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Photo: Jonas Leupe on Unsplash
Data
Being cited is no longer being visited
When Google shows an AI summary, people click through about half as often and end their search more often. For creators and publishers, visibility and traffic have separated.
Updated
- 8%of visits with an AI summary included a click on a result, against 15% without onePew Research Center, Jul 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- 1%of visits with an AI summary included a click on a link inside the summaryPew Research Center, Jul 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- 18%of the 68,879 searches studied produced an AI summaryPew Research Center, 900 US adults, Mar 2025 (opens in a new tab)
- 25%of marketers use AI in their influencer marketing workDigiday+ Research, Jul 2026 (opens in a new tab)
What people do on a Google results page, % of visits
With an AI summaryWithout one
- Clicked a search result
- Ended the browsing session
Google called the study's methodology flawed. Survey of 900 US adults' browsing, March 2025. Source: Pew Research Center (opens in a new tab).
What still reaches people
Dinis Guarda's view of the assets that survive AI summaries, offered as a framework rather than a finding:
- Entity clarity: a structured, sourced identity that AI systems can cite correctly.
- Original knowledge: interviews, data and methods that cannot be paraphrased away.
- Direct relationships: subscribers, members and customers you can reach yourself.
- Trusted people: creators are the distribution layer search used to be.
