Early Signals from Google's AI-Powered Search

Since the end of 2024, Google has been quietly but fundamentally reshaping how people experience search.

With AI Overviews gaining more real estate and the introduction of “AI Mode” in search results, we're starting to see a shift. Search is no longer just a pathway to websites. Increasingly, it’s becoming a self-contained experience. For brands, that raises a difficult question: what happens when Google gives users the answer so well (or simply adjusts how results are returned) that they never need to click?

At 7DOTS, we’ve started analysing performance across a sample of enterprise-level websites. The data isn’t definitive, but the patterns are emerging. Early signs suggest a clear impact on organic visibility and traffic.

More Impressions, Fewer Clicks

Across the sites we examined:

In plain terms: sites are being seen more, but clicked less.

That’s a significant shift, and one that aligns with how AI results are designed to satisfy intent directly in the SERP.

Brand vs Non-Brand: Not an Equal Impact

We broke the data down to examine whether the nature of the query affected the impact.

This reinforces the idea that informational or exploratory searches are more affected by AI summaries, whereas branded queries still drive user intent strong enough to result in clicks.

Content Type Matters Too

We also analysed performance based on the type of content being surfaced.

Across the board, click-through rates are falling. Even content recording increases in visibility isn’t converting that into traffic.

Paid Media Spend: No Protective Effect

We explored whether running Google Ads offered any insulation from this trend. The theory was that if a brand is investing more in paid search, they might see less of an organic decline due to increased share of voice or overlapping visibility.

However, when we compared organic impressions against paid impressions across accounts, we found no meaningful correlation. Clients actively spending on Google Ads were not shielded from the decline in organic click-through rate. Paid and organic performance appear to be moving independently.

Worth noting here that due to the rapid increase in AI search prominence, brands may not have had time to adjust strategically – we can assume that paying for “valuable” terms impacted by AI search results will increase in coming months.

What Does This Tell Us?

Our working hypothesis is simple (and pretty obvious): Google's increasing use of AI-generated answers is reducing the likelihood that a user will click through to a website, especially for non-branded, informational queries. These queries are increasingly resolved on the search results page itself.

This isn’t just about where you rank. It’s about how Google is using your content, and whether the user ever needs to leave the SERP.

Recommendations we’re making to our clients

This trend is only just beginning. The broader rollout of AI Mode is still underway, and search behaviour is changing fast. But there are clear actions to consider:

We’ll keep tracking these trends and sharing what we uncover.

But one thing is already clear: the way users interact with search is changing. Brands need to adapt, fast.

If this is something you’re thinking about, let's connect.

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