Google’s “AI Overviews,” those handy summaries that pop up at the top of many search results, have been a hot topic since their introduction last year. Google designed this feature to give you quick answers. However, a recent report from the Pew Research Center sheds light on how these Google’s AI summaries could actually be reducing clicks to links in search results.
Users click less on links for search results with Google’s AI-powered summaries
The study, which looked at the browse habits of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025, found some fascinating trends. First off, a significant portion of users (58%) encountered an AI summary during their Google searches. But here’s the kicker: when an AI summary appeared, they were noticeably less likely to click on links to other websites. In fact, clicks on traditional search results dropped by nearly half on search results with AI summaries (8% of visits compared to 15% without one). Even more striking, users rarely clicked on the source links within the AI summary itself, with only 1% of visits leading to a click there.
This suggests that for many, the AI summary is providing enough information to satisfy their query directly on Google’s search page. The report also found that users were more likely to end their Browse session entirely after seeing a search page with an AI summary (26% of visits) compared to pages without one (16%). It seems these AI summaries are often the final destination for a search, rather than a gateway to more browsing.
So, where do these AI summaries get their information? The study found that Wikipedia, YouTube, and Reddit are among the most frequently cited sources, both in AI overviews and traditional search results. Government websites also get a notable boost in visibility within AI summaries, appearing more often there than in standard results. News websites, however, appear equally in both formats.
Google claims otherwise
The result contradicts Google’s claims regarding the benefits of AI Overviews. The company claims that these AI-powered summaries lead to higher-quality clicks. They also claim that more websites have a better chance of getting clicks from the complementary links in each search result. However, for one reason or another, users are turning to these links less.
It’s also interesting to note what kinds of searches are more likely to trigger an AI summary. The report indicates that longer searches, especially those with ten or more words, tend to generate these AI answers more frequently. Similarly, searches that are phrased as questions—starting with “who,” “what,” “when,” or “why”—are more likely to generate an AI summary. Also those queries that use full sentences.
Overall, about one in five Google searches in the study produced an AI summary. Most of these summaries were quite thorough, citing three or more sources. While helpful for getting quick answers, this new behavior points to a significant shift in how we consume information online. It could potentially impact websites and content creators who rely on clicks from search engines. And, in fact, there are publishers who claim that this is already happening.
The post Google AI Summaries Are ‘Killing’ Your Clicks, New Study Suggests appeared first on Android Headlines.
