Google’s new Search Console AI performance report is the first tool that shows a website how often it appears inside AI Overviews and AI Mode, and in July 2026 it began reaching businesses well beyond its original UK test group. Google launched the report on 3 June 2026 to a small slice of sites in the United Kingdom. Through July it has widened to the United States, India, Switzerland and other markets, with Google’s John Mueller confirming the team is “rolling these out incrementally to sites, and reviewing the feedback along the way.” For the first time, you can open a free Google dashboard and see whether the machines that now answer most searches are quoting your pages or ignoring them.
That matters because AI answers have quietly become the front page of Google. AI Overviews reach roughly 2.5 billion monthly users and AI Mode crossed 1 billion, yet until now brands had no way to measure their presence inside either. The report tracks impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates for generative AI features, but it deliberately withholds one number: clicks. This guide explains exactly what the Search Console AI performance report shows, the blind spot Google left in it, and the practical steps UAE businesses should take to read the data and grow their share of AI answers.
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What the Search Console AI Performance Report Shows
The report gives site owners a dedicated view of impressions inside AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device and date.
The Search Console AI performance report gives site owners a dedicated view of how their content performs inside Google’s generative AI surfaces. It sits alongside the familiar Performance report, and it covers three places where Google now uses AI to answer instead of just listing links: AI Overviews (the summary block at the top of a normal results page), AI Mode (Google’s full conversational, Gemini-powered search), and generative features in Discover.
Inside the report you get five dimensions of data. Each one answers a question brands have been guessing at for two years.
| Dimension | In the report? | What it tells a UAE brand |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | Yes | How often your URLs appeared inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. |
| Pages | Yes | Which specific pages the AI is pulling from, so you know what to double down on. |
| Countries | Yes | Whether you show up for searchers inside the UAE versus other markets. |
| Devices | Yes | Mobile versus desktop appearance, which matters in a phone-first market. |
| Dates | Yes | Hourly, daily, weekly and monthly trends, so you can tie visibility to what you published. |
| Clicks | No | Google does not report clicks from AI answers. This is the gap you plan around. |
Google has been upfront that the report is a starting point, not the finished product. In its announcement the company said it is “continuing to work with website owners to understand what insights will be most helpful to inform their strategies, and we’ll introduce additional metrics over time.” Treat today’s version as a baseline you start measuring against now, not a reason to wait.
Why This Report Changes SEO Reporting
For two years, brands optimised for AI search on faith. You could see your rankings slide while AI Overviews scooped the answer, but you had no proof of whether Google’s AI was citing you or a competitor. This report replaces guesswork with a number. That is a meaningful shift for anyone who has to justify a marketing budget.
The scale is the reason it matters so much. AI answers are no longer a fringe feature. The data is blunt:
| Signal | Figure | Why it should worry you |
|---|---|---|
| AI Overviews reach | ~2.5 billion users/month | More than half of everyone on Google now sees AI-written answers. |
| AI Mode users | 1 billion+/month | A full conversational engine, growing with queries doubling each quarter. |
| Click drop with an AI Overview | ~58% | When an AI Overview appears, click-through to the top result falls by nearly six in ten. |
| Clicks on a cited source | ~1% | Pew found users click a cited link only about 1% of the time an Overview shows. |
Read those numbers together and the strategy writes itself. If AI answers absorb most of the attention and pass on very few clicks, then being inside the answer as a cited source is the win. Impressions in this new report are the closest thing you have to a scoreboard for that fight. This is the heart of GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation: the practice of shaping content so AI engines quote you, not just rank you.
The One Number Google Will Not Give You
The report shows impressions, but not clicks from AI answers. That is not an oversight. Google has said it will add metrics over time, yet the current design forces a mindset change. You cannot measure AI search purely by traffic anymore, because a large share of AI value never produces a click at all. Someone reads your brand inside an answer, trusts it, and searches your name later or walks into your showroom. None of that shows up as an AI click.
So the honest way to use the report is as a visibility metric, not a traffic metric. Rising impressions mean Google’s AI increasingly trusts your pages as answer material. Pair that with your brand-search volume, direct visits and enquiry numbers to see the full picture. Judge the channel on presence and influence, not only on the clicks it sends.
Impressions tell you the AI noticed you. Clicks tell you it let go of the user. In an answer-first search world, the first number is the one worth chasing.
There is a second control worth knowing about. Alongside the report, Google added a toggle in Search Console that lets a site block its content from appearing in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features, honoured from 17 June 2026. Roughly one in three SEOs said they would consider using it. For most UAE brands chasing visibility, that would be a mistake: opting out means you receive no impressions and no traffic from generative AI features at all. You would make yourself invisible in the exact place buyers now start.
