Insights / Research
AI summaries cut clicks nearly in half: what Pew Research found
Pew tracked 900 U.S. adults in March 2025. Link clicks were 8% with an AI summary and 15% without. Here is what that means for a business that relies on search.
Pew Research Center looked at what people actually do when Google shows an AI-generated summary at the top of results. The study used the browsing activity of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025. These are the findings that matter for a business that depends on search.
What Pew found
- When people saw an AI summary, they clicked a traditional result link in 8% of visits. Without an AI summary, they clicked in 15% of visits.
- Clicking a link inside the AI summary itself was rare: 1% of visits to pages with a summary.
- People ended their browsing session after 26% of pages with an AI summary, compared with 16% of pages with only traditional results.
- About 18% of the Google searches in the study produced an AI summary.
- Longer and more conversational searches triggered summaries much more often: 8% of one- or two-word searches, but 53% of searches with ten words or more. 60% of searches that began with a question word such as who, what, when or why produced one.
- Most summaries cited several sources: 88% cited three or more.
Share of Google visits where the user clicked a traditional result link
How to read this
This is a single month of U.S. browsing data, so treat it as a strong signal, not a law of nature. Pew measured clicks, not sales, and it did not study small businesses specifically.
What it does show is where the risk sits. People who ask full questions are the people most likely to get an AI summary, and they click through to websites less often when they do. If your business only appears as one blue link below the summary, fewer people will reach you than before.
What we take from it
Being ranked is no longer enough. Being named or cited inside the answer is the new position to win, and that is what Answer Engine Optimization is for. It does not replace SEO. Pages still have to be found, read and trusted before an AI will cite them.
The practical steps are simple. Write pages that answer the questions your customers ask, in plain language, with the answer first. Mark them up so machines can read them. Keep your business details consistent across the web. Then measure whether it is working, with the same questions every month.
We cannot promise that any engine will name your business. We can show you where you stand today. That is what the free AI visibility audit is for.