A recent Pew Research Center report examines Google’s AI Overviews feature—AI‑generated summaries displayed at the top of search results—and finds it significantly alters user behavior. In March 2025, 58% of surveyed U.S. adults encountered at least one AI Overview. On pages with these summaries, users clicked traditional search links only 8% of the time, compared to 15% without AI Overviews. Just 1% clicked links cited in the AI summaries.
Users were also more likely to end their search session immediately—26% did so versus 16% for regular results. Although these AI summaries often reference reputable sources like Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube, or government sites, most users do not visit those sources. The practice is raising concerns among publishers and open‑web advocates, who argue it undermines web traffic and content discovery. The share of searches generating AI Overviews increases with query complexity: appearing in only 8% of one‑ or two‑word searches, but in 53% of ten‑word queries or questions starting with "who," "what," "when," or "why."
