6% of the time. This confirms that while SEO best practices remain valuable, AIOs also pull from a wider, more diverse set of sources, often bypassing traditional Page 1 rankings entirely.
AIOs frequently source from Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, and high-EEAT domains, even if they aren’t ranking on page 1. Getting cited indirectly via trusted third-party domains is a still viable off-page strategy.
Most AI Overviews reference between 5 and 8 unique sources, suggesting a need for content that is both authoritative and concise. Overly narrow or overly complex content appears less likely to be featured.
Despite Google logging AIO clicks and impressions, Search Console lacks dedicated AIO reporting, making it difficult for brands to isolate and optimise for this feature. This limits clear attribution and necessitates more agile analytics solutions.
While broader studies suggest AIOs reduce clicks, our own data shows CTR improvements at position #1 year-on-year for sites already implementing strong SEO and content strategies.
With the launch of Gemini 2.0 and Google AI Mode, the shift towards conversational and summarised results is accelerating. Early adaptation will be key to long-term visibility.
So, to answer the main question of this article – is it worth optimising for AI Overviews? We’d say yes, but with a strategic mindset. Our research suggests that AIO visibility does not come from high-ranking pages alone but from contextually relevant, authoritative, and diverse sources. Therefore, there are many ways to approach an AI-driven strategy, such as refining on-page content to better match informational intent, or strengthening off-page signals through authoritative backlinks and citations. As AI Overviews continue to reshape the SERP, brands that align their content with these principles will be best positioned to maintain and even grow their visibility. If you are struggling with the new AI advancements, get in touch with our innovation team – we’d be happy to support your strategy for maximum AI visibility.
Bristol-based creative agency saintnicks has been awarded Gold at the Digital Impact Awards, recognising its work with POSCA, part of Mitsubishi Pencil Co. The win came in the ‘Best Community Development’ category, celebrating the agency’s success in growing and nurturing an engaged creative community on social media.
The Digital Impact Awards highlight excellence in digital stakeholder engagement and the power of online brand communication. saintnicks’ campaign for POSCA focused on building authentic relationships with artists and makers across the UK, showcasing their creativity while amplifying the brand’s cultural relevance in the creative community.
Fraser Bradshaw, CEO at Saintnicks, said:
“We’re incredibly proud of this recognition. It celebrates not just great creative work, but the genuine connections built between brands and the people who love them. The POSCA community embodies everything we believe in – creativity, authenticity and engagement that lasts.”
The award-winning campaign brought together art, culture and community to celebrate creative expression and inspire participation. A full case study of the work can be viewed below.
If you’d like a chat about your challenges or request a complimentary social audit, drop them an email and say hello. You can find out more about their social media and content expertise here.
saintnicks has been shortlisted in two categories at The Lovie Awards 2025, recognising the agency’s standout work in Digital, Content, and Social Media. The nominations come off the back of a flurry of other nominations, including four at the UK Social Media Awards, two at the Sports Business Awards, and one at the Digital Impact Awards.
The Lovie Awards recognise European Internet excellence in the fields of culture, technology & business. In addition to traditional judging, each category has a People’s Lovie Award, voted on by the public.
You can support saintnicks by clicking the links below and placing your vote ahead of the deadline on Thursday October 16th:
Email Newsletter – LIV Golf
Events & Livestreams in Social Media – Ascot Racecourse
Regarding the nominations, Callum Joynes, Head of Content at saintnicks, said:
“We’re over the moon to be recognised at The Lovie Awards this year. It’s a celebration of the creativity, ambition and craft that our team pours into every project for our clients at LIV Golf and Ascot Racecourse, and we’re proud to see that work shine on a European stage.”
Bristol-based Burleigh Design, founded in 1895, set for a brand new era as directors eye growth following changes at the top of this 130-year-old firm
A new leadership team has taken charge at Bristol’s oldest commercial graphic design agency.
The Bristol-based Burleigh Design agency is set for a new era following co-owner Greg Corrigan’s retirement with Jonathon Galvin-Wright joining forces with co-owner director Fraser Ebbs at the helm.
They have pledged to take the Leigh Court Business Centre-headquartered business forward by building on Burleigh Design’s rich heritage which stretches back to 1895 when it was first established as a family firm of designers and printers based in Park Row.
