Reading time: 12 minutes
When an AI Overview shows wrong information about your company, Google’s help says to click the thumbs down and then Report a problem. But Google gives no time frame for that feedback. So, to correct wrong information on Google, change the fact at the source: your site, your Business Profile or a third-party page.
In short
- Google’s help says to report an AI Overview with the thumbs down and Report a problem, and AI Mode with the thumbs down. It gives no time frame.
- The fix that lasts happens on the source page. But check the link: in an Oumi test, only 39% of AI Overviews were correct and fully backed by their cited sources.
- In your Business Profile, an edit review usually takes up to 10 minutes, but it can take up to 30 days.
- For defamation, trademark or privacy issues, Google’s legal form has its own option for AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Why does the AI Overview show wrong information about companies?
According to Google, AI Overviews usually get it wrong for three reasons. They misread the query, misread a nuance of language on the web or lack good information. With companies, there is also a fourth case. The source itself is wrong or outdated, and the answer just repeats the error.
In May 2024, Google explained that AI Overviews were meant to show only what top web results support. The risk grows in a data void, when there is little good content on a topic. In that case, the answer may rely on one of the few pages about the question, even if it is satire.
Small companies fall into this gap more often. According to Searchable, with a thin web presence, AI has less to work with and may fill the void with guesses. In addition, the AI Mode help admits that it may misinterpret web content. For example, the answer may take the price of another plan or mix up companies with similar names.
Therefore, the first step to correct wrong information on Google is to find out where it came from. How AI chooses what to cite is covered in our guide on what GEO is.
What is the Google AI Overview error rate?
Google gives no figure for AI Overviews. In 2024, it only said their accuracy was on par with featured snippets. Outside tests, in turn, only hold for the sample they measured.
At the request of The New York Times, Oumi tested AI Overviews with about 4,000 hard factual questions from OpenAI’s SimpleQA. With Gemini 3, about 91% of the answers were correct. But only 39% were correct and fully backed by the sources they cited. Oumi sells an AI platform and used its own hallucination detector. Google disputed the study, saying SimpleQA doesn’t reflect real searches.
In the Searchable report, brands themselves reviewed 4,881 facts that AI Overviews stated about them and flagged 11.4% as false. Searchable sells AI brand monitoring, and the brands in the study use its platform.
How do you send Google feedback on a wrong AI Overview?
To tell Google about an AI Overview with wrong information, click the thumbs down at the bottom of the overview. Then click Report a problem. Next, choose the closest category and describe the error in the text field. These labels come from Google’s Search Help and may look different on screen. Your feedback includes your latest search and its results.
Google recommends filling in the text field. Be specific, because your search goes along, but the correct fact doesn’t:
- What is wrong: copy the sentence from the answer, such as “the clinic is open on Saturdays”.
- What is right: write the correct fact, for example, “the clinic is closed on Saturdays”.
- Where to check: paste the link to the official page with the correct information.
Before you submit, save the exact search, the date, a screenshot and the cited links, because the overview may change on the next search. The three-dot menu at the top of the overview also opens feedback.
Google says it uses feedback and human reviews to improve results, but the help mentions no time frame or reply. In 2024, the company also explained that it doesn’t fix queries one by one. Instead, it makes improvements for broad sets of queries and removes responses that break its policies.
What if the wrong answer shows up in AI Mode?
In AI Mode, click the thumbs down at the bottom of the response. Then choose the category and describe the error, as the AI Mode help explains.
Before you report, repeat the question in an incognito window, since AI Mode can personalize answers based on your search history. The steps for ChatGPT and other AIs are in our guide on how to report a ChatGPT error.
How do you find the page behind a wrong AI Overview?
Start with the links in the AI Overview with the wrong information, and open them one by one. In May 2026, Google announced more links inside AI responses, right next to the text each one refers to. On desktop, according to the announcement, hovering over a link shows the site name or the page title.
On the page, look for the exact sentence. According to Oumi, the link usually leads to the passage the answer claims to have used. But the page doesn’t always support what the overview says. So there are three scenarios:
- The page has the wrong fact: the fix starts there, as the next section shows.
- The page doesn’t have the fact: the answer misread it or mixed sources. Then search for the fact in quotes on Google and, with the site: operator, on your own domain.
- The answer cites a forum or social network: the same announcement includes the community or author name, which helps you find the conversation.
Also rerun the search with other words, as Google suggests, to see if the error repeats. To learn more, see how AI Mode and AI Overviews choose their sources.
How do you correct the wrong information on the source page?
The safest way to correct wrong information on Google is to change the fact where it started: on your page or on a third-party page. After all, an AI Overview with wrong information cites indexed pages, and Google only updates them when it crawls each one again.
On the company website
- State the correct fact explicitly. If AI gives your product a feature it doesn’t have, say so on the page, as in “the Basic plan doesn’t issue invoices”.
- Review old pages, PDFs and footers that still carry the wrong version.
- Update your structured data. Google asks that it match the visible text, according to its AI Features and Your Website guide.
- Request a recrawl with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.
