Four in Ten Google Searches Now Open With an AI Answer. Which of Your Clients' Questions Are Among Them?

On September 22, Comscore published its Q2 2026 AI Intelligence Report, and one line in it should change how a managing partner thinks about the firm's website. In June 2026, 39.4% of U.S. desktop Google searches showed an AI Overview. In July 2025, the figure was 25.8%. On Bing, the share of searches that opened with a Copilot Search answer rose from 11.8% to 17.3% over the same stretch.

Put plainly: about four in ten desktop Google searches now begin with an answer written by Google, up from roughly one in four a year earlier. One in six Bing searches does the same.

Earlier this week we wrote about the first controlled experiment on Google's AI Mode, which found that forcing people into AI answers cut their clicks to outside websites by 18.8 percentage points. That study answers what happens when an AI answer sits on top of the results. Comscore's numbers answer how often it is happening. Together, they move the practical question for an immigration practice somewhere more useful.

What Comscore Actually Measured

Before quoting these numbers to a partner or a vendor, know what they cover.

• U.S. desktop only. The figures come from Comscore's opt-in desktop panel. They do not describe mobile, where many clients — especially in family-based and humanitarian matters — do most of their searching.
• Share of searches, not clicks. Comscore counted how often an AI experience appeared. It did not measure what people clicked afterward or how much traffic sites lost.
• Two different denominators. The 39.4% is a share of Google searches. The 17.3% is a share of Bing searches. They are not shares of the same pool, and they should not be added together.
• Limited methodology disclosure. The report does not publish panel sizes or margins of error, and trade coverage flagged at least one dating error in its slides.

None of that undoes the trend. A jump of more than 13 points in about a year is not panel noise. But it means the right takeaway is directional — AI answers are now a routine part of how people search — not a precise forecast of your own traffic.

From "Does AI Matter Yet?" to "Which Questions?"

For the last two years, the conversation in most small firms has been some version of is this real yet, or can we wait? At four in ten searches, that question is settled.

The better question is narrower and far more actionable: which of my clients' questions now get answered before anyone sees my link?

That is not the same for every practice, or every matter type. AI answers show up unevenly. Broad informational questions — what is adjustment of status, how long does naturalization take, what happens at a green card interview — are exactly the kind of query an AI answer is built to handle. Narrow, local, or urgent questions — immigration lawyer near me who speaks Portuguese, my husband was detained by ICE this morning in Newark — may still return a map pack, a list of firms, or a mix.

A firm whose intake leans heavily on explanatory questions may already be seeing the effect. A firm whose clients mostly search by name or location may be seeing much less. The only way to know which you are is to look.

What an AI Answer Changes for the Visitor

When an AI Overview appears on one of your clients' questions, three things change.

The basics are already handled. As we covered in Tuesday's piece, the visitors who still click through have read a summary of the law. They arrive wanting process, timing, fees, and a way to book a consultation.

Your page competes with the summary, not just with other firms. If an AI Overview has already explained DACA renewal timing, a page that opens by explaining DACA renewal timing reads as redundant.

The sources behind the answer matter more than position in the links. An AI Overview cites a handful of pages. Being one of them is a different achievement from appearing third in the links below — and on a question where the answer satisfies most people, the cited sources may be the only firms the reader ever sees named.

Run the Check Yourself This Week

You do not need a vendor or a tool for a first pass. You need a list and about forty minutes.

1. Write down your top 10–15 client questions. Pull them from intake notes, consultation requests, and the questions your paralegals answer most often on the phone. Phrase them the way clients do: "Can I travel while my green card is pending?" not "advance parole."
2. Search each one on Google, signed out, on desktop. Use a private browser window. Add your city to half of them.
3. Mark three things per question: whether an AI Overview appears; whether your firm is cited or named in it; and whether your site appears anywhere on the first screen without scrolling.
4. Repeat on Bing for the same list, noting whether a Copilot answer appears.
5. Sort the list into three groups: answered by AI with your firm cited; answered by AI without you; and not answered by AI.
6. Act on the middle group first. For the two or three questions that trigger an AI answer without citing you, look at what the answer says and which pages it draws from. Then make sure your page on that topic states the specific facts the answer depends on — your process, a realistic timeline, local court or field office details — clearly enough to be quoted.
7. Date the sheet and repeat it in a quarter. The share moved 13 points in a year. Your list will move too.

Results will vary by day and by person; AI Overviews are not shown identically to everyone. Treat the check as a snapshot, not a scorecard.

The Bigger Picture

The Comscore report and Tuesday's experiment describe the same shift from two sides. One says AI answers now sit on top of a large and growing share of searches. The other says that when they do, fewer people click through, and the ones who do arrive further along in their decision.

For a small immigration practice, that is a reason to get specific rather than anxious. Not every client question has moved. The ones that have are knowable, listable, and fixable — one page at a time. A firm that knows exactly which of its clients' questions are now answered before its link appears is in a far better position than one still asking whether AI matters.

Clientory helps immigration law firms become visible to the families and individuals who need them most — turning AI search into consultations, and consultations into clients.

See Your AI Visibility Score → CLIENTORY.ORG