AI overviews for food and beverage: summary
- Food and drink is unique: AI overviews appear more for transactional searches than commercial ones
- Fast purchase decisions drive this trend, especially in foodservice and everyday purchases
- Higher-consideration FMCG categories (eg sports nutrition, plant-based, infant nutrition) are more influenced by AI Overviews
- AI Overviews are growing rapidly and can shape brand consideration
- Brands should optimise AI visibility with clear, consistent product information and strong third-party credibility
A new study has shown that food and drink is the only sector that reverses trends seen in AI overviews.
In most sectors, AI overviews tend to appear when people are researching what to buy, but not at the point where they’re ready to buy. This applies to all sectors apart from food and drink – here, AI appears more often for transactional searches (16%) than commercial ones (14%).
According to Semrush, which conducted the study, it’s because food and drink decisions are made quickly compared with other sectors, often within an hour.
“Commercial intent is when someone is still comparing options – for example, ‘best protein bars’, ‘healthiest cereal’ or ‘Greek yogurt vs skyr’," says Leigh McKenzie, director of online visibility at Semrush. “Transactional intent is when someone is closer to taking action. For example, ‘buy protein bars online, ‘order oat milk’ or ‘restaurant near me open now’.”
Other categories such as travel, finance and computing usually involve long research stages and so have more opportunity for AI overviews to repeatedly appear.
What are AI overviews?
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some Google Search results. They use generative AI to combine information from multiple sources and provide a concise answer to a user’s query, along with links to relevant websites for further reading.
They most commonly appear for complex or multi-part questions where a summarised answer may be helpful, or for comparative questions such as: Which is the healthiest protein bar? X or X?
They also only appear if Google judges that the information is reliable and has sufficient sources.
What does this mean for FMCGs?
As the study included a wide definition of food and drink, including food service, does the quick-decision assumption hold for packaged food?
“Not always,” says McKenzie. “Packaged food is not one single journey. Some purchases are very quick and habitual, while others involve more research, especially where consumers are comparing nutrition, health claims, allergens, ingredients, sustainability, or suitability for a specific lifestyle. In those higher-consideration FMCG areas, AI Overviews could have more room to influence the decision.”
According to McKenzie, the categories most likely to get AI overviews are those where consumers ask comparison-led, trust-led or claim-led questions before choosing a brand.
That includes functional foods, sports nutrition, plant-based products, infant nutrition, weight-management products, supplements-adjacent food categories, alcohol-free beverages and ‘better-for-you’ snacks or cereals. “These are the categories where the search journey often looks less like ‘buy this now’ and more like ‘which option is best for me?’, says McKenzie.
AI overviews are appearing more often
The study found a 71% increase in commercial-intent AI overviews, so they are appearing increasingly often at that stage of a buyer’s journey.
“For FMCGs, that matters because many brand choices are shaped before the shopper reaches a retailer, marketplace or grocery app,” says McKenzie. “If AI is summarising the category, explaining what matters and citing sources, it can influence which brands make it into the consumer’s consideration set.”
So category searches when consumers have not yet chosen a brand are where the opportunities lie. “Queries like ‘best protein bar’, ‘healthiest cereal’ or ‘best alcohol-free beer’ are exactly the kind of commercial searches where an AI Overview can summarise options, surface criteria and shape what the shopper considers important,” says McKenzie. “It may not replace the final purchase journey, but it can influence the shortlist.”
“Brands should monitor the commercial queries that matter most in their category and see whether AI Overviews appear, which sources are cited and whether their brand is included.”
Leigh McKenzie, director of online visibility at Semrush
How can F&B optimise AI overviews?
They should treat AI visibility as part of brand visibility, says McKenzie.
“That means making sure product information is clear and consistent across owned pages, retailers, marketplaces, review sites, media coverage and expert or category sources,” he says. “For food and beverage brands, this is especially important around ingredients, nutrition, certifications, allergens, sustainability claims and product comparisons.
“Brands should also monitor the commercial queries that matter most in their category and see whether AI Overviews appear, which sources are cited and whether their brand is included.”
Can challenger brands compete?
Large brands have an advantage but that doesn’t mean that smaller ones shouldn’t build it into their marketing strategies.
“Large brands often have more authority signals, such as wider media coverage, retailer presence, reviews, backlinks and consistent information across the web,” says McKenzie.
But, he says, challenger brands can still compete, particularly in emerging or niche categories. “AI visibility is not only about brand size; it is also about whether a brand is clearly described, consistently represented and supported by credible third-party sources,” he says.
The takeaway message
Even though the food and drink sector has a different research journey to sectors that people give more consideration to, FMCGs still need to embrace the possibilities that AI overviews hold and optimise them.
“The biggest opportunity is not necessarily at the final buy-now moment,” says McKenzie. “It is earlier, when consumers are comparing categories, evaluating claims and deciding which brands are worth considering.
He puts it in a nutshell. “For FMCG marketers, the key question is becoming: when AI summarises your category, is your brand visible, trusted and accurately represented?”
