A new study from Pew Research Center has confirmed what many in digital media have suspected since Google’s rollout of its AI Overviews: web traffic is taking a hit. Pew found that search result pages featuring AI-generated responses—coined “AI Overviews”—saw a dramatic drop in clicks. Without them, users clicked through 15% of the time. With AI answers shoved front and center? That number was slashed nearly in half to just 8%. And when it comes to clicking the actual sources cited in the AI summaries? A measly 1% click-through rate.
The stats aren’t encouraging for content-driven brands and publishers. Researchers also found that 60% of question-based queries now trigger AI Overviews, with longer and more natural-sounding search inputs also more likely to summon the bots. Most AI citations go to platforms like Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit, leaving brands and creators outside these ecosystems even farther from the action. Worse still, users frequently end their search sessions after getting an AI response—information quality be damned.
A Google spokesperson dismissed the report, calling its methodology flawed and insisting that AI features drive more curious users to ask more questions, giving web traffic a theoretical boost.
Read more at Ars Technica.