Sean Walsh
Sean is a Director at Intelligency heading up our digital marketing and client services operations. Sean has 15+ years experiencing working both in-house and agency with brands including Lloyds, Alstom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Viaplay, DFDS Seaways and Mercedes-Benz.
If you’ve spent time writing meta descriptions for your web pages, this update from Google is worth noting. The company is now testing the use of artificial intelligence to generate descriptions that appear in search results. This could change how your content is presented to users and affect how often they click through to your website.
What’s changing
Google is experimenting with two types of AI-powered snippets:
- Full AI-generated descriptions that replace the meta description you provided
- AI summaries that sit alongside or below the usual snippet
These AI-generated elements are marked with a small Gemini logo, indicating they were created by Google’s AI systems.
How we got here: Google’s use of AI so far
Google has been steadily integrating AI into its search products over the past few years. This includes:
- The launch of Search Generative Experience (SGE), a feature that provides AI-powered overviews for some search queries
- The rollout of Gemini, Google’s suite of generative AI tools, which is now used in various areas including Google Workspace, Ads, and Search
- Increasing use of AI to interpret content quality, relevance, and intent in ranking pages
These AI features aim to help users get quicker answers and better match their intent, even if it means reinterpreting the content on a page.
Why this matters
Google may start showing its own AI-generated version of your page summary in search results. This takes even more control out of your hands, especially if the AI misrepresents the tone or substance of your content. While Google has never guaranteed that your meta description would be used, this step introduces more unpredictability in how your brand appears in search listings.
Your click-through rates could rise or fall depending on how users respond to the AI summary. It may be more relevant in some cases, but it could also overlook key messaging or misrepresent your services.
What to do now
Focus on clear, high-quality content that matches search intent. Google’s AI tends to draw on on-page text to generate summaries, so the clearer your content, the better chance you have of a helpful snippet being shown. Keep a close eye on your search performance data, particularly click-through rates, to spot any changes as this test continues.
In summary
Google’s AI-generated snippets are still in the testing phase, but they point to a future where AI plays a larger role in how your content is displayed in search. Digital marketers should be prepared for less control over snippets and a greater need to optimise content for clarity and relevance.
