AI search isn't just changing how people find information. It's giving them fewer reasons to visit the websites that created it. When an AI summary appears in Google search results, users click a traditional result only 8% of the time, compared with 15% when no summary appears, according to Pew Research Center data.
The impact is already extending beyond individual searches. Links cited inside AI summaries are clicked just 1% of the time. Zero-click searches now account for roughly 60% of all Google queries, rising to 69% for news-related searches, according to The Next Web, while Google search traffic to publishers fell 33% globally in the year to November 2025.
