Google's generated summary shown above classic results. It synthesizes several sources and links a handful of citations; pages cited in it receive visibility even when they rank below the fold, and pages that are not cited can lose clicks even when they rank first.
Google describes AI Overviews as able to use query fan-out: several related searches across subtopics, run to gather supporting pages. To appear as a supporting link, Google states that a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet, and that there are no additional technical requirements.
Snippet controls such as nosnippet, max-snippet and data-nosnippet apply to AI Overviews too, so a page that restricts its snippets also restricts how it can appear there. Google counts traffic from its AI features within the overall Search figures in Search Console rather than reporting it separately.
Example
For a query such as "how much does an SEO audit cost in India", an AI Overview may answer above the results and link a few of the pages it drew on. A page that answers that exact question in its first two sentences is a stronger candidate than a general page about audits.
Related terms
Where seodada covers it
AI Visibility checks up to 20 keywords at a time and records whether an AI Overview appeared, whether your domain was cited and which sources were cited instead. The AEO guide covers how to structure answers.