AI Search
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Stay Ahead in AI Search & Traditional SEO
SEOs need hard numbers to see what’s changing as AI platforms are impacting organic traffic and reshaping search behavior—and how fast.
Let's look at the latest AI SEO statistics to guide your strategy in 2026.
AI adoption is accelerating, with many users now relying on AI-generated answers daily.
Here's the data:
ChatGPT’s massive user base makes it the fourth most visited website globally, according to Semrush data. It gets over 5 billion monthly visits.
Interestingly, adoption rates in lower-income countries are over four times higher than in high-income countries.
(Source: OpenAI, 2025)
AI Mode is now in more than 200 countries and territories and has strong adoption in the first two markets it became available in.
The rapid growth of AI Mode supports the idea that Google is betting on conversational search as the next mainstream format.
(Source: Google, 2025)
The 2025 Previsible AI Traffic Report tracked 19 GA4 properties and found traffic from large language models (LLMs) rose from about 17,000 to 107,000 sessions when comparing January-May 2024 with the same period in 2025.
Some sites are now reporting over 1% of total sessions coming from platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot. While that share remains small overall, the growth as a whole highlights how AI platforms are beginning to play a measurable role in website discovery.
(Source: Search Engine Land, 2025)
AI platforms are expected to drive more website visits than traditional search engines in the next three years.
If AI Mode becomes the default Google experience, the transition to more traffic from AI search could happen even sooner.
(Source: Semrush, 2025)
AI Overviews are reshaping how users find information on Google.
Here's the latest data:
AI Overviews that summarize information directly on results pages are highly visible and accessible now that they’re available in more than 200 countries.
SEOs are beginning to change how they’re tracking search visibility. Traditional rankings still matter, but appearing in AI Overviews is becoming an equally important metric.
(Source: Google, 2025)
Further reading: How to Research and Analyze AI Overviews with Semrush
Nearly nine in 10 queries triggering AI Overviews have informational intent, meaning that searchers want to learn about something.
Here’s how AI Overview appearance varies across other intent types:
If your content educates, explains, or defines topics, AI Overviews can directly impact your visibility. Being featured within these summaries helps your brand stay visible as AI results become a larger part of Google Search.
(Source: Semrush, 2025)
Nearly all keywords triggering AI Overviews (95%) either display no paid ads or have minimal commercial value.
Commercially valuable keywords—especially those with a cost per click (CPC) above $2—remain largely untouched.
Deprioritizing commercially valuable keywords for AI Overviews likely allows Google to protect its ad revenue while continuing to experiment with AI for informational searches.
(Source: Semrush, 2025)
AI Overviews appear most often on low-volume queries.
And almost 80% of keywords that trigger AI Overviews fall into the 0%-40% keyword difficulty range, meaning those terms aren’t very difficult to rank for.
Your niche content based on long-tail keywords may face the highest AI disruption risk. Because AI Overviews appear most often on low-competition, informational searches and absorb attention that might otherwise go to organic listings.
Still, earning a citation within AI Overviews helps you maintain visibility where users first see results.
(Source: Semrush, 2025)
AI in search is changing both click-through rates (CTRs) and browsing behavior.
Here are some key stats:
AI summaries and other features answer questions right on the search results page, so users often don't need to visit any websites.
For example, if you search “phone photography tips,” you’ll likely see a “From sources across the web” feature and an AI Overview before the regular blue links.
The presence of SERP features that aim to address the user’s query reduces the chances of ranking sites getting organic traffic through traditional search rankings.
But appearing inside SERP features—whether as a cited source or brand mention—still gives you valuable visibility.
(Source: Bain & Company, 2025)
When Google shows an AI summary, only 8% of users click on the regular search results below it. Without a summary, that number nearly doubles to 15%.
The comparatively lower clicks among results with AI summaries suggests that SEOs need to think beyond organic traffic.
Focusing on clarity, authority, and content that AI systems recognize as trustworthy will likely improve visibility in AI summaries that can lead to results later on.
