ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity are giving users quick, direct answers without sending them to publisher sites. And if people stop clicking through, what happens to the ads, affiliate links and sponsorships that keep the online running?
With Google and others doubling down on AI-driven results, the way in which people discover and interact with content is shifting fast. So what does that mean for marketers and publishers who’ve long relied on traffic and clicks?
Let’s break down what’s happening now — and explore 3 ways this might play out next.
The real numbers behind AI’s impact
AI’s effect on the open web isn’t hypothetical — it’s already visible in the info. Google’s promoting revenue continues to grow, reaching $348.15 billion in 2024, but the expansion rate is slowing. Year-over-year gains fell to 13.9% between 2023 and 2024, down from 41.3% in the course of the pandemic.
Broader economic aspects played a task, however the trend also reflects fewer clicks and Google’s struggle to monetize AI-powered search features.
Publishers are seeing even sharper declines. In September 2025, DMG Media reported an 89% drop in click-through rates, directly attributing it to AI Overviews because the cause. Zero-click searches now make up nearly 60% of Google’s mobile queries and AI Overviews appear for roughly 30% of processed searches.
Informational publishers are hit hardest, as their content is usually summarized before users have a reason to go to their sites. The Guardian recently noted that sites previously ranked first can lose as much as 79% of traffic when pushed below an AI Overview — a trend some outlets describe as a “traffic apocalypse.”
Dig deeper: Why content-driven branding is the true fix for zero-click traffic loss
How AI is reshaping the economics of the open web
Publisher pressures
AI search is a specific problem for paywalled publishers that depend on subscriptions. Now, because users get answers without ever reaching a publisher’s site, they never hit the paywall and never turn out to be subscribers.
The result’s a quieter, more invisible type of loss. Users don’t realize what content isn’t getting used to generate their answers and publishers that lock down too aggressively risk losing reach, voice and influence.
Subscription fatigue only exacerbates the challenge, as consumers juggle multiple paid media services and will not perceive the worth in text-based content alone.
Sponsored content faces its own risks.
While it should still influence users, attribution will turn out to be more difficult as AI platforms surface insights without directing traffic back to the source. Engagement may appear to come back from AI providers as a substitute of the publisher, creating one other measurement gap in an extended line of industry-wide data erosion.
The decline of ad-based models — and the way publishers can respond
If users no longer visit publisher sites, they won’t see display ads, click affiliate links, or trigger video streams. Fewer impressions push CPMs down, affiliate revenue drops as AI responses rarely include those links and video ad inventory shrinks as fewer people load video-heavy pages.
To stay viable, publishers may have to rethink how they monetize and deliver value in an AI-driven environment. Subscriptions should still work, but they should offer greater than just text — similar to exclusive tools, unique data, or bundled services.
So, publishers may have to explore partnerships with AI platforms, put money into first-party data, or shift toward metrics that measure influence and visibility quite than clicks. Sponsored content and affiliate programs aren’t necessarily doomed, but they’ll require recent approaches. This may include:
- Working directly with AI providers to make sure proper attribution.
- Integrating services more deeply into the publisher’s own ecosystem.
- Experimenting with formats which can be more difficult for AI to abstract away.
Publishers that diversify revenue, test emerging models and find ways to remain visible in AI-driven environments will likely be much better positioned than those that double down on legacy tactics.
Dig deeper: Why evergreen content expires faster in an AI search world — and what to do about it
Search engine pressures
Search engines face a direct threat as AI answers reduce the necessity for traditional search behavior. PPC promoting stays their primary revenue source. This dependency is precisely why firms like Google delayed releasing their AI technologies until competitors forced their hand.
Google has been developing similar capabilities for years, but its business model is tightly tied to clicks across its properties. AI-generated answers don’t produce those clicks, leaving Google with powerful technology that undermines its own revenue engine. Microsoft’s Bing faces similar constraints, while smaller players like DuckDuckGo or Brave may have the opportunity to adapt more quickly.
