AI Search Traffic: Beyond the Blue Links and A New Buyer Journey

Why AI Search Traffic Is Reshaping the Funnel, Not Just The SERP 

The blue links still exist—but they’re no longer where most decisions begin. As AI-generated answers reshape the search landscape, brands are being discovered earlier, filtered differently, and judged more quickly. This shift is shrinking organic click-through rates—but also unlocking a new kind of visitor: informed, ready to act, and increasingly shaped by what large language models choose to surface. In short, your next best lead may arrive through AI search traffic—not traditional search. 

2025 has made one thing clear: Google remains the web’s largest traffic driver. But the way people interact with it—and the journeys that follow—are changing fast. 

Here’s what the latest data tells us—and where opportunity is quietly growing under the surface. 

Google Traffic Is Still Massive—But the Funnel Has Narrowed 

*Top-level domains shown 

In short: 

• Google still drives the lion’s share of publisher traffic globally. 

• But referral clicks from classic Search results fell 9% in early 2025. 

• Google Discover (AI-curated, mobile-first) rose 6%. 

• When AI Overviews are present, organic link clicks drop by nearly half. 

• Referral traffic from emerging AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) is still small—but their influence is disproportionately high. 

These platforms increasingly shape a prospect’s first impression of your brand, category, and credibility—often before they ever click. While the raw traffic numbers are low today, the sales impact is potentially very high. 

What’s Really Causing the Drop? 

It’s not just that people are clicking less—it’s that Google is increasingly answering their questions for them. 

When AI Overviews appear, the user often gets everything they need—product pros and cons, pricing ranges, even a summary of “best for…” options—before they’ve even seen the traditional 10 blue links. 

As a result: 

• There are fewer clicks per search, even though impressions are rising. 

• Publishers and commercial sites must now compete not just for rank, but for inclusion inside the AI answer itself. 

• And the traditional SEO playbook—optimise for a snippet, track keyword rank, write longform pages—no longer guarantees visibility. 

So yes, traffic is dipping. But this isn’t a decline in interest. It’s a redistribution of discovery. 

The Opportunity: AI Traffic Is Smaller—but Far More Sales-Ready 

Low-volume, high-intent traffic has always been the holy grail. And that’s exactly what LLM-fuelled discovery is beginning to deliver. 

Here’s why: 

• Queries are more specific. AI users don’t just search “CRM tools”—they ask, “What’s the best cloud CRM for a 10-person HR consultancy under £100 a month?” 

• There’s less distraction. AI answers tend to list 2–4 brand suggestions—not 10 sponsored results + 10 organic listings + People Also Ask. 

• Buyers arrive primed. If your brand is referenced in an AI summary, that visitor comes with context: what you do, what makes you different, and why they clicked you over two other options. 

This creates a different kind of click. Smaller in number, yes. But warmer, faster to convert, and often further along the decision funnel. 

Early observations from enterprise SaaS and complex B2B finance suggest that AI-attributed sessions convert 20–40% higher than general search traffic—when tracked with proper assisted conversion models. 

What Marketers Need to Do Now 

You won’t find this new traffic clearly labelled in your analytics by default. LLM visits—whether from ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity—often land in your dashboards as referral traffic, “other campaigns” (in platforms like HubSpot), or are lumped in under “direct.” That means it’s time to act: 

• Find your LLM visits in your dashboards and start reporting on them. Create filters and reports to isolate traffic from these referrers. 

• Tag inbound links with UTMs when publishing on AI-linked forums or third-party content sites. 
• Set up attribution logic to properly track assisted conversions from AI-related sources. 

Start Tracking Prompt Visibility and Brand Mentions 

AI-generated answers often reference content without sending clicks—or even linking directly. To stay visible, marketers need to know: 

• What prompts are triggering AI summaries in your space? Use prompt monitoring tools to test queries aligned to your brand and services. 

• Where your brand is being cited, mentioned or paraphrased—especially in top-level summaries or product comparison content. 

• Which of your competitors are getting picked up in AI answers, and on what topics? Use this to refine your page structure and thought leadership content. 

Tracking prompt visibility is the new rank tracking. It tells you where your brand sits in the AI layer of search—even when that layer doesn’t show up in your click data. 

How Angelfish Helps You Stay Found—and Chosen 

We help in-house marketers protect what’s working while adapting to what’s next. 

Our AI Visibility Package includes: 

• Monitoring your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 

• Auditing your site structure, schema, and citation footprint 

• Helping you win inclusion in AI-generated results through better content, formatting and digital PR 

• Reporting on the new signals that matter: AI mentions, conversion-ready queries, and LLM visibility shifts 

We don’t chase traffic for traffic’s sake. We help you capture the moments that convert. 

Get Ready for AI-Era Discovery 

Google’s AI shift isn’t a phase—it’s the next foundation of how people find, evaluate and choose what to buy. The old funnel is narrowing, but the buyers coming through are stronger than ever. 

If you aren’t already measuring and optimising for AI search traffic, you are already falling behind. 

Book a free discovery call to find your AI visibility gap and put your strategy ahead of the curve. 

The future of search is already here. Let’s make sure your brand leads it.