(Source: Pew Research, 2025)
About 26% of searches that show AI summaries end without any additional clicks. For searches showing only traditional results, that drops to 16%.
The lack of action on results pages with AI summaries suggests that many users treat AI summaries as complete answers—not a starting point for deeper exploration.
(Source: Pew Research, 2025)
Sites that appear as sources inside AI Overviews see a small but noticeable boost in click-through rate, based on research from across 7,800+ queries.
The increase is modest, yet it reinforces a new reality—visibility within AI summaries now matters almost as much as traditional search rankings.
(Source: Seer Interactive, 2024)
Business and service sites account for 50% of all the sources ChatGPT cites.
News and media sites account for 9.5% of ChatGPT citations, blogs and content sites account for 8.3%, and ecommerce sites account for 7.6%.
ChatGPT’s tendency to link to business and service sites suggests strong potential for businesses. High-quality, informative content on company sites has a real chance of being cited by AI platforms like ChatGPT.
(Source: Semrush, 2025)
ChatGPT users click out to external websites about twice as often as Google users—1.4 links per visit compared with 0.6 from Google.
This difference reflects how people use each platform. ChatGPT users may open links to verify AI-generated answers or explore topics further. Google users might trust the answers more or just tend to find what they need.
(Source: Momentic, 2025)
AI search creates new opportunities for websites to gain visibility and traffic.
Here’s the data:
Visitors arriving from AI search platforms are far more valuable than those from traditional search—at least from a conversion perspective.
Even if you don’t get much traffic volume from AI search, optimizing for AI visibility can still have a noticeable impact on your business.
(Source: Semrush, 2025)
Shoppers arriving to retail sites through AI platforms tend to be more engaged. Plus, these visits are 38% longer and involve viewing more pages.
Visitors referred by AI seem to be arriving at their end destination with stronger intent. Which means creating and distributing content that provides accurate information about your business is key for getting the most out of visits from AI platforms.
(Source: Adobe, 2025)
People don’t use AI search the same way they use traditional search.
Here are the numbers that prove it:
Most people now rely on AI-generated answers for information, getting what they need directly on the results page instead of clicking through to other sites.
Instead of focusing only on rankings and clicks, it’s now important to understand how your content appears inside AI answers—and whether your pages are credited as sources.
(Source: Bain & Company, 2025)
Most readers move on after scanning just the opening section of an AI Overview, so the information and sources shown in the first section get the most attention.
Earning visibility early—through brand mentions or citations—in AI Overviews can make a bigger difference than appearing later in the expanded text.
(Source: Growth Memo, 2025)
Only a small fraction (about 9%) of users always trust the AI answers they see.
Most people fall somewhere in the middle. They use AI summaries but remain cautious, reflecting ongoing doubts about how accurate these results really are.
(Source: Exploding Topics, 2025)
Most people read the AI Overview summary and move on without visiting the actual sources. Which limits how much traffic you can expect, even if you're cited.
Still, being mentioned can help with visibility and brand recall. When users see your site repeatedly in AI summaries, they’re more likely to recognize your brand later or search for it directly.
And you’re still more likely to be clicked when appearing in an AI Overview compared to a traditional search result underneath an AI Overview.
(Source: Exploding Topics, 2025)
People in the U.S. between the ages of 16 and 27 use AI search tools more than any other age group.
That said, Gen Z users also rely on traditional search engines and visual platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to find information.
Brands that start optimizing their content for AI platforms can stay visible with Gen Z audiences, who use AI platforms alongside other channels.
(Source: Claneo, 2025)
The relatively high share of people who report seeing inaccurate content shows there’s a trust gap.
Brands need to publish accurate, well-sourced content to avoid adding to misinformation and keep an eye on how their pages appear in AI summaries. If something is misrepresented, use Google’s feedback option to flag the error and suggest a correction.
(Source: Exploding Topics, 2025)
Our data so far has focused on trends in AI search. These next statistics show how teams are adopting AI in their everyday SEO and content workflows.
AI-written pages now appear in over 17% of top search results.
