Are Google AI Overviews killing your traffic? What the data says

Many business owners have noticed the same thing over the past year: rankings look fine in Google Search Console, but clicks are down. One of the biggest reasons is Google's AI Overviews, the AI-written summary that now appears above the regular results for many searches.

Here's what the research says, without the hype.

Study 1: Pew Research Center (2025)

Pew tracked the real browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. Of the 68,879 Google searches they made, 18% produced an AI summary.

• When an AI summary appeared, users clicked a regular search result on 8% of visits. Without one, they clicked on 15%.
• Users clicked a link inside the AI summary itself on just 1% of visits.
• People were more likely to end their browsing session entirely after seeing an AI summary: 26% versus 16%.

Study 2: Ahrefs (2026)

Ahrefs compared click-through rates across 300,000 keywords using aggregated Search Console data from December 2025 against a December 2023 baseline.

• When an AI Overview was present, the top-ranking page had a 58% lower average click-through rate.
• An earlier version of the same study, from April 2025, measured a 34.5% drop. The effect appears to have grown as AI Overviews spread.

Study 3: Seer Interactive (2025)

Seer looked at 3,119 search terms across 42 client organizations from June 2024 to September 2025.

• Organic click-through rate on queries with AI Overviews fell 61%, from 1.76% to 0.61%.
• Queries without AI Overviews also fell, by 41%, so not all of the drop is down to AI Overviews.
• Paid click-through rate on AI Overview queries dropped 68%.
• The important part: brands cited inside the AI Overview got 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than brands that weren't cited. Seer notes this is a correlation, not proof of cause.

What this means for your business

Three conclusions hold across all three studies:

1. Informational searches lose the most clicks. If someone wants a quick definition or a simple answer, the summary often satisfies them.
2. Being cited matters more than ranking alone. Ranking third and being quoted in the AI Overview can be worth more than ranking first and being skipped.
3. Buying-intent searches still send visitors. People comparing providers, prices and reviews still click through to decide.

How to respond

1. Check which of your pages are affected

In Google Search Console, look for pages where impressions are steady or rising but clicks are falling. Then search those queries yourself and see whether an AI Overview appears.

2. Make your page the easiest one to quote

Put a clear, direct answer near the top of the page. Use the question as a heading. Support it with specific numbers, examples and sources. AI systems favor content that is easy to extract and verify.

3. Shift effort toward buying-intent searches

Comparison pages, pricing pages, "best [service] for [situation]" pages and local service pages keep attracting clicks because the searcher needs to choose, not just learn.

4. Build brand mentions

AI Overviews tend to cite brands that are already talked about across the web. Reviews, press coverage, industry directories and genuine community mentions all help.

5. Measure more than clicks

Track leads and sales from organic search, not just sessions. Fewer but better-qualified visitors can still mean more revenue.

AI Overviews have changed SEO; they haven't ended it. The businesses that adapt are the ones the AI chooses to quote. If you'd like to know whether you're being cited for your key searches, that's exactly what the AI visibility audit covers.