How is AI changing long-tail search behaviour?

People are increasingly using longer and more specific search queries when researching products, services, and everyday questions.

A Brainlabs study of 1.35 million UK keywords found that entertainment head-term searches declined by 16% over two years, while long-tail queries grew by 62%.

The study also found that longer queries were two to three times more likely to trigger AI Overviews than shorter search terms.

Consider someone researching a new laptop. They might start with a broad search for laptops and then ask about battery life, performance for specific applications, or comparisons between models.

These detailed questions are exactly where AI-generated summaries are appearing more frequently.

For content teams, this makes it useful to track which long-tail queries trigger AI Overviews and how those results affect organic traffic.

Have you noticed a shift toward longer search queries in your Google Search Console data?