A Pew Research Center study indicates that AI overviews in Google search results are transforming user engagement patterns, often to the detriment of online publishers. With 58% of users encountering AI summaries, only 8% click traditional links when summaries are present, down from 15% in their absence. Moreover, merely 1% engage with links within the AI summaries. Users also tend to terminate browsing sessions more frequently after AI summary encounters, with 26% doing so compared to 16% on standard results. This shift underscores a growing reliance on summaries over original content.
According to a Pew Research Center study published this spring, users are significantly less likely to click on links when an AI-generated summary appears at the top of the search page.
58% of participants encountered at least one search result with an AI summary, leading to a drop in user interaction with links.
The study found that users were more likely to end their session entirely after encountering a page with an AI summary, occurring on 26% of such pages.
AI summaries correlate with a majority of searches ending without any link clicks, highlighting a shift in user behavior towards relying on summaries.
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