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.
The data illustrates a broader change in how users search the web — a shift from an era when Google provided a simple list of blue links to click through and read to one in which Google itself is the destination, sourcing its answers and information from the websites it indexes.
This, in turn, appears to increasethe time users spend on Google’s platform rather than using it only as a tool to discover websites. Over the past year, Similarweb’s data shows that the average length of Google searches has risen, suggesting that people are now replacing their short keyword-based search queries with longer, more natural conversational ones designed for AI.
This change has not been welcomed by publishers, who are losing out on referral traffic due to the rise of AI citations that don’t lead to clicks. Last year, Similarweb reported on this trend, noting in particular how devastating it was for news publishers. More recently, tech infrastructure company Cloudflare introduced tools that allow publishers to fight back by blocking AI crawlers from their websites unless those AI companies pay for access to their content through its marketplace.
While AI citations don’t always lead to users clicking through to a destination, the number of AI responses that include a citation has risen more than fivefold during the past year, Similarweb’s new report says.
Still, just 6.8% of U.S. ChatGPT desktop queries included citations as of May 2026, despite this growth. (Some industries fare better, with travel, retail, and sports queries generating cited responses more frequently than others.)
There is some hope for publishers, however. In terms of ChatGPT at least, U.S. desktop referrals have improved after a May 7 search update, which saw the proportion of visits landing on webpages more than double from 25% in March 2026 to nearly 60% by May 30, 2026.
This suggests that users are taking advantage of the more prominent blue links within AI-driven search results when they’re available.
Even with these improvements, the larger AI search trend remains unchanged, as Google transforms itself from a gateway to the wider web into a destination in its own right.
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