• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, July 24, 2025

Google’s Q2 earnings, reported Wednesday, show that AI Overviews continue to increase search activity, with new data suggesting they drive over 10% more queries. 

AI Overviews now has 2 billion monthly users and apparently has not reduced the need to search.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted during the earnings call that search and AIO for overall and commercial query volumes are up compared with the year-ago quarter.

“We are also seeing that our AI features cause users to search more as they learn that search can meet more of their needs," Pichai said. "That’s especially true for younger users.”

Google reported $54.2 billion in search revenue for Q2, up 12% year-over-year.

AI Mode, Google’s conversational interface, now has more than 100 million monthly active users across the U.S. and India, and the company plans to expand its capabilities with features like Deep Search and personalized results.

Pichai's update somewhat contradicts findings published by Pew Research Center earlier this week.

The recent report suggests Google AI Overviews (AIOs) reduced clicks to all types of websites such as news and retail. The data combined survey and behavioral data, along with purchases from Ipsos.

About 900 study participants in March 2025 agreed to allow third parties to study on-device behavior for a month, with 58% of Google searches serving up at least one AIO.

Clicks are rare in AIO, according to the Pew study. About 8% of searches with an AI summary led to clicks on traditional links, compared with 15% without summaries, according to the research.

Twenty-six percent of users were also more likely to end their session after encountering an AI summary, compared to pages with only traditional results at 16%.

Countless research papers have outlined the loss of clicks from Google to all types of publisher sites, but Google took exception to Pew's.

“People are gravitating to AI-powered experiences, and AI features in Search enable people to ask even more questions, creating new opportunities for people to connect with websites," a Google spokesperson told MediaPost. "This study uses a flawed methodology and skewed query-set that is not representative of Search traffic. We consistently direct billions of clicks to websites daily and have not observed significant drops in aggregate web traffic as is being suggested.”

The Pew study relied on a panel of 900 users who agreed to install an app that tracks their behavior.

Those who disagreed with the findings suggest it has a narrow set of users not representative of real search traffic and would skew results. It also did not account for traffic growth, which has prompted people to ask more complex questions and dive deeper into complex subjects to uncover new perspectives.

Google argued that the study only analyzed clicks to the top three links in AIO, rather than looking at clicks to any link that might appear in the feature. 

AIO served a wide range of links throughout the feature, including supporting links on the right-hand side of an overview, in-line links directly within text, and more. Very often, it shows more than three links each time they appear.

Among other things, Pew’s findings raise concerns among publishers that rely on organic search traffic, suggesting it could reduce website traffic and revenue.

Lower click-through rates could mean fewer ad impressions and clicks on content and ads, impacting income.

Some publishers reported delays in their stories appearing in Google Discover, and while the impact of core updates has improved, losses have not been offset for everyone.

Google said it consistently sends billions of clicks to websites each day and has direct evidence that AI Overviews are making the experience better, and that people prefer Search with AI Overviews.

In a blog post from May 2025, Google wrote that “as people use AI Overviews, we see they’re happier with their results, and they search more often. In our biggest markets like the U.S. and India, AIO is driving over 10% increase in usage of Google for the types of queries that show AI Overviews.”

How can so many independent studies surface similar findings — the inability to offer the click-through content compared with traditional search?

It is interesting to note that AIO and AI Mode use Google’s core search-ranking systems. As in search more broadly, the links that are included in AI Overviews and AI Mode are dynamic and change based on the information that is most relevant, helpful, and timely for a given search.

Google says the company has seen much speculation and many inaccurate claims made about traffic from search, often based on highly incomplete and skewed data or anecdotal information.

This includes speculation that any recent traffic change is due to AIO. But the reality is that traffic fluctuates for many reasons, the company said -- including seasonal demand, interests of users and regular algorithmic updates to search.

Over time, some sites gain traffic and some lose traffic. Google believes it is misleading to generalize causes based on individual examples.

Google also points out the many updates to AI Overviews that make it easier for people to visit sites that interest them -- such as a right-hand display on desktop that shows supporting links for a query in a more prominent way.

It brought a similar experience to mobile, where users can quickly see supporting links by tapping the site icons on the upper right-hand side of the AIO.

Google believes it has designed AI Mode consistent with its commitment to drive traffic to websites, and that it surfaces relevant links to help people find web pages and content they may not have discovered before.

They mention something called a query fan-out technique -- the process of taking one request or query and distributing it to multiple systems or components for parallel processing. 

While responses are being generated, Google said its advanced models can identify and access more supporting web pages than was previously possible.

This additional step allows it to display a wider and more diverse set of helpful web content associated with the response, enabling new opportunities for exploration.