- Use data-nosnippet on the old passage that must stay, such as a price history. Google lists this attribute among the controls that limit what Search shows from a page. The nosnippet rule, by contrast, applies to the whole page. According to Google’s documentation, it keeps the page from serving as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode.
On third-party sites
Send the site owner the correct fact and the link to the official page. Once the page changes, ask Google to refresh the result, as our guide on how to remove outdated content from Google shows. If the owner doesn’t reply, publish the correct version on your own channels.
Can Business Profile and structured data help fix it?
They help correct wrong information on Google when it involves data they control. Your Business Profile covers address, phone, hours and opening date, and Google asks you to keep it up to date for AI features. Structured data, on the other hand, isn’t required, but it should match the visible text.
When a wrong AI Overview shows old hours or an old phone number, start with your profile. According to Business Profile Help, an edit review usually takes up to 10 minutes, but sometimes up to 30 days. If Google can’t confirm the fact, the edit may show as Not approved. So update your site before you edit the profile.
Google also changes profiles based on user reports and other sources, and it shows those changes in blue in the editor. When a user suggestion needs your review, you have 4 days to accept or reject it. If you don’t reply, Google may publish it when public information, such as your website, supports it, according to the page on Google updates.
If the error comes from another company’s profile, suggest an edit to it. In structured data, Organization markup can help Google tell your company apart from others. Its taxID field takes your tax ID, such as the CNPJ, the company tax number in Brazil.
When can you file a legal removal request?
You can file one when the wrong information violates the law or your rights, as with defamation, trademark misuse or personal data. For a fact that is just outdated, the path is the source and feedback. In fact, Google asks you to try flagging the content in the product itself before a legal request.
On the Report Content for Legal Reasons page, click Create a request, choose Google Search and then AI Overviews or AI Mode. The Defamation option covers content that defames you or your business, usually a false statement that hurts your reputation. If the wrong information from the AI Overview also appears in another product, such as Maps, each product needs its own report.
Google reviews the request and may block, limit or remove access to the content, usually only in the country where it’s illegal. In addition, a copy of the notice may go to the Lumen project, which publishes removal requests without the requester’s contact details. Therefore, talk to your legal team first.
In Germany, according to the German news agency epd, a Munich court barred Google in May 2026 from spreading false claims about two publishers in AI Overviews. The AI had mixed up data on dubious companies with theirs. But the court’s press release doesn’t name the search engine, and the decision, a preliminary injunction, isn’t final. Other incidents are in our guide with real cases of AI hallucination involving companies.
How long does it take for wrong information to leave the AI Overview?
Google gives no time frame to correct wrong information in the AI Overview after feedback. The documented time frames cover the earlier steps, such as the recrawl and the Business Profile review. So fix the source first and check the result for a few weeks.
| Step | Time frame Google gives |
|---|---|
| Feedback on the AI Overview or AI Mode | None |
| Recrawl of the corrected page | A few days to a few weeks |
| Crawl after you use nosnippet or data-nosnippet | Several days to several months |
| Business Profile edit review | Usually up to 10 minutes, sometimes up to 30 days |
| User suggestion on your profile | 4 days to accept or reject |
| Legal removal request | None; Google says it tries to respond as soon as it can |
According to Google, requesting a recrawl several times doesn’t speed it up, and the request doesn’t guarantee inclusion in results. However, to correct wrong information on Google that came from a third-party site, the timing depends on the page owner.
To know if the fix worked, rerun the same searches every week in an incognito window, and log the answer and the links. After all, the answer changes from one search to the next, as our guide on how to measure brand mentions and citations in AI shows.
Frequently asked questions
No. According to Google, AI Overviews are a core Search feature and can’t be turned off. Site owners only control their own content, with nosnippet, data-nosnippet or noindex. So the answer may keep using other sources, and fixing the source is still necessary.
Yes. In 2024, Google said a large number of fake AI Overview screenshots were circulating, and it advised doing the search to check. So, before you report, repeat the search in an incognito window and log the date, the query and the answer. If the overview doesn’t appear after several tries, treat the screenshot with caution.
Not in the official pages we read. A company uses the same feedback as anyone, the Business Profile for address and hours and the legal form for cases like defamation. So, to correct wrong information on Google, the lasting path runs through the page that AI uses as a source.
Want to know how your brand shows up in AI answers today?
NotHuman is opening spots for agencies and brands to track how they appear in AI answers. Join the waitlist and we’ll let you know when a spot opens up for you.
Main sources
- Google, Find information in faster & easier ways with AI Overviews in Google Search, including how to give feedback (2026).
- Google, Get AI-powered responses with AI Mode in Google Search (2026).
- Google Search Central, AI Features and Your Website (2025).
- Google, AI Overviews: About last week, on the errors in AI Overviews (2024).
- Google, Understand what happens to your Business Profile edits (2026).
- Google, Report Content for Legal Reasons (2026).
- Oumi, study on the accuracy of AI Overviews (2026).
- Searchable, report on the false facts AI states about brands (2026).
