{"id":2102,"slug":"pew-2025-ai-overview-click-reduction","title":"Pew Research 2025 — AI Overviews roughly halve traditional clicks (non-vendor)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["serp-feature-crowding"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Pew Research Center — KnowledgePanel Digital browsing data of 900 US adults; the dataset contained **68,879 unique Google searches**, of which 12,593 triggered an AI summary, March 2025:\n\n- When an AI summary appeared, users clicked a traditional result in just **8% of visits versus 15% without** — nearly half.\n- Clicking a link INSIDE the summary occurred in **just 1% of visits**.\n- Sessions ended after **26%** of AI-summary pages versus **16%** without.\n- About **18%** of searches produced an AI summary.\n\n**Source:** Pew Research Center. **Non-vendor / independent.**\n\n**Confidence:** Verified — highest-trust source for the AI-Overview click impact.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** The most credible measurement of the AI-Overview impact on click behaviour. Vendor studies (Ahrefs ~58% drop; Seer ~61% drop) report larger CTR declines and are directionally consistent — but Pew is the anchor.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-market-difficulty-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget market difficulty — six ranked factors (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"serp-features-difficulty-multiplier","title":"Factor 3 — SERP feature crowding (AI Overviews, ads, packs) — a market-wide difficulty multiplier","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:04.217Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:04.217Z"}