A featured snippet is a short, direct answer that Google extracts from a web page and displays in a highlighted box at the top of search results. It was an early form of answer engine: Google answering a question in place rather than only listing links.
For brands, featured snippets are relevant to AI visibility because the content that earns them, concise, well-structured, directly answering a clear question, is the same content that AI assistants extract and cite. Optimizing for snippets and optimizing for AI answers reward the same answer-first, well-organized writing. The skills carry over, which makes snippet-friendly content a useful foundation for broader AI visibility.