FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New Zealand study finds Google AI Overviews on 74% of a balanced commercial search sample Analysis of 1,000 Google NZ desktop searches reveals a stark intent divide: AI Overviews appeared on 96% of advice and cost queries, but on only 17% of local-provider queries. AUCKLAND, New Zealand, 8 September 2026. AI Search Marketing Agency today released a 1,000-query study of Google New Zealand search results showing that AI Overviews appeared on 73.9% of a balanced sample of commercially important desktop searches. The feature was also highly prominent. AI Overviews appeared as the first returned search-result element for 653 queries, representing 65.3% of the full sample. When an AI Overview was present, it occupied position one 88.4% of the time. The strongest divide was search intent. AI Overviews appeared on 96.5% of advice and informational queries and 96.0% of cost and pricing queries. Rates were 80.5% for transaction and action searches, 80.0% for comparison and research searches, and just 16.5% for local-provider searches. "The important finding is not a single national percentage. It is where AI Overviews intersect with the customer journey," said Marcos Azaro, founder of AI Search Marketing Agency. "A business can still see traditional local results for a direct provider search while AI-generated answers shape the advice, price and comparison stages that happen first." The study used a balanced design covering 20 industries and five search-intent groups, with 10 queries in every industry and intent combination. Every query was written and locked in before collection, a small pilot was excluded from the final analysis, and no query was added, removed or reworded based on observed results. Observed industry prevalence ranged from 62% to 88%. Telecommunications recorded the highest rate at 88%, followed by agriculture and rural services and insurance at 84%. Beauty and wellness and logistics, removals and storage recorded the lowest observed rates at 62%. Statistical analysis found that intent was a far stronger dividing factor than industry. To test repeatability, the researchers re-ran 100 of the searches shortly afterwards, one from every industry and intent combination. The second run agreed with the first on AI Overview presence 93% of the time, indicating strong short-term stability while confirming that individual search pages can change. The study also reports a deliberately prominent caveat. Google Ads search-volume data was positive for only 275 of the 1,000 queries. Weighting that limited subset by monthly volume produced a 27.0% prevalence rate, because a small number of high-volume local and booking terms, where AI Overviews were uncommon, dominated the available volume. The study does not present that subset as a population estimate. Instead, the contrast shows why every prevalence claim must disclose its sampling and weighting method. A secondary analysis of the 739 AI Overviews found that 80% of their citations went to New Zealand domains. The most frequently cited sites were moneyhub.co.nz (cited in 19% of AI Overviews), youtube.com (18%) and reddit.com (15%). Results were collected on 8 September 2026 through DataForSEO, an independent search-data provider, using Google New Zealand, English-language, desktop settings. The study was designed and directed by AI Search Marketing Agency and executed by an OpenAI research model under a fixed protocol. The complete data cost, including collection, retries, search-volume lookup and re-checks, was US$3.76 against a US$30 ceiling. The full research article, methodology, branded charts, full search list and row-level dataset are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence at: https://aisearchmarketing.agency/research/nz-google-ai-overviews-study-2026 STUDY HIGHLIGHTS - 1,000 unique commercial queries, locked before collection - 20 industries x 5 intents x 10 queries per cell - 73.9% overall AI Overview prevalence (margin of error under three points) - 96.5% prevalence for advice searches - 96.0% prevalence for cost searches - 16.5% prevalence for local-provider searches - 65.3% of all searches had an AI Overview at position one - 93% agreement when 100 of the searches were re-run - 80% of AI Overview citations went to .nz domains ABOUT AI SEARCH MARKETING AGENCY AI Search Marketing Agency is an Auckland-based consultancy led by Marcos Azaro, a search practitioner working in the field since 2006. It helps businesses in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States get found and recommended inside AI assistants such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, alongside traditional Google rankings. Its research programme publishes transparent, reproducible data on how generative search is changing discovery. MEDIA CONTACT Marcos Azaro AI Search & SEO Consultant, AI Search Marketing Agency marcos@aisearchmarketing.agency https://aisearchmarketing.agency/ ENDS