July 2025: AI Overviews Reaches a New Milestone

Over the past month, Google Search has continued its relentless march toward AI-first experiences, with the June 2025 Core Update settling into sustained high volatility. AI Overviews have reached a new milestone, appearing in 18% of all searches with a 28% month-over-month increase. The self-storage and managed IT services sectors show mixed signals, with major players experiencing flat short-term performance while maintaining strong year-over-year growth. The era of prompt engineering has arrived, separating effective AI users from those producing generic content.

Industry trends reveal a clear pattern across verticals. Self-storage giants like Public Storage, CubeSmart, and Extra Space Storage show minimal monthly fluctuations but substantial 14-month gains ranging from 8% to 67%. Managed IT services leaders including Infosys, Cognizant, and Wipro are experiencing slight monthly declines of 1-3% but posting impressive long-term growth of 13-15%. AI Overview penetration is expanding universally, with every tracked industry seeing month-over-month increases for the first time.

SEO strategy has fundamentally shifted from traditional optimization to AI visibility optimization. With desktop dominating AI Overview generation at 61% and informational queries triggering AIOs 40% of the time, brands must focus on becoming authoritative sources that LLMs prioritize. The new success formula requires technically structured websites plus quality content at scale plus AI visibility measurement. Content creation is evolving from keyword-focused to prompt-engineered, with expert-level prompts achieving 70-90% content quality scores compared to basic prompts' 20% baseline.

This month, Pat Covers:

• July Industry Review - What I'm Seeing & Hearing In Self Storage & Managed IT Services
• Updated AI Overview Trend Data - 28% MoM Growth Across All Industries
• How To Build A Better Prompt From My SMX Advanced Talk
• The Evolution from Generic to Expert-Level Content Creation