Google Search has been going all-in on AI over the past few years, but it seems like that’s not really benefitting anyone but the user as a new study shows that searches with AI Overviews are more likely to see fewer clicked links out of Google, and also fewer further searches within Google.
Data from Pew Research Center shows that AI Overviews have a pretty big influence over user behavior in Google Search compared to traditional search results. The study, analyzing data from 900 US adults earlier this year, reveals that searches with AI Overviews are less likely to lead to further Google searches, while also significantly dropping the number of links clicked.
A few key points here include:
- Only 8% of users click a link on a page with AI Overviews vs 15% on traditional search results, a drop of nearly 50%
- Just 1% of users click on links found in AI Overviews
- 26% of searches with AI Overviews are the end of usage on Google Search, with users ending the browsing session following the summary, up from 16% in traditional search
Those initial points line up with complaints from publishers in recent months, as many have noticed significant drops in traffic coming from Search. Google, meanwhile, has repeatedly mentioned how it “prominently” shows links, but this study seems to show that people just are not clicking them.
Google, responding to the study, told The Register and others that “people are gravitating” towards AI features in Search and disputes Pew’s methodology.
People are gravitating to AI-powered experiences, and AI features in Search enable people to ask even more questions, creating new opportunities for people to connect with websites. This study uses a flawed methodology and skewed queryset that is not representative of Search traffic. We consistently direct billions of clicks to websites daily and have not observed significant drops in aggregate web traffic as is being suggested.
To Google’s last point, The Economist recently highlighted data from SimilarWeb that shows “traffic to more than 100m web domains, estimates that worldwide search traffic (by humans) fell by about 15% in the year to June [2025].” That’s pretty significant. Google, in that same article, reiterated that it has not noticed a “dramatic decline” in outbound clicks, but wouldn’t share data. Again, the study from Pew seems to suggest that, yes, there is quite a major decline in outbound clicks when AI Overviews are used, at least looking at its limited data set.
While AI Overviews continue to have a major impact on publishers and the web as a whole, Google’s rebuttal around users “gravitating” towards it AI features seems true. Creative Strategies CEO Ben Bajarin shared data that showed that 66% of survey respondents found Google’s AI Mode – now widely available – more helpful than traditional Search, and these users apparently knew the difference between AI Mode and Overviews. Publishers previously called AI Mode the “definition of theft.”
What do you think of AI Overviews and Google’s other AI-powered changes to Search? Have they changed your usage? Let us know!
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