GOOGLE'S AI OVERVIEW HAS BEEN SENDING ME THE WRONG CUSTOMERS FOR 6 MONTHS

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

For 6 months, a company received angry refund requests from people who were not customers because Google's AI Overview repeatedly showed the wrong support email for a similarly named business. The issue was not a system bug but an AI hallucination that misdirected searchers, sending hundreds of frustrated users to the wrong company. The practical solution is to actively monitor Google AI Overviews for brand-related searches, downvote incorrect summaries, and test results across regions using a VPN. AI Overviews vary by country and may be correct in some territories.