Zero-click behavior may also speed up. Google created much of this dynamic long before the arrival of generative AI through the introduction of featured snippets. Now, AI Overviews and AI chatbots amplify it. Whether users adopt AI-driven search features like Google’s AI Mode or bypass search engines like google and yahoo entirely for standalone AI tools, fewer clicks will likely be generated across the board — a transparent revenue threat for each search provider.
The trajectory is obvious: over time, more queries will shift to AI platforms that provide direct answers, quite than links. Advertiser confidence may erode as search audiences shrink.
If fewer people depend on search engines like google and yahoo, advertisers won’t have the opportunity to succeed in the identical volume of users at the identical cost. Search engines will need recent monetization paths before this tipping point arrives.
Supporting search verticals like maps, news and shopping may also feel the impact as AI tools begin producing richer, more connected answers that further reduce traditional search traffic.
The weakening of search ad models — and the way engines may adapt
Traditional PPC ads face declining clicks and impressions, which reduces ROI for advertisers and shrinks revenue for engines like Google. Display promoting suffers from similar reasons.
If publisher sites receive less traffic, partner sites across the Google Display Network generate fewer impressions — an issue for each Google and the publishers themselves.
As AI becomes more integrated into each day online behavior, promoting competition will diversify.
Advertisers will likely use a wider mixture of platforms, resulting in an internet that’s more distributed and fewer dominated by any single search giant. That’s healthy for the ecosystem but difficult for firms like Google, whose dominance relies on controlling the paths users take to information.
Search engines will increasingly need to operate as AI platform leaders, not only retrieval systems. While Google, Bing and others are developing AI tools to maintain pace with OpenAI and Anthropic, the challenge goes beyond technology. Their organizational structures and revenue models must evolve quickly — a challenge that enormous firms often struggle with.
Even if tools like Google AI Mode or Gemini improve, the larger query is whether or not these firms can restructure fast enough to remain relevant.To survive, search engines like google and yahoo will need recent revenue channels. Traditional PPC and display ads won’t be sufficient. Engines may explore premium AI subscriptions, paid features, or ads embedded directly into AI responses.
Sponsored AI content and AI-native ad formats could replace click-based models. Measurement might want to shift as well, with greater emphasis on engagement, brand lift and conversions quite than impressions or CPC. Ultimately, flexibility will determine which platforms endure.
Large engines must overcome legacy systems that slow adaptation, while smaller or newer entrants may have the opportunity to innovate more aggressively. Experimentation, careful tracking of user behavior and deeper integration of AI features will likely be critical in shaping the following generation of search.
Dig deeper: AI is rewriting visibility within the zero-click search era
Scenario planning: What different levels of AI adoption mean
AI adoption won’t rise evenly across all users or all query types. Different levels of reliance on AI answers will create very different outcomes for publishers and search engines like google and yahoo. The scenarios below outline how the landscape could shift as adoption accelerates.
Scenario 1: 30% AI query adoption (current)
AI already generates snippets for nearly a 3rd of search queries, primarily for easy informational questions similar to “the way to do X” or “what are the ingredients for Y.”
Publisher impact
- Display ad revenue drops sharply for informational and news sites.
- Advertisers running display campaigns also see weaker returns.
- Affiliate revenue declines.
- Publishers with unique evaluation or exclusive data hold onto more traffic and will earn AI citations, but still take successful.
- Newsletters regain importance as publishers deal with direct audience relationships.
Search engine impact
- Google maintains its lead, but margins are tightening — for Google and its advertisers.
- PPC stays resilient for commercial-intent queries.
Most vulnerable
- “How to” sites, news aggregators, mainstream news outlets and basic product review sites.
Scenario 2: 55% AI query adoption (medium term)
AI now satisfies greater than half of all queries. Traditional search becomes secondary for task-focused needs, pushing marketers to search out recent ways to advertise their clients as search loses profitability.
