TL;DR Summary:
AI Visibility Shift: Google Search Console is now starting to separate AI Overview and AI Mode data, but only for select users, so the real cause of lost clicks can still be hidden inside standard reports.Hidden Click Drops: A page can keep a strong ranking while traffic falls because an AI Overview may be sitting above it, and the usual clicks, impressions, CTR, and position metrics do not isolate that impact yet.Core Reports Still Matter: Indexing, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, manual actions, links, and shopping reports remain the fastest way to diagnose problems, confirm fixes, and catch penalties before they hurt traffic.Access Unchanged: User roles and verification methods have not changed, so existing Search Console setups do not require any action unless the new AI performance report appears on the account.Why did your page stop ranking with no warning? Google Search Console is the free tool that answers that question, and Google has quietly expanded what it tracks as AI Overviews and AI Mode change how search results look. That update matters right now because a page can hold a strong position and still lose clicks, and without Google Search Console you have no way to see why.
Google Search Console Now Separates AI Search Data, But Only for Some
Google has rolled out a Search Generative AI Performance report inside Google Search Console. It is in beta and only available to select users as of August 2026. This report tracks metrics tied specifically to AI Overviews and AI Mode, instead of folding them into your regular search numbers. Until you get access, your standard Performance report will keep mixing AI-driven impressions with normal search results, which can hide the real reason a page’s clicks dropped.
Standard Performance Reports in Google Search Console Still Hide AI Overview Impact
The main Performance report in Google Search Console still shows four numbers: total clicks, total impressions, average click-through rate, and average position. None of these separate out AI Overview activity. If you see a page holding position four or five with unusually low clicks, an AI Overview sitting above your listing is a likely cause. You cannot confirm this inside the standard report yet. Treat it as a signal to investigate further, not a confirmed diagnosis. This is exactly the kind of gap tools like Screpy are built to close, since it pairs your Search Console data with technical monitoring that shows whether AI crawlers and bots are even reaching the pages in question, helping you tell apart an AI Overview issue from a crawling or access problem.
Indexing, Sitemaps, and Core Web Vitals Reports Remain Your Core Diagnostic Tools
Outside of AI reporting, Google Search Console has not changed its core structure. The Page Indexing report still separates your URLs into indexed and non-indexed groups, and shows reasons like 404 errors for pages Google skipped. The Sitemaps report still shows submission dates, last-read dates, and how many pages Google discovered from each file. Core Web Vitals reporting still relies on real Chrome user data through the Chrome UX Report, not lab testing, so a fix you make today can take weeks to show up as “Good” in the report. Use Google Search Console to confirm a fix worked before assuming the problem is solved.
Manual Actions, Links, and Shopping Reports in Google Search Console Catch Penalties Early
The Manual Actions report inside Google Search Console tells you directly whether Google has penalized your site for something like unnatural backlinks. “No issues detected” means you are clear. “Issues detected” means you need to act, often by disavowing toxic links. The Links report shows your top linking domains and pages, and the Shopping reports flag structured data errors in product listings before they block rich results. None of these reports changed in this update, but they remain the fastest way to catch a problem before it costs you traffic.
User Roles and Verification in Google Search Console Stay the Same
Permission structures in Google Search Console are unchanged. Owners, full users, restricted users, and associates still have the same access levels they had before. Verification methods, including DNS records for domain properties and HTML files for URL-prefix properties, work the same way as well. If you already manage a property, nothing here requires action.
Watch for access to the new AI Performance report, and check it as soon as it appears on your account. Until then, treat any page with strong rankings but weak clicks as a possible AI Overview issue, and verify fixes through Google Search Console rather than assuming they worked. If you want visibility that goes beyond what Google Search Console currently separates out, connecting Search Console with Screpy gives you that fuller picture, tracking which AI crawlers and bots can actually access your pages alongside the standard Performance data, so ranking and click discrepancies stop being a guessing game.
