Web traffic collapses as AI steps in: Google is changing how we click

Pew study finds AI summaries shut down curiosity and reduce link clicks, raising alarms among publishers, educators, and creators over falling traffic and shrinking visibility

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Google’s push into AI-powered search is reshaping the internet—and not in the way publishers or web creators might have hoped.

 

A new study by the Pew Research Centre, which examined the online behaviour of 900 US adults, reveals that Google’s AI Overviews, the automatically generated summaries now appearing in many search results, are drastically reducing the number of users who click through to traditional websites.

 

That means less traffic for publishers, fewer pageviews for advertisers, and a growing concern over who benefits from AI-enabled search.

 

Do users click less on links when AI summaries appear?

 

In March 2025, only 8 per cent of searches featuring an AI Overview resulted in a link click, Pew found. That’s nearly half the rate of searches without the feature. And even when AI summaries do include citations, users rarely interact with them—just 1 per cent clicked on any embedded link.

 

The data points to a fundamental shift in user behaviour. Google’s AI is not just organising information—it’s becoming the destination.

 

“This is a classic case of convenience cannibalising discovery,” said one digital strategy analyst quoted in the Pew study. “If users get what they need in a sentence or two, there’s no reason to click further—and that’s a revenue black hole for anyone not named Google.”

 

Is AI replacing traditional website visits?

 

Beyond clicks, Pew’s research found that 26 per cent of users who encountered an ‘AI Overview’ ended their browsing session immediately, compared to 16 per cent when no AI content appeared.

 

The implication: AI is not just answering questions; it is shutting down curiosity. The findings also suggest that AI-generated content may be doing more than simply guiding users. It may be replacing the need to visit external websites altogether.

 

For content creators, the concern is not just about fewer eyes—it is about fewer opportunities to engage, explain, and build trust.

 

Which sources are cited most by Google’s AI Overviews?

 

Pew also analysed the types of sources most frequently cited in AI Overviews. Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit collectively accounted for 15 per cent of citations, with Wikipedia appearing more frequently in AI content than in standard search results (where the three sites combined made up 17 per cent).

 

Government websites appeared three times more often than in traditional search results.

 

News outlets, meanwhile, saw no increase, holding steady at 5 per cent.

 

That uneven distribution raises questions about source diversity and editorial bias. AI Overviews appear to be prioritising broadly accepted or authoritative sources, but potentially at the cost of lesser-known publishers.

 

When does Google trigger an AI Overview in search?

 

Interestingly, AI Overviews are not triggered across the board. Only 18 per cent of all searches in the study included an AI summary. The more specific the query, the more likely the AI feature activates. Searches with ten or more words triggered AI summaries 53 per cent of the time, compared to just 8 per cent for short queries.

 

Full, question-style queries—such as those beginning with ‘what’ or ‘why’—were also more likely to prompt an AI response.

 

On average, AI Overviews were around 67 words long, though they ranged anywhere from seven words to a more detailed 369-word response.

 

Will AI summaries hurt publishers and educators long term?

 

AI Overviews offer convenience and speed for users. While there is no suggestion that users are learning less, it does seem they are, increasingly, learning differently—and from fewer sources. That shift could have long-term consequences for how knowledge is produced, distributed and monetised.

 

For the wider internet ecosystem, however, this has raised alarms—especially newsrooms, educators, and independent websites. Reduced traffic means reduced visibility and, for many, declining revenue.

 

Google is making search faster, but it may also be undermining the very ecosystem that makes the web useful.