Google says AI answers aren’t hurting website traffic

Google has responded to growing concerns that AI-generated answers in search results could reduce traffic to external websites.

According to Liz Reid, head of Google Search, referral traffic has remained "relatively stable" year-over-year, despite speculation to the contrary.

Reid acknowledged that some changes in click distribution are taking place: while some categories now receive more traffic, others get less. Still, she emphasized that the overall volume of outbound clicks hasn’t declined, and Google continues to drive "billions of clicks" to third-party sites every day.

She also claimed that users who visit websites through AI-generated summaries tend to spend more time engaging with content and reading deeper, something Google sees as more valuable than surface-level clicks.

Despite mounting criticism, the company maintains that AI integrations don’t harm the internet ecosystem but instead encourage more meaningful engagement with web content.

That hasn’t stopped some media outlets from reporting steep traffic drops since the rollout of AI overviews. According to U.S. reports, the decline has already impacted major publishers, with staff cuts at The Washington Post, Business Insider, HuffPost, and others.