Google moves brand AI Overviews into the knowledge panel slot

Google is showing AI Overviews in the right-hand column for many brand searches. That is the spot where the knowledge panel used to sit. Search Engine Roundtable reported the change on 2 November, based on screenshots that searchers posted on X. Until now, AI Overviews for these queries appeared at the top or in the middle of the main results.

What was observed

• Chris Long posted that Google is showing AI Overviews for brand terms in the right column, where a Knowledge Panel would normally appear.

• David McSweeney saw it a couple of days earlier, on October 31. He described AI Overviews "now generally in a right panel on desktop (or in some cases further down the page)" and said he was seeing other variations too.

• On October 27, Sachin Patel posted that the Knowledge Panel now shows an AI-generated label.

• Barry Schwartz's worked example is a search for [Apple], with screenshots from before and after.

What is not known

The article cites no statement from Google. This is a change people observed, and nobody has announced it. The report says "many" brand keywords and gives no count. McSweeney describes the desktop layout and mentions variations, so we don't know yet what mobile looks like or what share of brand queries are affected.

Why it matters for a brand

A knowledge panel was a fact box. An AI Overview is a written summary of whatever Google reads about you. Schwartz likes the new layout better, but he names the catch himself: it is not great to trust that AI will write about your brand as well as your own website would.

On a brand search, the first description a buyer reads about you is now written by Google's model. It draws on directories, review sites, press coverage and other people's pages as much as on your own copy. Those off-site sources now shape how you are introduced, on the one query where you should control the answer.

There is a smaller layout effect too. On these queries the AI answer has moved out of the main column, so it no longer sits above the organic listings. Your own site's result moves back up the page. The source does not say whether people read the right column as closely as the main results.

What to do this week

• Search your brand name on desktop and screenshot what the right column says about you.

• Check every claim in that summary against the facts. When something is wrong or out of date, find the page Google most likely took it from.

• Fix the outside sources you can reach, such as directory listings, review profiles and old press bios. Then make sure your About page states the basics plainly: what you do, where, and for whom.