Google users are significantly less likely to click on website links when artificial intelligence-generated summaries appear at the top of search results, according to a new study that provides concrete evidence of declining web traffic blamed on the tech giant’s AI features.
The Pew Research Center study, released Tuesday, found that users clicked on traditional search result links just 8% of the time when Google’s “AI Overviews” were present, compared to 15% when they were absent — a nearly 50% reduction in click-through rates.
The research tracked the actual browsing behavior of 900 US adults during March 2025, representing one of the first comprehensive analyses of how Google’s AI summaries affect web traffic. About 58% of participants encountered at least one AI-generated summary during their Google searches that month.
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The findings support widespread complaints from online publishers who say Google’s AI features are diverting traffic away from their websites. Users also rarely clicked on source links within the AI summaries themselves, doing so in just 1% of cases.
“Google users are more likely to end their browsing session entirely after visiting a search page with an AI summary,” the study found, with 26% of users stopping their search after encountering an AI overview compared to 16% on pages with traditional results only.
Google introduced AI Overviews in May 2024, making them available to millions of US users. The feature appears in about 18% of all Google searches, according to the study, and typically cites three or more sources while averaging 67 words in length.
In response to the findings, Google disputed the study’s methodology, telling The Register that the research used “a flawed methodology and skewed queryset that is not representative of Search traffic.” The company maintains it “consistently directs billions of clicks to websites daily.”
The study adds to growing concerns about the impact of AI on the web ecosystem, as content creators and publishers worry about lost advertising revenue from reduced website visits. Industry analysts have warned that AI-dominated search results could fundamentally reshape how information is consumed online.
Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit were the most frequently cited sources in both AI summaries and traditional search results, collectively accounting for about 15% of all cited sources in the study.
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