● The short answer
For many informational searches, yes. Pew Research found Google users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one, and Ahrefs measured a 58% lower click-through rate for the top result on queries with AI Overviews. Local, transactional and brand searches are affected less. The response is to be cited in answers and own high-intent queries.
Key takeaways
- Pew found Google users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits with an AI summary, versus 15% without.
- Ahrefs measured a 58% lower top-result click-through rate on queries with AI Overviews.
- Informational queries lose the most clicks; local, transactional and brand searches lose the least.
What the data shows
Two of the most cited studies point the same way. Pew Research Center analyzed the real browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. On visits to Google results pages with an AI summary, users clicked a traditional search result 8% of the time, compared with 15% when no summary appeared. They clicked a link inside the summary itself on just 1% of visits, and ended their browsing session more often (26% versus 16%). About 18% of searches in the sample produced an AI summary.
Ahrefs, in a February 2026 update using aggregated Search Console data for 300,000 keywords, found the top organic result had a 58% lower average click-through rate when an AI Overview was present, comparing December 2025 with a December 2023 baseline.
The audience for these summaries is huge: Google said in July 2025 that AI Overviews had more than 2 billion monthly users. So even modest per-query click losses add up.
The how is where we come in.
What we walk through with you, for your business:
- Who is affected most
- What to do about it
- Our take
Every business is different, so the plan is too. Tell us where you want to show up and we will show you what it takes.
Talk to usMore questions
Does AI search send any traffic at all?
Yes, though usually less per impression than classic results. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude all link to sources, and those visits often convert well because the visitor has already researched. Cloudflare's data shows platforms differ widely in how many visits they send back relative to how much they crawl.
My traffic dropped but leads did not. Is that normal?
It is common. AI summaries tend to absorb quick informational questions, which rarely produced customers. If high-intent pages such as services, pricing and contact are holding steady in traffic and conversions, the loss is mostly low-value visits. Keep watching commercial queries closely, since those matter most.
Sources
- Pew Research Center: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results
- Ahrefs: Update, AI Overviews reduce clicks by 58%
- TechCrunch: Google's AI Overviews have 2B monthly users, AI Mode 100M in the US and India
- Cloudflare: The crawl-to-click gap, Cloudflare data on AI bots, training, and referrals
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