In recent months, millions of people around the world have seen something new at the top of their Google search results – AI-generated summaries. The brief answers, called AI Overviews, appear automatically in response to many searches, giving users a quick summary pulled from various online sources.
While it’s possible to hide these summaries, most people don’t. According to new research from Pew Research, many users are skipping the traditional list of links altogether. The data shows that users presented with an AI summary are much less likely to click on the search results beneath it.
In contrast, users who weren’t shown an AI summary were twice as likely to click on links and explore other sources. “Google users were less likely to click on result links when visiting search pages with an AI summary compared with those without one,” Pew wrote, based on data from over 900 participants who shared their browsing activity.
The shift in behaviour suggests growing trust in AI summaries – even though these summaries are known to contain errors or lack reliable sourcing. Most users “very rarely” clicked on the links provided in the AI summary itself, Pew said. That means fewer people are visiting the original sources, including news outlets and websites that rely on web traffic to survive.
The most common sources for Google’s AI summaries were Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube, according to the research. Government websites also appeared more frequently in AI summaries than in traditional search results, while the presence of news sites was about the same in both formats.
Longer search queries, especially those written as full sentences or questions, were more likely to trigger AI summaries. Shorter, one- or two-word searches were less likely to do so.
The change comes at a time when publishers are already under pressure. Google’s algorithm updates in 2023 and 2024 caused traffic to many news websites to fall sharply, as Google began to present news directly in search results pages. Some smaller outlets, like Turkey’s Gazete Duvar, were forced to shut down.
Now, AI Overviews are delivering another hit to publishers that depend on SEO and ad revenue. Sites offering information like travel guides, health tips, or product reviews have been especially affected. According to data from Similarweb, organic search traffic dropped 55% between April 2022 and April 2025.
The Wall Street Journal reported that HuffPost, the Washington Post, and other major news outlets have seen similar declines. At HuffPost, traffic from organic search has more than halved in three years. The NYT‘s share of traffic from Google searches fell to 36.5% in April 2025. Business Insider cut 21% of its staff this May, blaming a sharp and uncontrollable drop in search traffic.
Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, believes the trend will only get worse. “Google is changing from a search engine to an answer engine,” he told the Wall Street Journal. He and other publishers are now focusing on building direct relationships with readers instead of relying on Google.
Google maintains that it still drives valuable traffic to websites and that people who do click links after reading AI Overviews tend to spend more time on those pages. But the Pew data tells a different story. It shows that most users are satisfied with the AI summary and don’t click through to the original sources.
One troubling case involved 404 Media, a site that covers technology and internet culture. It found that a story it published about AI-assisted music production wasn’t appearing in Google search results. The content had been summarised in an AI Overview – but the summary didn’t link back to the original story.
“The AI Overview ensures that information is presented in such a way that the source itself is never clicked on,” the site said.
The situation is also reshaping how search engine optimisation works. According to The Register, click-through rates for the top-ranked result in searches with AI Overviews have dropped by an average of 34.5%. Being ranked on the first page no longer guarantees visibility or traffic.
There’s another issue: reliability. AI summaries can be inaccurate – and can cite other AI-generated content. In one case, 404 Media reported that a Google summary was built on another AI-generated response, which itself was based on AI-sourced material. Experts say this creates a loop of recycled, low-quality information, which will eventually degrade the quality of AI systems themselves.
When reliable sources are no longer getting traffic, and poor content circulates more easily, users are left with summaries that may be wrong, vague, or missing context.
At the heart of the issue is advertising, and most websites offer free content and earn money from ads shown to readers. Google sends users to these sites, where they can view ads. But if people stay on Google – reading the AI Overview and not clicking anything – then websites lose traffic and revenue.
Search drives much of the internet’s activity. The BBC reports that around 68% of internet sessions begin with a search engine, and 90% of those happen on Google. That dominance has shaped how publishers earn money. Now, AI summaries could break that system.
Still, Google isn’t losing money. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, posted record revenue in late 2024. Total revenue rose 14% year over year to $96.4 billion, with $54.2 billion coming from advertising. That’s partly because ads are now placed in or near the AI Overviews.
A study by SparkToro found that by 2024, only 36% of Google searches in the US resulted in clicks to websites with no Google elements such as ads. As AI summaries spread, that number could shrink further.
While Google remains dominant, alternatives like Perplexity – an AI-powered search engine – are starting to gain ground. According to Bank of America analyst Muhammad Rasulnejat, Google’s $14 billion investment in infrastructure last quarter shows “desperation in the face of competition,” not just rising demand.
Adding to the pressure is the US Department of Justice’s ongoing antitrust case against the company. The DOJ is pushing for Google to sell off its Chrome browser, citing monopolistic behaviour. Google’s moves in AI and advertising may only deepen scrutiny in the months ahead.
(Photo by Christian Wiediger)
See also: Google launches Web Guide: A bet on AI-curated results
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