Search has long helped people navigate the web by connecting their questions with websites that could help provide answers. For publishers, it is an important source of discovery and referral traffic. However, AI-generated answers are changing that relationship. Google AI Overviews (AIO) answer queries directly within search results, reducing the need for users to click through to websites providing the underlying information. And, even when AI Overviews cite their sources, those links recover only a small fraction of the outbound traffic lost. 

New experimental research from Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen provides a direct look at how AI Overviews are changing search behavior. The researchers recruited 1,065 U.S. desktop users and randomly assign them to different versions of Google Search. Participants conducted their own searches as usual. One group saw Google normally, including an AI Overview whenever Google generated one. For another group, a browser extension was used to remove the AIO but left the traditional search results in place. The researchers then compared clicking behavior across the two randomly assigned groups. 

AI Overviews reduce outbound clicks 

The difference is substantial. When Google generates an AI Overview, users make 39.8% fewer outbound organic clicks when the AIO appears than when users do not see it. The likelihood of a zero-click search also increases 34.5%. These findings apply specifically to searches that trigger an AIO, not to Google searches overall. 

During the experiment, AIOs appear in about 41% of all searches. Across all searches, including those without an AIO, the estimated reduction in outbound organic clicks is about 18.5%. 

Informational searches face the greatest exposure. These queries seek information or answers rather than a specific website or an action, such as making a purchase. Informational queries account for 71% of searches, and Google generates an AIO for 53% of them. AIOs appear on 15% of transactional searches, where users intend to take an action, such as making a purchase. They appear on just 6% of navigational searches, where users are trying to reach a particular website or page. 

AIO citations recover little traffic 

AI Overviews can include links to source material, but users rarely click them. The authors found that among outbound clicks on search pages where an AIO appears, only 7.1% come from links within the AI-generated answer. The remaining 92.9% come from traditional organic results on the same search page. 

These clicks represent a smaller pool of traffic, since the presence of an AIO already reduced outbound organic clicking by 39.8%. AIO citations therefore account for only a small portion of the outbound traffic that remains when an AI Overview appears. 

Fewer clicks, with no increase in satisfaction 

The reduction in outbound clicks does not correspond with more engaged visits. Users spend similar amounts of time on external sites and return to Google at similar rates with or without an AIO. 

Users also report no measurable improvement in their search experience when an AIO appears. Overall satisfaction, perceived search quality, and ease of finding information remain largely unchanged. 

A changing role for search 

Several important questions remain unanswered, including what happens on mobile and whether the effects differ across content categories. The findings also do not establish whether appearing as an AIO source helps recover a meaningful portion of lost organic traffic. 

For publishers, the findings point to a fundamental change in the role of search. Search has long helped audiences discover information by directing them to the websites that produce it. However, AI Overviews allow Google to provide this information within search while sending fewer users to external sites. As AI-generated answers expand, publishers face declining referral traffic and fewer opportunities to build audiences through search. Identifying the scale of this shift is critical for publishers that have long relied on search for audience discovery and growth. It also increases the need for publishers to develop other sources of audience discovery and growth beyond search.