For years, brand visibility meant dominating search engine rankings. That model is shifting. Many people now receive direct answers from AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, or through AI-generated summaries embedded in search results.
This new reality changes what “visibility” means in practice. It is no longer only about ranking – it is about whether your brand is part of the answer at all.
Google’s AI Overviews, which it has rolled out across search, make this shift visible. Instead of showing only links, Google generates a summary at the top of the page in response to some queries.
A Pew Research Center study published in July 2025 analysed the browsing activity of 900 adults and found that users clicked on traditional search results in only 8% of searches where an AI summary appeared, compared to 15% where there was no summary. Clicks on links inside the AI summaries were even lower, accounting for only 1% of visits. The findings suggest that when users receive a complete answer upfront, many do not continue beyond the summary.
That matters for brands. Fewer clicks mean fewer chances to shape how you are understood through content housed on your own platforms.
