Key findings
- For questions an AI can answer completely, the click-through rate fell by about 40% within one year.
- For questions the AI answers partly it was about 28%, for questions that need a website only about 11%.
- The drop starts in October 2025, exactly with the launch of Google AI Mode, and has continued since.
- For most websites the effect is smaller than headlines suggest: only about 5 out of 100 clicks come from such questions.
What Google AI Mode is
AI Mode (in German “KI-Modus”) is a separate area of Google Search where an AI writes the answer itself. You ask a question, Google reads many websites for it and summarises the result in its own words. Sources appear as small links next to it. It has been available in Austria since 7 October 2025; according to Google’s announcement it was opened to everyone within a week.
Since March 2025 Google already shows a short AI summary above the regular results for many searches, the so-called AI Overviews. AI Mode goes one step further: it replaces the list of links with a detailed answer you can follow up on in a conversation.
What changed on Google
The same question, two result pages. On the right the answer is already at the top, the links move down.
- AI Overviews launch in AustriaAbove the results, many questions now show a short AI summary.
- Our baselineClick-through rate of every query on every website before AI Mode arrived.
- AI Mode launchesGoogle opens a separate mode that writes full answers like a chat. Within a week it is available to everyone.
- TodayOne year later we measure how clicks have changed.
How clicks developed
Until September 2025 the click-through rate stayed stable. From October 2025, the month AI Mode launched, it falls. Most of all for questions an AI can answer itself: in September 2026 about 41% fewer people clicked a result than in summer 2025, in the same position in the results. October 2026 is not yet complete and is provisionally at −43%.
Since AI Mode, clicks on answerable questions keep falling almost every month
Change in click-through rate against July to September 2025, same query in the same position. 0 means as many clicks as back then.
Values as a table
| Month | AI answers completely | AI answers partly | Website needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | −1% | +3% | −1% |
| July 2025 | +1% | +2% | ±0% |
| August 2025 | −1% | −1% | ±0% |
| September 2025 | −4% | −6% | −3% |
| October 2025 | −10% | −12% | −5% |
| November 2025 | −9% | −19% | −8% |
| December 2025 | −9% | −23% | −7% |
| January 2026 | −10% | −24% | −8% |
| February 2026 | −21% | −22% | −11% |
| March 2026 | −25% | −22% | −14% |
| April 2026 | −29% | −24% | −15% |
| May 2026 | −33% | −26% | −13% |
| June 2026 | −37% | −29% | −12% |
| July 2026 | −39% | −30% | −12% |
| August 2026 | −40% | −28% | −11% |
| September 2026 | −41% | −26% | −10% |
| October 2026 (provisional) | −43% | −25% | −10% |
The curve shows no single break but a decline that continues over months. That fits with many people getting used to AI Mode only gradually. For partly answerable questions the value has moved between about 22 and 30% since winter, for questions that need a website between about 10 and 15%.
Which questions are affected
What matters is not the topic but whether an AI can answer the question completely. We assigned every query to one of three groups. The examples are real, general Austrian queries from the data, with an English translation.
The AI can answer the question completely. Once the answer is read, the search is done.
- “was ist topfen” (what is quark)
- “medium rare temperatur” (medium rare temperature)
- “holz richtig lagern” (how to store wood)
The AI gives a first answer. Details, prices or experience still need a source.
- “auto leasing oder kaufen” (lease or buy a car)
- “silvester in österreich” (New Year’s Eve in Austria)
- “halle bauen ohne baugenehmigung” (build a hall without a permit)
Anyone who wants to buy, book, compare or find someone nearby has to visit a website.
- “restaurant in der nähe” (restaurant near me)
- “heizöl preis heute” (heating oil price today)
- “zahnarzt in der nähe” (dentist near me)
Someone searching “what is quark” gets the answer directly from Google and is done. Someone searching “restaurant near me” wants to book a table and has to visit a website. In between are questions like “lease or buy a car”: the AI gives a first assessment, but many still click on to decide.
What this means for a typical website
For most websites the drop is noticeable but smaller than feared. The reason: we only measured search questions of three words or more without brand names. For a typical website they are only a small part of all clicks.
clicks of a typical website come from longer questions without brand names. That is the only place we measured. Most of the rest comes from the website’s name or short terms like “hairdresser Linz”.
Looking only at these questions, the picture is this:
Of 100 clicks from questions, about 14 are gone today
How 100 clicks from longer search questions split up for a typical website. Crossed out: clicks lost since summer 2025.
Industries compared
Magazines and health topics have the largest share of answerable questions, trades, restaurants and local services the smallest. That is down to the type of question: anyone wanting to know about a condition gets an answer from the AI. Anyone looking for a plumber needs a phone number.
