Website links displayed within Google’s AI Overviews saw minimal click-through rates (1 per cent) as well, as per the study.

Google’s AI summaries are causing a sharp drop in website clicks, prompting publishers to rethink business models amid fears of a “Google Zero” future.

Independent analyses suggest Google’s AI search strategy is indeed having an impact. Search impressions—the number of advertiser links that show up in searches, even if they aren’t clicked—grew by 49% in the year since the overviews were launched, according to a May report from BrightEdge, a search-engine-optimization firm.

Over 1.13 billion referrals to the top 1,000 websites globally came from AI platforms in June this year, up by 357% from the year-ago period.

Study claims sites previously ranked first can lose 79 percent of traffic if results appear below Google Overview