Corrigan’s move away from the business signals a new beginning for Burleigh Design because he had been a fifth-generation member of the same family to have formed part of the senior team.
That tradition is now set to change as a new management team take the reins with Galvin-Wright coming into the business as a director alongside Ebbs who has led Burleigh Design since 2012 when it merged with his Portishead Press enterprise.
Galvin-Wright said: “I’m proud to have joined Fraser in a leadership role as a director of Burleigh Design which is one of those brilliant, historic businesses which make the Bristol business community so special.
“Burleigh Design’s status as the oldest design agency in town and to have been continuously serving local businesses since 1895, says a lot about the way we like to do business which is based on trust and great relationships.
“Burleigh Design has the richest of histories so there’s a lot to live up to but I’m relishing my new role and really looking forward to working with Fraser to make sure the business keeps going from strength to strength.”
The new management team have promised to stick to the principles that have ensured Burleigh Design has stood test of time.
“In a way we’re going back to the future because we will follow the traditions that have ensured Burleigh Design has thrived over the years.” Ebbs added.
“Everything we do will continue to be based around clients, evolving our own design services around their business needs, and our business-led design philosophy will ensure our design is both commercially fit for purpose and benefits the bottom line.”
The two Burleigh Design Directors have recently conducted a re-brand and are now set to extend the scope of its work.
Galvin-Wright says, “We like to see ourselves as a bunch of ‘business creatives’ and our senior and experienced team will always look at brand and design challenges from a business perspective first and foremost.
“We have earned a stellar reputation for our ability to fulfil hard-working design needs across brand, graphic design, content and marketing activation in industrial, commercial, corporate and manufacturing markets and that won’t change, although we have also always worked within the charity and edication sectors too.”
Bidding farewell to the company, Corrigan said: “Burleigh Design could not be in better hands and both Fraser and Jonnie’s expertise and experience will make sure the business prospers so these are exciting times which will be full of new opportunities.
“Burleigh Design has a proud place in the South West business community which is a real hotbed of entrepreneurial talent and I’m looking forward to watching from afar in retirement as the new era takes shape and Burleigh grows.”
Burleigh Design clients include air conditioning manufacturers Daikin, engineering conglomerate Avon Group, Smith Brothers Stores – the largest air-conditioning merchants in the country – as well as charities and professional services companies including Penny Brohn and Cushman & Wakefield.
For further information visit the Burleigh Design website: https://burleighcreate.co.uk
saintnicks has been nominated for ‘Best Community Development’ at the Digital Impact Awards for their work across social media with POSCA UK.
The Digital Impact Awards set the benchmark in digital stakeholder engagement, celebrating the best digital communications from brands. This nomination recognises the creativity, strategy, and measurable impact of saintnicks’ partnership with the Mitsubishi Pencil UK team.
Inbound activity to POSCA’s social media channels has quadrupled, and the brand’s own response actions have increased more than tenfold. The brand was sent and tagged in over 10,000 pieces of social content in just the first four months of 2025.
Cath Eaton, Social Media Manager at saintnicks, said:
“In just a short time, our partnership with Mitsubishi Pencil has built a vibrant, engaged community on social media, that delivers real results. This nomination for the Digital Impact Awards is a fantastic recognition of the dedication and collaboration behind our work – something the whole team is incredibly proud of.”
If you’re looking for an agency that truly gets social media, content, and community management, explore saintnicks’ brand, campaigns, content and digital expertise here, or reach out to their Client Services Director, Francois d’Espagnac.
saintnicks has been shortlisted for the second year running in two categories at the Sports Business Awards 2025, recognising the agency’s standout work with Ascot Racecourse:
Outstanding Social Media Strategy
Excellence in Content Marketing
The Sports Business Awards celebrate and reward the achievements of the teams working behind the scenes to enable sporting excellence through sports marketing – championing creativity, resilience, adaptability, and resourcefulness.
Callum Joynes, Head of Content at saintnicks, said:
“We’re incredibly proud to be shortlisted at the Sports Business Awards among the best names in the sports industry. These nominations are a recognition of the strategy, creativity, and collaboration behind our work across brand and social media with the team through Royal Ascot and beyond. Proof that incredible results can be achieved when a brand and agency share the same vision.”