Publisher impact
- Ad-dependent publishers lose 40-60% of their search traffic, which for a lot of is their primary source of visits.
- Subscription models falter because users never hit the paywall — AI pulls useful snippets directly into results.
- Brands with strong recognition or exclusive first-party data retain more traffic.
- Small and mid-sized publishers begin consolidating or closing because content creation no longer generates sufficient revenue.
Search engine impact
- Paid search revenue drops significantly.
- Display network partners face severe declines.
- At this stage, search engines like google and yahoo may pursue licensing deals with major publishers, though it’s unclear whether the economics would work for either side.
Most vulnerable
- Mid-sized news outlets.
- Niche publishers in areas like travel, health and finance.
- Affiliate-heavy sites.
Scenario 3: 85% AI query adoption (long run)
AI becomes the first interface for locating, retrieving and consuming information. AI platforms — whether search-integrated or standalone — share dominance at the size Google currently holds. Traditional search stays limited to specific use cases, very similar to information-retrieval methods after the emergence of web optimization.
Publisher impact
- Traditional publishing business models collapse.
- Only premium subscription publishers with intensely loyal audiences survive in familiar form.
- Content creation shifts toward licensing deals as publishers act more like data suppliers than consumer-facing brands.
Search engine impact
- Paid search, as we comprehend it, disappears or transforms a lot that “PPC” no longer applies — there aren’t many clicks.
- Revenue moves to AI subscriptions, licensing and sponsored responses.
- AI-first firms like OpenAI and Anthropic gain major market share unless Google dramatically improves its AI offerings.
What survives
- Investigative journalism with strong institutional support, highly specialized publishers with energetic expert communities, entertainment brands with strong social reach and commerce-integrated publishing platforms.
- Few of those commerce-connected models exist on the obligatory scale today, suggesting a major shift within the publishing landscape ahead.
Emerging AI-native revenue models
Traditional online advertising could also be losing momentum, but recent revenue models are already emerging.
AI platform promoting
As more platforms adopt AI, they’re weaving it directly into their ad systems. A recent CNN report showed Meta racing to merge its AI chatbot with business activity — the headline put it bluntly: “Meta will soon use your conversations with its AI chatbot to sell you stuff.”
For now, meaning AI chats fuel traditional ads. The real query is how long until the model flips and AI becomes the first promoting engine. Perplexity began testing integrated ads in November 2024, and multiple reports indicate that OpenAI will soon follow suit. Everyone is rushing to integrate AI with monetization. Who wins continues to be anyone’s guess.
Dig deeper: AI search is collapsing the B2B buyer journey
Content licensing agreements
In May 2024, News Corp signed a take care of OpenAI to bring premium journalism into its models. It’s one example of a growing trend: major publishers partnering with AI firms to remain relevant. These deals reflect an easy reality — adapt or fade out.
Beyond traditional models: Large publisher adaptation
ChatGPT has already proved that individuals pays for AI subscriptions. On Nov. 6, 2025, CNBC reported that OpenAI is heading in the right direction to surpass $20 billion in annualized revenue. Other players, like Anthropic with Claude, are seeing similar traction. (To be clear, the revenue from subscriptions, partnerships and, possibly, promoting is nowhere near meeting these firms’ burn rates.)
Large publishers with loyal audiences and unique data profit essentially the most. They’re using AI to amplify their research, streamline production and differentiate their content. Those with proprietary datasets will survive. Those who depend on recycled or syndicated information face a harsh reckoning.
Traditional web optimization conditioned publishers to aggregate other people’s data for traffic. In the following era, value-add becomes non-negotiable. Critics speak about “AI slop,” but much human-produced content has been recycled slop for years. In some ways, AI is forcing the industry to confront an issue it created.
Preparing for an AI-shaped information economy
AI is on a gentle path toward becoming the first method people access information. These shifts unfold over years, however the pace is accelerating. Prepare for an information landscape shaped by AI. Whether we welcome it or not, the transition is underway — and everybody might want to adapt.
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