The rise of AI-generated search answers has raised concerns that fewer people click through to websites. Research has found lower click rates when AI summaries appear, while Google maintains that overall clicks are stable; publishers in the United States and Europe have filed lawsuits and complaints.[1][2][3]
Click research
A 2025 Pew Research Center study analyzed the browsing of 900 U.S. adults across 68,879 Google searches in March 2025.[1]
| Measure | With an AI summary | Without |
|---|---|---|
| Clicked a traditional search result | 8% of visits | 15% of visits |
| Ended the browsing session | 26% of visits | 16% of visits |
| Clicked a link inside the summary | About 1% of visits | — |
About 18% of the searches produced an AI summary, rising to 53% for searches of ten or more words, and Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit were the most frequently cited sources.[1]
Google's position
In August 2025 Google said that total organic click volume from Search to websites had been relatively stable year over year, that it was sending slightly more "quality clicks" where users do not quickly return to the results, and that third-party reports inaccurately suggested dramatic declines.[2] Google has also said AI Overviews increased usage by more than 10% for queries that show them in large markets such as the U.S. and India.[4]
Lawsuits and complaints
In February 2025 the education company Chegg sued Google under U.S. antitrust law, saying AI Overviews hurt its traffic and revenue.[5] In September 2025 Penske Media, owner of Rolling Stone, Billboard and Variety, became the first major U.S. publisher to sue Google over AI Overviews, alleging that Google uses its journalism without consent; Google called the claims meritless.[3] News Corp's Dow Jones and New York Post sued Perplexity in 2024, alleging large-scale copying of their content.[6]
In June 2025 the Independent Publishers Alliance filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, alleging that publishers cannot opt out of AI Overviews without losing their presence in Google Search.[7]
UK regulation
In October 2025 the UK Competition and Markets Authority designated Google as having strategic market status in general search, confirming that AI Overviews and AI Mode fall within that designation.[8] In June 2026 it announced requirements that let publishers opt out of having their content used to power Google's AI search features and require clear, linked attribution.[9]
AI and news
The Reuters Institute's 2025 Digital News Report found that 7% of people used AI chatbots for news each week, rising to 15% of those under 25, and that publishers feared AI summaries would further reduce traffic.[10]
References
- ^ ^ ^ Chapekis, Athena; Lieb, Anna (July 22, 2025). "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results". Pew Research Center. pewresearch.org
- ^ ^ Reid, Liz (August 6, 2025). "AI in Search is driving more queries and higher quality clicks". Google. blog.google
- ^ ^ Soni, Aditya (September 15, 2025). "Rolling Stone, Billboard Owner Penske Sues Google Over AI Overviews". Reuters (via Claims Journal). claimsjournal.com
- ^ Reid, Elizabeth (May 20, 2025). "AI in Search: Going beyond information to intelligence". Google. blog.google
- ^ Novet, Jordan; Elias, Jennifer (February 24, 2025). "Chegg sues Google for hurting traffic with AI as it considers strategic alternatives". CNBC (via NBC Connecticut). nbcconnecticut.com
- ^ Coldewey, Devin (October 21, 2024). "'Content kleptocracy': News Corp outlets sue Perplexity over scraped stories". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com
- ^ Deutscher, Maria (July 4, 2025). "Publisher group files EU antitrust complaint against Google over AI Overviews". SiliconANGLE. siliconangle.com
- ^ "CMA confirms Google has strategic market status in search services". UK Competition and Markets Authority, October 10, 2025. gov.uk
- ^ "CMA secures fairer deal for publishers and improves Google search services in UK". UK Competition and Markets Authority, June 3, 2026. gov.uk
- ^ Newman, Nic (June 17, 2025). "Overview and key findings of the 2025 Digital News Report". Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk