Google’s People Also Ask section, the expandable “related questions” box that appears in most search results pages, is now 97% powered by AI Overviews as of the first week of September 2026. That is up from roughly 12% just 14 months ago, according to datasets from AlsoAsked and Allintitle. At that pace, the format is on track to reach 100% shortly.
How fast did People Also Ask shift to AI-generated answers?
The acceleration over the past two months alone is the sharpest signal. Mark Williams-Cook, analyzing AlsoAsked’s dataset of 19.2 million English-language queries made in 2026, found AI-generated PAA answers jumped from 86% in August 2026 to 97% in the first week of September 2026. He noted on LinkedIn that “it seems highly likely we are on track for 100% shortly.”
Separately, Saeed Khosravi of Allintitle reported that Allintitle’s Also Ask Miner data shows PAA answers became effectively 100% AI-generated starting in August 2026. Search Engine Roundtable’s executive editor Barry Schwartz first flagged the combined findings.
Timeline of the shift, based on AlsoAsked and Allintitle data:
- ~12%: Share of PAA answers delivered as AI Overviews, approximately 14 months before September 2026 (AlsoAsked, via Mark Williams-Cook)
- 86%: AI Overview share in PAA, August 2026 (AlsoAsked, 19.2M English-query sample)
- 97%: AI Overview share in PAA, first week of September 2026 (AlsoAsked, 19.2M English-query sample)
- ~100%: AI-generated PAA answers reported by Allintitle’s Also Ask Miner data, from August 2026 onward
What does a 97% AI-generated People Also Ask actually mean?
When a user clicks a PAA question to expand it, the answer they see is no longer pulled verbatim from a web page. Google’s AI composes it. The original source pages may still appear as citations underneath, but the text the user reads is AI-written, drawing from one or more pages rather than quoting any single one directly.
That is a structural change from how PAA worked for most of its existence. Until recently, winning a PAA answer meant formatting your content so Google would lift your paragraph almost word for word. That snippet-formatting approach is now largely irrelevant for this feature. What matters today is whether Google’s AI draws on your content as a source when composing its answer.
What this means for AI-search visibility
People Also Ask used to be a shortcut to your page. Now it is a shortcut to Google’s AI answer, with your page potentially listed as a footnote. That one shift changes the entire optimization logic for this feature.
Here is a concrete way to think about it: imagine you run a skincare brand and you have ranked in the PAA box for “what ingredients help with dry skin” for two years. Previously, users clicking that question would read your exact paragraph and click through to your site. Now, Google’s AI writes a composite answer drawing from several sources. Your brand may appear as a citation link below that answer or it may not appear at all, depending on how the AI weighted your content against others.
A few assessments worth separating from the raw data, in Hingewise’s view:
- The speed matters as much as the endpoint. Moving from 12% to 97% in roughly 14 months is not a gradual rollout. Google has treated PAA as a settled AI format since at least mid-2026, not an experiment. Brands still treating it as a traditional snippet target are optimizing for a format that no longer exists at scale.
- Citation is the new ranking signal in PAA. Content that is specific, structured around clear questions and direct answers, and demonstrably authoritative is more likely to be drawn on by the AI when composing PAA responses. “More likely” is not a guarantee, and the AI often blends multiple sources, but structural quality still matters.
- PAA carries mid-funnel intent. Users who click PAA questions are usually exploring a topic, not just scanning headlines. The business impact of losing direct snippet control here is greater than in low-intent informational queries. This is where potential customers compare options.
- The remaining 3% likely reflects edge cases. Very specific query types, regional index gaps, or query categories where Google has not yet fully deployed AI Overviews in PAA. Based on the trajectory in the AlsoAsked data, that gap is likely to close within weeks rather than months.
Hingewise’s assessment: the PAA shift is a clear marker that AEO (Answer Engine Optimization, optimizing content so AI systems cite it rather than just rank it) is no longer a forward-looking strategy. It is a present-tense requirement for one of Google’s most-used SERP (search engine results page) features. The underlying content quality signals that make pages good candidates for AI citation, including directness, specificity, and factual precision, are not new. What is new is that they now determine visibility in a feature that used to reward different signals entirely.
What to audit now that People Also Ask is nearly 100% AI-generated
- Run your target queries in Google and expand PAA boxes. Note whether your domain appears as a cited source under AI-generated answers, and for which question types.
- Check your analytics for PAA-related traffic changes since August 2026, when the shift to near-100% AI generation accelerated sharply.
- Review whether your top content answers its target question directly in the first paragraph, with a specific, verifiable claim rather than a broad setup.
- Audit heading structure on key pages. H2s and H3s framed as questions followed by concise answers give AI systems clearer signals about which passages are quotable.
- Identify PAA questions in your niche where competitors are cited and you are not. Compare structural differences in how their pages open and how directly they answer the question.
- Check if your most important pages use concrete specifics (numbers, named examples, defined terms) rather than general claims. AI systems cite precise content more readily.
The shift toward 100% AI-generated People Also Ask answers is effectively complete. The open question now is how prominently Google surfaces citation links as the format matures, and whether click-through behavior from cited PAA sources diverges meaningfully from the old snippet-click pattern. Those are the metrics worth tracking through the remainder of 2026.
Sources: Search Engine Roundtable (Barry Schwartz); AlsoAsked data via Mark Williams-Cook (LinkedIn, September 2026); Allintitle Also Ask Miner data via Saeed Khosravi (LinkedIn, 2026).
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance from the sources cited above and checked against them before publishing. The "What this means for AI-search visibility" section is Hingewise's editorial analysis, built on the frameworks and positions we use in our GEO work. How we work: Editorial policy.