How many questions AI can answer in your industry
Share of clicks from longer search questions by question type. The number on the right: the share AI can answer fully or partly.
Interest in AI Mode
More and more people in Austria search specifically for AI Mode. In September 2025 there were about 700 such searches, in August 2026 about 61,400. The term “ki modus” alone rose from 70 to 40,500 searches a month.
Austria searches for AI Mode: from 700 to 61,400 searches a month
Google searches in Austria for “ki modus”, “ai mode”, “google ki modus” and similar terms, per month.
Values as a table
| Month | „ki modus“ | all terms |
|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 70 | 700 |
| October 2025 | 4,400 | 10,080 |
| November 2025 | 9,900 | 14,580 |
| December 2025 | 12,100 | 16,990 |
| January 2026 | 18,100 | 24,890 |
| February 2026 | 18,100 | 26,720 |
| March 2026 | 27,100 | 38,680 |
| April 2026 | 27,100 | 41,080 |
| May 2026 | 33,100 | 49,700 |
| June 2026 | 40,500 | 59,700 |
| July 2026 | 40,500 | 59,500 |
| August 2026 | 40,500 | 61,400 |
That explains why the click-through rate did not fall all at once but month by month: the more people know and use AI Mode, the more questions get answered directly on Google.
Why other studies report higher numbers
International studies find up to 58% fewer clicks because they compare with a time without any AI answers. Our baseline is summer 2025, when AI Overviews were already running in Austria. So we measure what was lost on top in the year after.
Two studies, two periods
Hollow dot: start of the comparison. Filled dot: end. Starting before AI Overviews measures the whole drop. Starting after measures only the additional one.
Is AI replacing SEO?
No, our data argues against it. For questions that need a website, the click-through rate fell by only about 11%. Exactly these questions bring about 85 out of 100 clicks from longer search questions, plus brand searches and short terms we did not count at all.
What changes is the value of pure knowledge pages. Sites that mainly won visitors with explainer texts lose clicks there. In return, exactly such a text can become the source in the AI answer. SEO remains the foundation and GEO is added: our article What is GEO? shows how they connect.
How to optimise your website for AI Mode
First check which of your queries are affected, then adapt pages to the type of question. Not every page needs saving. Some pages bring fewer visitors today but more mentions in AI answers, and that counts too.
- 01Measure firstIn Google Search Console open the performance report and filter queries with the regular expression
([^ ]+ ){2,}[^ ]+. That shows only questions of three words or more. Compare the click-through rate of July to September 2025 with 2026. - 02Answerable questions: become the sourceA short, clear answer at the very top of the page, in two to three sentences. That raises the chance of being named as a source in the AI answer. Do not expect many clicks from such pages any more.
- 03Partly answerable: offer more than the AIThe short answer first, below it what an AI does not have: own experience, concrete prices, examples, own numbers, images.
- 04Website needed: strengthen your offer pagesPeople keep clicking here. Pages for offer, prices, location and contact remain the most worthwhile. Classic SEO works here as before.
How we measured
We compare every query only with itself: same website, same position, summer 2025 against later. That way a worse ranking does not count as an AI effect.
- Baseline: July to September 2025. Included are queries of three words or more without brand names that were shown often enough at the time and ranked in the top five.
- Monthly comparison: how many clicks would the query have received with the earlier click-through rate in the same position, and how many did it actually receive?
- Question type: an AI model assessed for every query whether an AI can answer it completely, partly or not at all. We checked samples by hand.
- Fairness: no single website counts for more than 15%. Magazines are not included in the overall value because they have very many questions and would distort the picture. Ranges were calculated by bootstrapping over websites.
- Cross-check: leaving out the largest website hardly changes the result (for answerable questions in September 2026, unsmoothed −43%, with and without the largest website).
How many people click on which result
Average click-through rate per position for longer search questions, July to September 2025.
Data download
All numbers of this study are available as CSV files, for example for your own presentations or articles. The files open directly in Excel or Google Sheets.
ki-klick-verlauf.csvSummer comparisonChange from July to September 2025 to July to September 2026, per question type, with 90% range.ki-klick-sommervergleich.csvIndustriesShare of the three question types per industry, and the share of these clicks in all clicks of a typical website.ki-klick-branchen.csvSearch interest in AI ModeMonthly Google searches in Austria for terms around AI Mode, from Google Keyword Planner, rounded by Google.ki-modus-suchinteresse.csvClick-through rate by positionAverage click-through rate per position, July to September 2025, queries of three words or more without brand names.klickrate-nach-position.csvLicence: CC BY 4.0. You may use the data freely, including commercially. Please name “Atziry” as the source with a link to this page. The files contain only aggregated values across many websites, no data of single websites and no queries. Column names are in German.
