Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how people search the web, how they discover information and how visibility is earned online. From Google’s AI Overviews to generative tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, search behaviour, click patterns and referral sources are shifting, altering the foundations of SEO.
This article brings together the latest AI in SEO statistics to show how people now search, where decisions are influenced, which sectors are adopting AI fastest and how click-through behaviour is evolving. It also explores the growing role of generative AI tools as referral sources rather than just answer providers.
Key stats
- In 2023, an estimated 13 million U.S. adults used AI for search, with forecasts suggesting this could rise to around 90 million by 2027, signalling mainstream adoption.
- The global AI content marketing market is projected to grow from $2.4 billion in 2023 to $17.6 billion by 2033, reflecting sustained investment from brands and platforms.
- Google has reported a 10% increase in usage in major markets following the rollout of AI Overview, alongside growth in longer, more complex and multimodal searches.
- More than 70% of users use AI-powered search at the top of the funnel, showing AI is embedded across discovery, consideration and purchase stages.
- Electronics and appliances lead in AI-powered search usage by sector, with 54% of consumers relying on AI in their decision-making.
- Around 60% of searches now end without a click, alongside a reported 61% decline in organic click-through rates, indicating reduced traffic to websites.
- Traffic from AI tools across 19 tracked sites grew from around 17,000 to over 107,000 sessions year over year, representing a 527% increase and highlighting AI as an emerging referral source.
- 44% of respondents prefer AI-powered tools as their primary source of information, compared with 31% who prefer traditional search engines, showing a clear shift in search preference.
Adoption of AI in marketing
In 2023, an estimated 13 million U.S. adults reported using AI for search, with forecasts suggesting this figure could rise to around 90 million by 2027, indicating a rapid shift from early experimentation to mainstream use. The growth of individual tools reinforces this trend. ChatGPT, for example, reached one million users in just five days, setting a record for consumer technology adoption and demonstrating how quickly users are willing to switch when the experience feels faster or more helpful.
This adoption is also being mirrored at an industry level. The global AI content marketing market is projected to grow from $2.4 billion in 2023 to $17.6 billion by 2033, reflecting sustained investment from brands and platforms alike. For SEO and digital marketing teams, this matters because AI is no longer a fringe tool used for experimentation. It is becoming embedded in how content is created, discovered and evaluated, shaping both how users search and how businesses compete for visibility.
How AI is changing search behaviour
The way people search has changed, and much of that’s due to AI, with Google now offering several AI functions on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Google’s integrated AI includes AI Overview, snippets, sponsored posts, media, knowledge panels and maps.
These different ways of answering queries and displaying search results are subsequently affecting how users search online.
Users are asking more complex questions
Google has reported a 10% increase in usage in some of the biggest markets, thanks to its AI Overview. Google claims it has the fastest AI-powered search, which results in faster searches and more satisfied, happier customers.
The faster and more helpful answers are leading to more searches and not just any type of search either, but longer, more complex and multimodal searches.
We recently featured Raquel P’s take on Google Suggests in our newsletter because Raquel highlights an interesting point: Google suggestions show that people are conversing with Google more than searching for key terms.
Impacting the decision journey
AI-powered consumer decisions are part of the entire journey, according to McKinsey. Over 70% of users utilise AI-powered searches to ask questions at the top of the funnel.
This means that AI is being used through discovery, consideration and the purchase decision, showing how AI is now integrated into our searching habits. Consumers are using this technology to quickly gain information they need about a product, such as price, functionality and style.
Sectors that use AI-powered search
Using AI-powered search varies significantly by sector, with many consumers turning to it during their decision journey. Traditional search often requires reviewing multiple sites, browsing category pages and scanning forums, whereas AI compresses this process by drawing from these sources to deliver a single, summarised answer.
McKinsey’s research shows that consumers looking for electronics and appliances are the most likely to use AI to support their decision-making, with 54% relying on it (31% partly, 17% mainly and 7% exclusively). AI usage is also high in grocery (49%), travel (47%) and wellness (46%), demonstrating how sectors with complex comparisons or high information needs benefit most from AI-powered search.
Shrinking click-through figures
Evidently, the customer journey is changing. This means falling click-through rates (CTR) for websites, with 60% of searches ending without a click. This correlates with Search Engine Land’s findings, showing that organic click-through rates have fallen by 61%.
Zero-click could be mainly due to AI, but it’s also suggested that it extends beyond the overview, with users clicking less across the platform. Organic CTRs are still dropping by 41% on pages without an AI Overview.
