Google’s AI search is rapidly becoming the default, new data shows
Google's AI Overviews have significantly increased in frequency, fundamentally changing how users interact with search results. This shift is driving users to spend more time on Google's platform while simultaneously reducing referral traffic to external publishers.
Why it matters
This trend threatens the traditional web ecosystem by potentially starving content creators of traffic and revenue, forcing a re-evaluation of how information is indexed and monetized.
AI search is rapidly becoming the default, whether users like it or not. In just a year’s time, Google’s AI-generated answers in search, known as AI Overviews , have gone from appearing in 15% of searches to 43%, according to a new report, driving a shift in how web users consume information online.
In a recent analysis of the generative landscape, market intelligence firm Similarweb noted that what began as an AI layer on top of search has become an integral part of the search journey itself, as Google drops users into AI Overviews, where they can then continue their research via Google’s more conversational AI Mode .
During the same period, AI Mode visits rose from 126 million in June 2025 to 279 million by May 2026.
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