In recent months, tens of millions of individuals around the globe have seen something recent at the highest of their Google search results — AI-generated summaries. These temporary answers, called AI Overviews, appear robotically in response to many searches, giving users a fast summary pulled from various online sources.
While it’s possible to cover these summaries, most individuals don’t. According to recent research from the Pew Research Center, many users are skipping the traditional list of links altogether. The data shows that users presented with an AI summary are much less more likely to click on the search results beneath it.
In contrast, users who weren’t shown an AI summary were twice as more likely to click on links and explore other sources. “Google users were less more 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.
This shift in behaviour suggests growing trust in AI summaries — although these summaries are known to contain errors or lack reliable sourcing. Most users “very rarely” clicked on the links provided inside the AI summary itself, Pew said. That means fewer individuals are visiting the unique sources, including news outlets and web sites that depend on web traffic to survive.
The commonest sources for Google’s AI summaries were Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube, based on the research. Government web sites also appeared more steadily in AI summaries than in traditional search results, while the presence of reports sites was concerning the same in each formats.
Longer search queries, especially those written as full sentences or questions, were more more likely to trigger AI summaries. Shorter, one- or two-word searches were less more likely to achieve this.
This change comes at a time when publishers are already under pressure. Google’s algorithm updates in 2023 and 2024 caused traffic to many news web sites to fall sharply. Some smaller outlets, like Turkey’s Gazete Duvar, were forced to shut down. Now, AI Overviews are delivering one other hit to publishers that rely upon web optimization and ad revenue.
Sites offering information like travel guides, health suggestions, 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 greater than halved in three years. The New York Times’ share of traffic from Google searches fell to 36.5% in April 2025. Business Insider cut 21% of its staff this May, blaming a pointy and uncontrollable drop in search traffic.
Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, believes this trend will only worsen. “Google is changing from a search engine to a solution engine,” he told the Wall Street Journal. He and other publishers at the moment are specializing in constructing direct relationships with readers as an alternative of counting on Google.
Google maintains that it still drives invaluable traffic to web sites and that individuals who do click links after reading AI Overviews are likely to spend more time on those pages. But the Pew data tells a distinct story. It shows that the majority users are satisfied with the AI summary and don’t click through to the unique sources.
Wikipedia, Reddit, and YouTube accounted for 15% of sources within the summaries. Government web sites were cited more often in summaries than in traditional search results. News sites made up about 5% in each formats.
One troubling case involved 404 Media, a site that covers technology and web 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 — however the summary didn’t link back to the unique story.
“The AI Overview ensures that information is presented in such a way that the source itself is rarely clicked on,” the positioning said.
This can also be reshaping how search engine optimisation works. According to The Register, click-through rates for the top-ranked lead to searches with AI Overviews have dropped by a mean of 34.5%. Being ranked on the primary page not guarantees visibility or traffic.
There’s one other issue: reliability. AI summaries could be inaccurate — and sometimes even cite other AI-generated content. In one case, 404 Media reported that a Google summary was built on one other AI-generated response, which itself was based on AI-sourced material. Experts say this creates a loop of recycled, low-quality information, which can eventually degrade the standard of AI systems themselves.
When reliable sources aren’t any longer getting traffic, and poor content circulates more easily, users are left with summaries that could be improper, vague, or missing context.
At the center of this issue is promoting, and most web sites offer free content and earn money from ads shown to readers. Google sends users to those sites, where they will view ads. But if people stay on Google — reading the AI Overview and never clicking anything — then web sites lose traffic and revenue.
Search drives much of the web’s activity. BBC reports that around 68% of web sessions begin with a search engine, and 90% of those occur on Google. That dominance has shaped how publishers earn money. Now, AI summaries could break that system.
Still, Google isn’t losing money. In fact, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, posted record revenue in late 2024. Total revenue rose 14% yr over yr to $96.4 billion, with $54.2 billion coming from promoting. That’s partly because ads at the moment are placed inside or near the AI Overviews.
A study by SparkToro found that by 2024, only 36% of Google searches within the US resulted in clicks to non-Google web sites. As AI summaries spread, that number could shrink even further.
While Google stays dominant, alternatives like Perplexity — an AI-powered search engine — are starting to achieve ground. According to Bank of America analyst Muhammad Rasulnejat, Google’s $14 billion investment in infrastructure last quarter shows “desperation within the face of competition,” not only rising demand.
Adding to the pressure is the US Department of Justice’s ongoing antitrust case against Google. The DOJ is pushing for the corporate to unload its Chrome browser, citing monopolistic behaviour. Google’s moves in AI and promoting may only deepen scrutiny within the months ahead.
(Photo by Christian Wiediger)
See also: Google launches Web Guide: A bet on AI-curated results
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