Study: AI Referrals Grow 45%, Trail Google

An analysis of more than 16,000 websites found that visits attributed to AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity rose about 45% year over year, but still represent a small share of web traffic. AI assistants sent about 1.25 visits for every 100 from Google organic search, while Google organic clicks fell 15% overall; the declines have not yet been offset by AI referrals. The figures may undercount AI’s contribution because some ChatGPT app visits are recorded as direct traffic, while clicks from Google’s AI answers are counted as organic search.