The growth hasn’t been steady, with both peaks and drops. Including a fall to after Google’s March 2024 core update.
AI content can rank well, but it's still vulnerable to algorithm changes.
(Source: Originality.ai, 2025)
Content created with AI often starts showing up in search results in two months or less.
AI can be a great time-saver in content given how quickly you can create, publish, and see results. Combining it with human insights and experiences is likely to drive even better performance.
(Source: Semrush, 2024)
Nearly half of online sellers (47%) rely on AI to write product descriptions.
AI-generated product descriptions are beneficial for large stores with thousands of items as well as small shops that may not have enough staff to keep their pages up to date.
(Source: Liquid Web)
Nearly seven in 10 companies say they’ve seen better returns after integrating AI into their SEO and content workflows.
The improvement likely comes from increased speed and scale. AI helps with topic planning, content drafting, and faster publishing, allowing teams to spend more time on strategy and optimization.
(Source: Semrush, 2024)
The above AI SEO statistics highlight three big shifts:
So, how should your SEO strategy evolve? Here are three actions you can take:
Tracking AI visibility shows how often your brand appears in AI results compared to your competitors. So, you can adjust if needed.
Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit lets you track your presence across AI platforms in a variety of ways.
Go to the Visibility Overview dashboard and enter your domain to see your score (measured on a scale from 0-100) to see how visible you are in LLMs compared to your competitors.
Scroll down to “Topics & Sources” and select “Cited Pages” to see which pages from your site are referenced in AI-generated answers.
Click any URL to view the exact prompt where the page is cited. If you see “Missed” in the “Your Brand” column, that means your URL is cited, but your brand isn’t mentioned in the AI answer.
Click “Monitor” at the end of the row to set up prompt tracking.
Even if AI search reduces overall clicks, improving how well your pages convert visitors contributes to continued growth.
To see what strong conversion looks like in practice, I analyzed five B2B sales prospecting tool websites in Semrush’s Traffic Analytics.
Among the five websites I analyzed, Apollo.io stood out for having the highest purchase conversion rate.
While four out of five sites promote a free trial above the fold on the homepage, Apollo.io makes sign-up easier by offering multiple options, including using a Google or Microsoft account. That likely removes friction and helps visitors start faster.
Apollo.io’s homepage communicates social proof very clearly as well. The brand highlights real results—specific percentages of cost savings, sales growth, and productivity gains—so visitors instantly see measurable outcomes that matter to them.
One other site in my analysis includes an FAQ section on the homepage. But Apollo.io’s stands out for how it directly answers buyer questions to keep visitors engaged when they might otherwise leave.
Apollo.io also focuses on its AI capabilities. It clearly lists use cases.
In short, Apollo.io lowers effort, shows tangible proof, and guides users toward the next step to retain value from existing traffic even as AI search reshapes discovery.
You can similarly offset potential traffic drops from AI search by turning more of your existing visitors into customers.
Start by finding your conversion rate. Compare it with your competitors’ purchase conversion rates using Traffic Analytics to set a realistic benchmark, then optimize your key pages for higher conversion.
Here are a few quick ways to start optimizing your site for conversions:
Further reading: 6 Steps to Perform Conversion Rate Optimization
Success in SEO now means looking beyond rankings and traffic to understand how visitors engage and convert.
AI summaries and experiences affect how users find and interact with your content.
With that in mind, here are the key metrics worth tracking in the AI search era:
Together, these metrics give a more complete picture of SEO performance.
These AI SEO statistics will keep changing as search evolves.
The first step to staying ahead is to track how visible your brand is in AI results.
Use Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit to see where you already appear, find gaps, and start improving.
Zach Paruch
Zach Paruch is a data-driven SEO strategist with 10+ years of experience driving organic growth through smart, scalable search strategies. His expertise includes on-page and technical SEO, AI search optimization, and content strategy—with a special focus on ideating and implementing AI-driven processes. By leveraging in-depth search intent analysis, refined information architecture, and user-centered design, Zach consistently delivers high-impact content that drives business outcomes.
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