The data on AI Overviews and disappearing clicks

What the study measured

In July 2025 the Pew Research Center published the first large-scale study of how AI Overviews change real behaviour. Rather than a survey, it tracked the actual browsing of 900 US adults across 68,879 Google searches in March 2025 — including what people did next after each search.

Why it matters for your brand

The old model was simple: rank a page, earn the click, win the customer. That chain is breaking. When an AI Overview answers the question on the page, users are nearly twice as likely not to click — and they were more likely to end their session entirely (26% of the time, versus 16% without a summary). About 18% of all searches already trigger a summary, and Google says AI Overviews now reach roughly 1.5 billion monthly users.

The implication is blunt: if you're not named inside the answer, you may never get the visit at all. Ranking still matters — but being cited in the summary is now the visibility that counts.

What actually triggers an AI Overview

Pew also found the summaries skew toward exactly the questions buyers ask: longer, natural-language queries triggered a summary 53% of the time (versus 8% for one- or two-word searches), and question-style searches beginning with "who," "what" or "why" produced one 60% of the time. Those are the high-intent, decision-shaping queries — the ones where being the cited answer is worth the most.

The honest caveat

The study is US-only, covers one month (March 2025) and looks only at Google. Google publicly disputed the methodology, and click behaviour keeps shifting as the feature evolves. Treat the exact percentages as a strong signal of direction, not a permanent law — and pair them with your own measurement over time.

What to do about it

Being cited inside the answer comes down to the same foundations we build in every engagement: a clear entity so engines know exactly who you are, answer-ready structured content that's easy to quote, and third-party authority that signals you're a source worth naming. That's Answer Engine Optimisation — and the research on what makes content citation-worthy tells you how to earn it.

Source: Pew Research Center, "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results," 22 July 2025. Figures summarised here in our own words; read the original report.