{"id":7205,"date":"2026-09-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clarasoteras.com\/?p=7205"},"modified":"2026-09-24T08:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:15:20","slug":"second-study-ai-overviews-spanish-publishers-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clarasoteras.com\/en\/blog\/second-study-ai-overviews-spanish-publishers-july-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution and impact of AI Overviews on Spanish media: from emergence to the consolidation of generative answers (2nd wave, July 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The media industry in Spain is undergoing a structural reconfiguration of its organic traffic sources due to the advance of artificial intelligence in search engines. One of the turning points has undoubtedly been the rollout of generative answers directly within Google Search for certain queries. As we already highlighted in the first study on the impact of AI Overviews on Spanish media<\/a>, which we conducted jointly with SEO consultant MJ Cach\u00f3n<\/strong><\/a>, director of Laika agency, and researchers and academics Mari V\u00e1llez and Carlos Lopezosa, from the University of Barcelona<\/strong>, the arrival of this technology marked a strategic turning point. In that first wave, we documented an initial penetration rate of 29.8%. Today, working again with MJ Cach\u00f3n, we present an update of these figures, confirming that generative AI has moved beyond the experimental phase to become the dominant and defining element, also, of informational SERPs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Overviews arrived in Spain at the end of March 2025 and, after analysing the first few months (the first study with data from November 2025), we have now, following the same methodology, decided to update the data to show the real evolution and impact of these generative answers one year later. Below, you will find a structured analysis of this evolution, comparing the foundational metrics from November 2025 with the findings corresponding to this second wave in July 2026. Before going into detail, it should be noted that the five media outlets with the highest traffic (page views) have also been selected for this second wave and, based on GfK Dam’s official sector ranking for June 2026, Okdiario has entered the list, while 20minutos has been removed from the sample.<\/strong> The remaining outlets (El Pa\u00eds, El Mundo, ABC and El Espa\u00f1ol) remain in this top five and, therefore, are part of both studies. This study, based on the data from the second wave, was presented by Clara Soteras at the INMA Innovation Week 2026 conference held in Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Accelerated expansion: AIO dominates half of searches<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over a period of just eight months, the presence of AI Overviews (AIO) has practically doubled in the Spanish SERP. The July 2026 wave data reveal that AIO appears for 46.1% of the keywords analysed, representing a significant increase compared with the 29.8% recorded in the previous study.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This 16.3-percentage-point expansion is consistent across all categories. Likewise, we have observed an almost absolute technical parity between desktop environments (40.0%) and mobile devices (41.7%), demonstrating that the access device does not condition the generative experience, something we had already observed in the first wave. Methodological validations through asynchronous loading confirm that this increase is a genuine rollout by Google and not an analytical bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Reconfiguration of the visual space: AIO vs. Top Stories<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The consolidation of generative answers is placing direct pressure on traditional media visibility modules. While AIO is experiencing dramatic growth, the Top Stories<\/em> carousel has declined by 4.7 percentage points, falling from 28.0% to 23.3% of overall presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research confirms that both modules operate under a principle of mutual exclusion, appearing together on the same results page in just 1.6% of instances.<\/strong> Google thus establishes a functional segregation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n