By Seb Joseph  •  July 24, 2025  •

Ivy Liu

“AI overviews now has over 2 billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and territories and 40 languages,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the company’s earnings call on Wednesday (July 23).

Adding half a billion users in a single quarter shows how quickly AI Overviews is becoming a default part of the search experience. For publishers and marketers already seeing a drop in referral traffic, it’s a stark reminder that Google’s shift to AI-driven search is starting to have real business impact. 

“We know how popular AI overviews are because they are now driving over 10% more queries globally for the types of queries that show them, and this growth continues to increase over time,” said Pichai.

That doesn’t mean AI Overviews account for 10% of all queries — just that, where they appear, people tend to use them more. What that actually means for engagement, satisfaction and revenue is still unclear. Early signs, though, aren’t encouraging for site owners. 

When an AI Overview appears, only 8% of searches result in a click, down from 15% when the Overview isn’t shown, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. Clicks on a source link within the AI Overview happened just 1% of the time. 

It underscores just how far AI Overviews have already tilted the balance of the open web, with Google being the biggest beneficiary. As Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, pointed out on the same call: AI Overviews “monetizes at the same rate” as traditional search for Google. For publishers, though, there’s no share in that unless traffic is actually sent their way — which increasingly, it’s not. 

That could change. Google has started testing ads within AI Overviews, a move that could eventually pave the way for some kind of revenue-sharing model. It’s also reportedly exploiting licensing deals with select publishers — a sign that even as Google remakes the rules, it may still need to keep parts of the industry on its side. 

Not least because regulators are paying close attention. 

Next month, a federal judge, who already ruled that Goog;e operates an illegal monopoly in search, could require the company to give publishers and YouTube creators a way to opt out of having their content used to train its AI products. Meanwhile, in Europe, Google is facing an antitrust complaint over AI Overviews, filed by the independent Publishers Alliance. The group claims Google is musing their content in the feature, leading to a measurable drop in traffic, readership and revenue. 

Looming behind all of this is a broader fear across the open web: the prospect of “Google Zero” — a future where search drives no traffic at all, just AI answers to the top of Google’s page. 

“We’re entering the post-click web: users get answers without needing to visit your site.,” said Sam Hailstone, director of organic performance at Brave Bison. “If the click goes away, then visibility is no longer about position, it’s about presence. SEO must evolve into something closer to entity and authority management.”

https://digiday.com/?p=584008