Top tips for influencer marketing in hospitality, from an agency that’s been doing it for 11 years…
I want to begin this blog post by saying I don’t consider myself a philosopher, to any standard. The other day I came across a TikTok video where a woman referred to a Diet Coke as a ‘refrigerated cigarette’ – that’s philosophy.
I do, however, consider myself to be a ponderer, and today I’m pondering a topic so complex I feel I’m going to need a refrigerated cigarette to get through it; if a customer has a great experience at your venue, but no content is created, did it even happen?
For the modern restaurant, bar, and cafe owner or manager, the answer is a resounding (and perhaps unsettling), ‘no’. An experience that is not documented, shared, and amplified online holds just a fraction of its potential value. This is the reality of the creator landscape, a picturesque and somewhat confusing labyrinth where social influence has superseded traditional advertising – and where your next customer’s decision on where to eat or drink is being shaped. Not by a magazine review alone, but by a 15-second video they saw from a digital creator they trust.
Influencer marketing has come a long way on its journey, from a tiny, weird-looking caterpillar being rejected by corporate marketing departments and traditional press into a, well, still weird-looking yet more accepted butterfly that should be a central pillar of any serious marketing strategy. As the field has emerged from its cocoon, its complexities have deepened. Navigating it successfully requires more than a complimentary meal; it demands strategy, respect, and a nuanced understanding of a new set of rules. Here are some do’s and don’ts for hospitality influencer marketing in 2025.
Do: Prioritise long-term partnerships over one-off posts. The most impactful collaborations are born from genuine advocacy. A single, transactional post may generate a temporary spike in visibility, perhaps some new followers, but it does little to build enduring brand trust. In 2025, your focus must be on identifying creators who genuinely align with your brand’s ethos and cultivating relationships with them with the view of positioning them as long-term ambassadors. An ongoing partnership allows for a deeper, more authentic narrative to unfold, transforming a creator from a hired megaphone into a trusted voice for your brand.
Do: Champion creative freedom. You are not commissioning a food photographer, you are collaborating with a storyteller. The primary value of an influencer lies in the unique perspective and authentic connection they have with their audience. Handing over a rigid, overly prescriptive brief is the fastest way to strip the content of the authenticity that all invested parties want. Instead, provide a clear outline of the focal point, perhaps a new menu item or a weekend event, and arm them with all the knowledge they may need but trust the creator to translate them into their native language.
Do: Look beyond the follower count. Follower counts may just be the fool’s gold of influencer marketing. A seven-figure follower count means little if the audience is unengaged or entirely misaligned with your target demographic. Instead, look at the metrics that matter. Focus your magnifying glass on engagement rates, audience demographics and the quality of the conversation happening in the comments. A local micro-influencer with 5,000 highly-engaged foodies in Bristol is infinitely more valuable than a macro-influencer with a few hundred-thousand passive observers globally.
The Don’ts: Avoiding common pitfalls…
Don’t: Mistake a creator for a production house. While many creators are multi-talented, their core skill is building and engaging a unique community, not necessarily producing campaign-level creative assets. If your goal is to acquire high-resolution images of your dishes for your own menu or website, I would suggest looking into food photographers.
Don’t: Offer ‘exposure’ as sole compensation. Would you allow a customer to pay for a meal with the promise of telling everyone in the office how good it was? No? So you agree exposure isn’t a viable form of payment. Content creation is a skilled labour that involves significant time, effort and investment in equipment and software. While a complimentary experience is a valuable part of the package, professional creators rightly expect to be compensated for their work. Offering fair payment shows respect for their craft and positions your brand as a serious, professional partner.
Don’t: Let the performance data disappear. A campaign does not end when the content goes live. To understand the true return on investment, you must track performance with rigour. Go beyond likes and comments. Use unique promotional codes for a discount, trackable links to your reservations platform and ask customers how they heard about you. Analyse the long-tail impact on brand awareness and footfall over the following weeks and months.
In 2025, influencer marketing is no longer a simple transaction; it is a collaboration between two storytellers. Success requires a strategic shift away from venues having complete creative control and towards partnership, transparency and mutual respect. Because in the end, content is not just the proof that an experience happened, it is an integral part of the experience itself, the digital memory that sparks desire and inspires the next customer to walk through your door.
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