In 2025, the digital marketing industry is experiencing seismic changes in the way that search works, with Google AI Overview (AIO) at the forefront of this change. As Google reimagines the way users engage with search results, SEO professionals are being compelled to re-examine their playbooks, KPIs, and general thinking toward digital visibility.
The question remains, Is Google AI search feature hurting organic traffic?
The article will reveal the newest Google AI Overview update and how deeply it affects SEO, user behavior, and the entire search ecosystem. Topics such as reduced clicks, influence versus performance, multi-platform discoverability, and implications for SEO teams after all of these will be addressed.
Understanding Google AI Overview
Google AI Overview is one great leap in changing how search engines deliver answers. Instead of offering a usual list of blue links, Google now surfaces a synthesized AI-generated overview that attempts to answer the user’s question directly.
These overviews draw information from different sources and are meant to give the user a view of the most relevant information in one glance without even needing to click to an external site. It is meant for a better user experience, but the repercussions for the content creators and SEOs are tremendous.
Clicks are Down—But What’s Really Happening?
One immediate effect of Google AI Overview is the inflation of impressions and deflation of clicks. SEO professionals started noticing impressions increasing on March 2025, mainly due to the new Google requirement that an impression is logged whenever a user opens an AI Overview. However, this increased impression does not see a similar increase in traffic.
That’s visibility with no visitors.
Here’s why:
- AI Overview google satisfies the user’s desire for more clicks with a synthesized answer.
- Cited sources get placed in the first result within the Overview, whether or not users click on it.
However, this is not a bad thing. Not all clicks are worth it. Clicks that pass the AIO filter represent a higher level of intent. Generally, users click to validate, compare, or make a purchase. These clicks are few but infinitely more valuable.
SEO, suddenly, is a value game instead of a volume game.
From Performance Metrics to Influence Marketing
Traditional SEO has long been tethered to performance metrics like:
- Search volume
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate (CVR)
But with the age of AI Google experiencing outpouring formulas such as these.
Similarly, where brands spend millions for logo placement on an F1 car in order to gain mindshare, so SEO must now be evaluated by visibility, recall, and influence across platforms and formats. Prospects are asking questions on Google, ChatGPT, Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok. SEO today is about appearing in all these, not just winning a position on Google SERPs.
Your presence in an AI-generated summary, a Reddit thread, or a chatbot conversation might not get a click, but people are influenced by it in making decisions, and that’s the new SEO value proposition, this is the Google search AI overview impact on SEO.
The Rise of Fan-Out Channels
That’s right, this new age of SEO is called channel fan-out. AI tools-using Google’s AIO, ChatGPT, or Meta AI-search will be integrated in every app, browser, and device. We are not optimized for Google anymore. Every single platform now is a search engine.
With such shifts, consider the following:
- LLMs embed search into everything: Whether you’re on Instagram, Excel, or Netflix, AI tools are making search feel native.
- Users cross-check AI answers with human opinions: From Discord to YouTube comments, humans still want a second opinion.
- Discovery is decentralized: Google must now compete with TikTok, Threads, Perplexity, ChatGPT, and more.
To stay relevant, brands must establish visibility beyond the traditional SERP. This means:
- Participating in conversations on Reddit and Discord
- Publishing valuable insights on social platforms
- Being cited by both AI and humans alike
Related: How to use AI in Marketing
AI Mode: The Future of Search Is Already Here
Google’s AI Mode, which is presently trafficked by less than 1% of all queries, is a preview of what the future holds. In this mode, Google takes an input query and makes it generate dozens of sub-queries without showcasing any result page.
Say a user goes in and types: “Best running shoes for flat feet.”
In all probability, AI will come up with sub-questions such as:
- What are the top-rated running shoes in 2025?
- Which shoes are good for flat arches?
- Any discussions on Reddit regarding flat feet and running?
The AI Mode experience culminates with a one-answer narrative presentation by aggregating all of the findings for the mentioned questions. The experience of AI Mode condenses 20 to 50 possible searches into each single interaction.
While it could lower the total number of queries (and potential ad inventory), it indeed opens up a brand-new playground for smart SEOs:
- Optimize for micro-queries (check People Also Ask, Reddit, and forums)
- Structure content for AI consumption (tight headers, data-rich answers)
- Build credibility via consistent citations
The full AI Mode rollout is still in the future; however, when that day comes, SEOs that have prepared structured, clear, and quotable content will have an upper hand.
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Google vs. ChatGPT – The Search War of the Decade
Billions of web users and online businesses know this rivalry better as an epic one: The rivalry between Google and ChatGPT is heating up. Google is adapting ChatGPT’s conversational UI, whereas ChatGPT is being infused with web search capabilities, thus blurring the lines separating them.
Forecasts differ:
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- Should the trends of the previous year hold, then ChatGPT may grab Google query share past its reach before mid-2026.
- That said, Google still retains the lion’s share of distribution via deals with Chrome, Android, and Safari.
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What Does It Mean For SEO?
Will have to be optimized for both ecosystems: The content should be:
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- Discoverable by ChatGPT’s LLMs
- So credible that someone can use it as an answer by an AI
- Should be discovered on web search, in chat interfaces, and by voice queries
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The answer to who wins in this rivalry is still a mystery. However, visible in both platforms is all that matters in the meantime.
Related: AI vs Human Intelligence
SEO Leaders
With this complexity comes the need for SEO leaders to engage—not just in execution but in orchestrating strategy across departments.
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- Paid Media: Align SEM and SEO. Use dashboards to monitor impressions, conversions, and citations across AI Overviews, AI Mode, and SERPs.
- Social Media & Community: Use Reddit, TikTok, and Discord to identify user intent and feed content teams.
- Product Marketing: Extract customer language from AI prompts for positioning and metadata.
- Content/GTM: Create content that both humans and LLMs can easily quote—data stories, interactive tools, expert commentary.
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SEO leaders are now conductors, ensuring every department plays its part in shaping brand visibility across an increasingly fragmented ecosystem.
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What’s Next for SEO in an Agentic World?
Thereafter, agentic search relates to a world where AI agents (like GPT-based assistants) act for users in planning trips, shopping, or tasking. Thus:
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- Structure outputs by table, checklist, JSON snippet etc.;
- High insight density per paragraph;
- Build up embeddable assets like APIs, or datasets agents can pull from.
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This is a zero-click world; users may not visit your site, but their AI assistant might read, quote, and act upon your content.
Final Thoughts
The rise of Google AI Overview is not the death of SEO, it’s the evolution of it. Performance metrics like hard-core clicks on the traditional front are giving way to influence, intent, and visibility across platforms.
The interplay in favor of survivors in the new search paradigm will favor those that understand AI Overviews and AI Mode, will optimize for machine and human audiences, and will fan their presence across the various channels and platforms.