AI search as a new referral source
In addition to AI-integrated technology, other generative AI tools are also changing the landscape of how we search.
Generative tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot are also acting as referral sources, sending traffic to different websites. Their algorithms are playing a part in recommending websites and subsequently changing the world of SEO. According to Elementor, the Previsible AI Traffic Report tracked 19 different websites, measuring traffic coming specifically from large language models (LLM)–powered tools, which are AI systems trained on vast amounts of text to generate answers and surface relevant sources.
Across those tracked sites, traffic from AI tools grew from around 17,000 sessions to more than 107,000 sessions year over year, representing a 527% increase. While this traffic still makes up a relatively small share for most sites, the growth rate shows that AI platforms are no longer just answer engines but are increasingly functioning as referral engines, directing users to external content as part of their search behaviour.
Almost one in two people search using AI
The speed at which AI has become prominent in search is astonishing, though not surprising, it is now the preferred source of information for almost half (44%) of people.
When asked to rank the source of information in order of most to least likely to use, 44% of respondents chose AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Copilot, Perplexity or Claude, compared to 31% that chose traditional search engines such as typing their query into Google and using websites for their answers.
Outbound clicks: Google vs ChatGPT
This behaviour is also reflected in how users interact with generative AI platforms compared to traditional search. Users of tools like ChatGPT are more than twice as likely to click through to external websites, averaging 1.4 outbound clicks per visit, compared with 0.6 clicks from Google searches. This suggests that, unlike zero-click behaviour on Google, users treat generative AI tools more like research assistants, using them to gather sources, validate answers and explore information in more depth.
| Source | ChatGPT | |
| Outbound clicks (per visit) | 1.4 | 0.6 |
Design note: to be made into a graphic showing this comparison
How marketers and SEOs are using AI
As of 2025, more than half of marketers (56%) are using generative AI in their SEO workflows, according to Demandsage, with 67% of users admitting that AI tools have improved the quality of content they create.
AI adoption by marketers isn’t just experimentation; it’s now a standard part of day-to-day tasks, being used for all aspects of marketing.
What marketers use AI for
AI is most commonly used to support early-stage and repetitive content tasks, where speed and scale matter most. Research and ideation lead adoption, with researching content and topic ideas (58%), rewriting or paraphrasing text (52%) and writing content from scratch (50%) ranking as the most frequent use cases. Strategic planning tasks, such as creating content strategies (47%) and outlines (39%), also feature prominently, indicating that AI is increasingly used to shape content direction and execution.
| Task | Percentageof Respondents |
| Researching content and topic ideas | 58% |
| Rewriting and paraphrasing text | 52% |
| Writing content from scratch | 50% |
| Creating a content marketing strategy | 47% |
| Expanding text with more ideas | 40% |
| Creating content outlines | 39% |
| Optimising copy for target keywords | 33% |
| Audience research | 30% |
| Improving readability | 29% |
| Creating content briefs | 27% |
| Improving tone of voice | 26% |
| Writing meta tags | 23% |
| Optimising for a specific audience | 23% |
| Creating visual content (images, video) | 23% |
| Avoiding plagiarism | 20% |
| Grouping and clustering keywords | 16% |
| Content localization and translation | 9% |
Time spent using AI for marketing?
AI tools are most commonly used for short, focused bursts of content production rather than extended workflows. Most marketers spend relatively little time creating content with AI. 40% use it for less than five hours per week, and a further 36% spend between five and 10 hours. Only 8% spend more than 20 hours per week, showing that AI is typically used to accelerate specific tasks rather than replace production cycles.
| Weekly Time Using AI | Percentage of Respondents |
| Less than 5 hours | 40% |
| 5–10 hours | 36% |
| 11–20 hours | 16% |
| 21–40 hours | 6% |
The impact of AI on SEO
AI is changing SEO on both sides of the fence, and that change is shaping how people search and how marketers respond. Searchers are leaning into the speed and efficiency of AI-powered answers, while marketers are increasingly using AI to support content creation, research and optimisation. Marketers are using AI to speed up specific tasks rather than replace complete production workflows, and users continue to click through when they want reassurance, detail or context. With the right strategy, there are still clear ways for websites to earn visibility through rankings, mentions and citations, particularly when digital PR and reputation-building work helps reinforce authority in the areas brands want to be known for, subsequently helping land features in AI placements such as AI Overview, Snippets and other results.
