Google is writing its own description of your company

Google changed what people see when they search for a brand name. On desktop, many brand searches now show an AI-written summary in the right column, where the knowledge panel used to be. People started noticing it around October 31. Google hasn’t announced the change.

The upside is that the brand’s own website is back at the top of the main results. In September, these AI summaries often appeared above the brand’s site.

The downside is that the brand doesn’t control what the summary says. In one example published by Search Engine Roundtable, Zillow’s panel listed two different founding years, 2006 in the AI text and 2004 in the facts below it. In an Ahrefs sample, Wikipedia was the source cited most often in brand summaries, in 41 of 57.

A lot of people will see these summaries. AI Overviews now show up on more than 80% of Google searches, based on data from Semrush, SE Ranking, and seoClarity.

It’s worth checking what Google says about your company. There’s no clear way to edit the summary itself, so the work is in the sources it pulls from.

How to check yours

1. Search your company’s name on a desktop computer in a private window, so your account and search history don’t shape the results. Then try your name with a few common additions, like “reviews” or “pricing.”
2. Read the summary and check each fact against your own records: founding date, leadership, headquarters, and what you sell. Note which sources it cites.
3. Fix the facts where they come from. Make sure your About page states the basics in plain text, not only in images or PDFs. If Google offers it, get verified so you can suggest changes to your panel. On Wikipedia, don’t edit your own company’s article. Its conflict of interest guideline asks you to request changes on the article’s talk page instead.

Nobody has shown how much these fixes change what the AI summary says, or how fast. They’re the sources it cites most often, so they’re the place to start.