Why the Stakes Are Higher in the UAE
The UAE is not an average market for this shift. It is the leading edge. The Microsoft AI Diffusion Report for Q1 2026 put UAE AI adoption at 70.1% of the working-age population, the first country in the world to pass 70% and more than four times the global average of 17.8%. AI is forecast to add up to $96 billion to the UAE economy by 2030, close to 14% of GDP.
In plain terms, your customers in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are among the most AI-fluent on earth. They are already asking Gemini, ChatGPT and AI Mode for the best clinic, the right property agent, the supplier they should call. If your competitors register impressions in the Search Console AI performance report and you do not, they are being recommended in those conversations while you are absent. In a market this fast, that gap compounds week over week.
How UAE Businesses Should Read and Act on the Data
UAE businesses that set a baseline in the new report early can see which pages AI already cites and grow that presence before competitors act.
Here is the practical playbook once the report reaches your Search Console account. If it has not appeared yet, it will: Google is expanding access market by market, so set these habits up now.
- Set your baseline immediately. Record your current AI impressions and the exact pages driving them. You cannot show progress without a starting line, and the report only stores data from when it switches on.
- Find your answer pages. Filter by the Pages dimension to see what Google’s AI already quotes. These are your strongest assets. Study their structure, then apply the same pattern to pages that should be cited but are not.
- Write for extraction. AI engines lift clean, self-contained answers. Lead each page with a direct response to the question, add specific numbers, use clear headings, and include an FAQ with schema markup so the answer is easy to pull.
- Filter to the UAE. Use the Countries dimension to confirm you appear for searchers inside the Emirates, not just globally. Local relevance, entity clarity and consistent business details all feed this.
- Report on impressions, not just clicks. Add AI impressions to your monthly marketing dashboard as a visibility KPI, and read it next to brand search and direct enquiries rather than expecting matching click volume.
Want to know where you stand in AI answers today? Talk to the Rothian Digital team and we will benchmark your AI visibility and build the GEO plan to grow it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Google Search Console AI performance report?
It is a free report inside Google Search Console that shows how often your website appears in Google’s generative AI features, including AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative results in Discover. It reports impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates, but not clicks.
When did the report launch and is it available in the UAE?
Google launched it on 3 June 2026 to a subset of sites in the United Kingdom, then expanded through July 2026 to the United States, India, Switzerland and other markets. Google is rolling it out incrementally, so if it has not reached your Search Console account yet, it is expected to arrive as access widens.
Why does the report not show clicks from AI answers?
Google currently reports only impressions for AI features and has said it will add more metrics over time. Practically, much of the value of AI search never produces a click, because users get their answer inside the AI response. Treat AI impressions as a visibility metric and read them alongside brand search and direct enquiries.
How is this different from ranking in normal Google results?
Traditional ranking is about where your blue link sits on the results page. AI visibility is about whether Google’s AI quotes your content inside its answer. When an AI Overview appears, click-through to the top result drops by around 58%, so being cited in the answer can matter more than holding a high rank.
Should a UAE business block its content from AI search using the new toggle?
For most brands, no. Opting out means you get no impressions and no traffic from AI Overviews, AI Mode or Discover AI features. With UAE AI adoption above 70%, that removes you from the place many customers now begin their search. The better play is to increase your presence, not disappear from it.
How do I improve my visibility in AI Overviews and AI Mode?
Structure content for extraction: answer the question directly in the first lines, add specific statistics, use clear headings and FAQ schema, and keep your business entity and location details consistent. This is Generative Engine Optimisation, and it is what lifts a page from ranked to cited.
The Bottom Line
The Search Console AI performance report ends the era of optimising for AI search blind. You can finally see whether Google’s AI is quoting your business, on which pages, and in which markets. The number to watch is impressions, because in a world where AI answers pass on almost no clicks, presence inside the answer is the prize. UAE brands sit at the front of this shift, which makes the opportunity, and the risk of doing nothing, larger here than almost anywhere else.
See Your AI Search Visibility, Then Grow It
Rothian Digital helps UAE businesses read the signals in the new Search Console AI report and turn them into a working GEO strategy, so your brand is the one AI answers recommend. We benchmark where you stand today and build the content and structure that get you cited.
Sources
- Google Search Central Blog: Introducing Search generative AI performance reports in Search Console
- Search Engine Land: Google Search Console AI performance reports rolling out to more users
- Search Engine Land: AI performance reports and controls to block content in AI responses
- Google Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report (Search)
- Ahrefs: AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%
- Gulf News: UAE ranked world’s leading adopter of AI in 2026 (Microsoft AI Diffusion Report)
