How Google AI Overviews & AI Mode Will Impact Your Traffic in Search

Google’s search experience is evolving rapidly, and the most significant change we’re seeing right now is the rollout of AI Overviews, Google’s new feature that generates AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. If you’re based in the UK, you’ll soon see this feature much more frequently, especially with the introduction of Google’s new AI Mode.

These changes aren’t just cosmetic. They’re fundamentally transforming how users interact with search engines and how businesses attract traffic to their websites. If you’re wondering why your search traffic is down despite improved rankings, the answer might lie in these new AI-generated answers.

Read more: How to Optimise your Website for Google’s AI Overviews

In this post, we’ll break down:

• What Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are
• How they’re affecting the visibility of traditional web pages
• Why SEO experts are rethinking strategies
• What you can do to adapt and thrive in this AI-powered search landscape

What Are Google’s AI Overviews?

Google’s AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of the search page, answering a search query in natural language, often without users needing to click through to a website. These summaries pull information from different sources, including news websites, YouTube videos, and web articles, and synthesise it into a concise response.

The Pew Research Center has reported that many Google users now interact with these AI-generated summaries instead of scrolling down to find the traditional blue links in the search engine results page (SERP). This shift is particularly noticeable during the “research” phase of a browsing session, where users are seeking quick answers or explanations to complex questions.

What Is AI Mode?

AI Mode is a more immersive version of the AI-powered search experience. Instead of displaying both organic results and summaries, the user sees an interface dominated by the AI response, with link cards and minimal navigation to traditional content. There’s no immediate list of traditional search result links, just a chat-style search feature that encourages follow-up questions and prolonged engagement with Google itself.

Read more: How to Stop an SEO Decline

This interface is built with cutting-edge Google DeepMind models, using next-gen AI models and drawing on additional sources. Their goal is to keep users within the Google ecosystem for longer, providing value through ai-generated content while increasing opportunities for ad exposure in the future.

How AI Overviews Are Affecting Web Traffic

Here’s the core issue: when an AI-generated summary provides a sufficient answer, users don’t click through to websites. At Bronco, we’ve seen clients whose search queries are performing better in terms of rankings and impressions – yet their aggregate web traffic has decreased.

Why? Because users are getting what they need from Google’s AI summaries without visiting the source.

This is especially true for:

• Step-by-step guides
• Lists (e.g. top tips, product roundups, how-tos)
• Definitions and quick answers
• Simple natural language queries

And while Google does cite sources, they are often in small type or tucked into link cards, making it less likely a user will actually click through. The AI responses are often sufficient enough for users at research stage.

Read more: 9 Proven Ways To Increase Website Traffic in 2025

The Good News (Yes, There Is Some!)

The good news is that Google’s AI Overviews still depend on the content created by publishers, brands, and creators. If you’re producing authoritative, relevant, and well-structured content, there’s a good chance your pages could be used in the overview, boosting brand awareness, even if not direct traffic.

Plus, the search space is still evolving. Google has said that preview controls, AI-powered audio updates, and even built-in AI tools like Google Lens and AI code assistance are part of a longer-term strategy to make search more useful. For content creators, this opens up new opportunities to be seen across more formats and search features.

Real-World Examples: How AI Overviews Vary by Industry

One thing we’re increasingly noticing is that AI Overview prevalence is highly sector-specific. Here are a few examples based on our internal data and observations, from a select group of our clients:

Travel Sector:
For one of our clients in the travel sector, from January to June 2025, the percentage of keywords triggering an AI Overview jumped from just under 3% to nearly 30%. This sharp increase shows how aggressively AI content is being rolled out in travel-related searches, where the research phase dominates and content from different sources is treated as broadly equivalent. This makes it fertile ground for Google’s AI to synthesise and serve its own summaries.

Medical Sector:
In contrast, the medical space is seeing a more cautious rollout. AI visibility peaked at 20% earlier in 2025, but has since dipped to around 13%. This may reflect higher scrutiny and regulatory caution, as incorrect or misleading AI responses in medical search results could have serious consequences.

Recruitment Sector:
For recruitment and jobs-related content, AI integration remains minimal. Prevalence has risen only slightly – from under 1% to just under 3%. Google appears to favour structured job listings over AI-generated summaries for these types of searches, likely because intent is clearer: users want actual job opportunities, not just descriptions.

AI Overview rollout is clearly sectoral and influenced by user intent. Where searchers are in a research phase (e.g. travel), AI summaries thrive. In sensitive or transactional sectors (like medical or jobs), traditional listings still dominate. This variability underscores the importance of understanding how AI affects your niche.

What This Means for SEO Experts & Businesses

SEO isn’t dead, but it is changing.

• There are fewer spots on the page that result in a click.
• Traditional ranking reports may no longer reflect actual traffic.
• Being included in an AI-generated search summary requires more than good keywords.

Businesses now need to focus on:

• Answering specific questions clearly and succinctly
• Using structured data and schema markup
• Creating content that addresses multi-step reasoning
• Making content accessible and optimised for AI tools
• Building topical authority in your niche

Being optimised for AI answers doesn’t just mean showing up. It means crafting content that helps Google’s AI understand your site as a trustworthy, expert source.

Best Practices to Adapt Your Website for AI-Driven Search

1. Focus on Specific Queries: Target long-tail search queries that are likely to be used in conversational search. These tend to be more detailed and lead to AI-generated answers.
2. Structure Content for Summarisation: Use headings, bullet points, and unordered lists to help Google easily summarise your content (see what we’re doing here?)
3. Add Context to Every Page: Ensure every piece of content has clear relevance to its topic and includes supporting details from different sources where applicable.
4. Emphasise Authority and Trust: Cite external references. Build author bios. Use first-hand experience. These all contribute to higher quality content that the AI might favour.
5. Improve Your UX: Since each click is now more valuable, improve your user experience with better layout, clearer calls to action, improved mobile performance, and fast load times.
6. Don’t Ignore Video and Multimedia: YouTube videos and visuals are being pulled into AI summaries too. Repurpose your written content into video formats where appropriate.
7. Monitor SERP Features: Use tools like SEMrush Sensor to track when and where AI summaries appear in your niche. Be aware of significant drops in CTR and correlate them with new SERP features.
8. Explore multi-platform traffic:Google isn’t the only traffic source on the internet! Consider exploring other avenues of traffic such as social media marketing.

Read more: Boosting your SEO with Old Content

What’s Next for Google Search?

We are only at the beginning of this transformation. Google’s AI Overview system is just one part of a broader push toward future of AI-powered products, including:

• Personalised search experience
• Better answers to scientific discovery and earth science questions
• AI policy perspectives and AI safety features
• Best-in-class quantum computing integration (yes, really!)

And with increasing demand for essential AI skills among marketers, SEOs, and content creators, staying informed is critical.

The introduction of AI-generated search summaries is changing the rules of the game. It may be harder to gain traffic through traditional search engine optimisation alone, but with the right strategy, you can still thrive in this new environment. Google is always changing, but we’re always watching it, learning and adapting!

We’re keeping a close eye on every additional analysis being released by Google. Whether you’re a brand trying to reach potential customers or a publisher seeking to retain traffic, we’re here to help you adapt. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, make the most of every visit to your site.

Need help navigating the AI shift in search? Bronco is already working with clients to ensure their content stands out in an AI-first world. Contact us for a personalised audit and ongoing SEO strategy.