AI Mode’s SEO Impact: 10 Studies Reveal the Truth

Understanding the impact of AI Mode on search engine optimization requires a deep dive into the latest research and user behavior data. Recent findings from ten separate studies provide a clearer picture of how this technology is reshaping digital marketing. This analysis connects the dots between various data sources to answer the most pressing questions about AI Mode’s influence on traffic, user adoption, accuracy, and its relationship with AI Overviews.

One of the most consistent findings across multiple studies is that AI Mode drastically reduces external clicks. Data from an analysis of approximately 69 million U.S. Google sessions revealed that a staggering 92 to 94 percent of AI Mode sessions resulted in no external click whatsoever. A separate user behavior study corroborated this, showing that 77.6 percent of directed search tasks ended with zero visits to external websites. The median number of external clicks per task was zero. This trend suggests that users often find the information they need directly within the AI-generated answer, eliminating the need to visit other sites. There are exceptions, however. Shopping-related prompts, for instance, nearly always produce clicks, as users need to complete a transaction on an external platform. In the travel industry, users engage heavily with AI Mode for planning, spending around 104 seconds within the interface, but then click out to book flights or hotels. It’s also important to note that AI Mode sessions are typically shorter, averaging only two to three queries compared to about five in traditional search, further reducing opportunities for site visibility and traffic.

Current research indicates that user adoption of AI Mode remains relatively low. One UX study found that only 2 to 5 percent of participants chose to use AI Mode across a series of tasks, while engagement with AI Overviews was significantly higher, ranging from 30 to 47 percent. Data from another source indicated that over half of the users who tried AI Mode did so only once before abandoning it. This slow uptake suggests that the product is still finding its market fit. Despite this, Google appears committed to steering users toward AI-powered search, with executives hinting that it will eventually become the default experience. The company is actively integrating prompts for AI Mode into its browser and search results pages to encourage usage.

The accuracy of AI Mode’s responses is a mixed bag and seems to depend heavily on the type of query. For certain informational and planning tasks, users report high levels of trust. One study in the travel sector recorded an average trust score of 4.3 out of 5, with users praising the AI’s ability to quickly synthesize clear options for activities and accommodations. Another usability study noted that participants found generative AI helpful for complex information-seeking tasks because it saved them time. However, this trust is not universal. The same research noted that users often cross-checked facts using traditional search, indicating underlying skepticism. Other studies highlighted specific inaccuracies, particularly in areas like local news or health information, where the AI provided outdated or insufficiently specific details. A small-scale experiment that published AI-generated articles containing factual errors found that those pages failed to rank, suggesting Google’s systems may penalize clearly inaccurate AI content.

While both AI Overviews and AI Mode provide synthesized answers from multiple sources, they function quite differently. AI Mode is a more exploratory, chat-driven experience that garners deeper user engagement. On average, users spend about twice as much time with AI Mode compared to AI Overviews. From a technical standpoint, AI Mode tends to cite a wider range of sources, averaging 12.6 links per answer, and produces longer, more detailed responses of around 300 words. AI Overviews, which appear directly within classic search results, act more like fact sheets and typically cite fewer domains. The overlap between the URLs and domains cited in each feature is surprisingly low, at just 10.7 percent and 16 percent respectively. This indicates that optimizing for visibility in one does not guarantee visibility in the other.

The critical question for brands is whether visibility in AI Mode offers value when clicks are scarce. The evidence suggests that brand visibility within AI Mode influences user decisions even in the absence of a click. Research shows that users spend a significant amount of time, between 52 and 104 seconds, reading AI answers, examining citations, and forming opinions. High trust scores imply that a brand mention within an AI response transfers authority. Furthermore, studies found that users are more likely to favor brands they recognize from these citations, which reinforces brand recall and can lead to direct visits or conversions later. The implication is that marketers should begin to view AI Mode as a branding channel. The goal shifts from capturing clicks to being present and influential at the moment a user is making a decision.

A review of the existing research also reveals several limitations that future studies will need to address. Many studies lack qualitative user data or are confined to specific industries like travel. Some have small sample sizes or involve participants who were prompted to use AI Mode, which may not reflect organic behavior. There is a clear need for broader geographic and multilingual data, as well as research that combines clickstream analysis with direct user observation across different search intents. Despite these gaps, the collective work provides a foundational understanding of how AI Mode is changing the search landscape and what marketers need to do to adapt.

(Source: Search Engine Journal)