AI Ate My Clicks, and Other Summer Headlines

Hope you’re staying cool this summer, unlike the SEO teams watching their traffic melt. A new study from Pew confirms what many of you suspected: when Google shows an AI summary, users just... don’t click. That’s not a bug, it’s a shift in how people interact with the web. And it has big consequences for marketing, discovery, and content strategy.

We’re breaking down that story and zooming out to look at what’s brewing across the AI landscape, from wearable acquisitions to a hiring frenzy among the AI elite.

Let’s get into it.

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Pew Research: Google’s AI Summaries Are Killing Clicks. That’s the Point.

New data from Pew Research shows a stark trend: when Google shows AI-generated summaries (via its Search Generative Experience, or SGE), fewer people click on the actual links below.

• Only 20% of users clicked any link when an AI summary appeared, compared to over 60% when it didn’t.

• Younger users (under 30) were even more likely to stick with the summary, rarely scrolling or clicking.

• And about a third didn’t even realize the summary came from AI.

I don’t think this can be understated, it’s definitely a seismic shake-up of how discovery works online. This change is about control of information flow, content attribution, and the reshaping of online discovery. Google’s entire value proposition used to be, “We’ll point you to the best source.” Now it’s becoming, “We are the source.”

That shift has existential implications for teams who rely on:

• Organic traffic for lead gen

• Content marketing to demonstrate expertise

• Search visibility to compete against dominant players

For enterprise leaders, this is your early warning:

• Search traffic will become less reliable. That glossy blog strategy you scaled last year may soon be buried below a no-click AI box.

• Your data is training your competition. Google’s summaries are often built from your content, without attribution or traffic in return.

• Brand visibility needs new paths. From hosted tools to short-form explainers, the savviest teams are diversifying beyond SEO to maintain reach.

What to do now:

• Audit your top search-performing content. Is it still pulling in traffic? Or has it fallen victim to AI summarization?

• Invest in owned channels. Email, partner networks, gated tools, and direct community-building will matter more than ever.

• Think like a destination, not a detour. If your content isn’t worth clicking on in a post-AI world, it’s time to rethink what you’re publishing.

This is the start of a new era in digital attention, and if you’re still optimizing for 2019 SEO, you’re not ready for it.

News Roundup

Amazon’s next wearable flex: An AI health coach.
Amazon is acquiring Bee, a startup building AI-powered wearables focused on women’s health and mood tracking. It’s a clear move to deepen its foothold in wellness, and challenge Apple’s grip on the health-conscious market.
Read more →

AI-generated “news anchors” debut in Kuwait.
Kuwait has launched its first AI-generated news broadcast featuring avatars reporting the daily news. It’s uncanny valley meets state media, raising questions about credibility, censorship, and what “news” even means anymore.
Read more →

Microsoft, Google, and DeepMind are poaching from each other (again).
The AI talent war is heating up as top researchers jump between Big Tech giants. Hiring bonuses reportedly hitting seven figures. As one exec said, “If you don’t have a GPU cluster and a rockstar model team, you’re not in the game.”
Read more →

TL;DR:

• Google’s AI summaries are eating clicks, and traditional SEO with them

• Amazon is doubling down on wearables with an AI wellness angle

• Kuwait just launched AI-generated news anchors

• Microsoft, Google, and DeepMind are locked in a talent arms race

• Enterprises need to shift from traffic strategies to trust-and-visibility ecosystems

The web isn’t vanishing. But the old ways of navigating it are. If AI becomes the first (and last) touchpoint for users, then the only question that matters is: will your content still matter in that world?

Stay sharp,

Cat Valverde
Founder, Enterprise AI Solutions
Navigating Tomorrow’s Tech Landscape Together