Media organizations have been alerted to the potential “devastating impacts” on their digital audiences as AI-generated summaries start to replace traditional search results.

The integration of Google’s AI summarization is causing major concern among media proprietors, as it utilizes blocks of text to condense search results. Some perceive this as a fundamental threat to organizations that rely on search traffic.

AI summaries can offer all the information users seek without necessitating a click on the original source, while links to traditional search results are relegated further down the page, thereby decreasing user traffic.

An analysis by the Authoritas Analytics Company indicates that websites previously ranked at the top of search results may experience around a 79% decrease in traffic for specific queries when results are presented through AI summaries.

The study also highlighted that links to YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, are more prominent than traditional search results. This investigation is part of a legal challenge against the UK’s competition regulator concerning the implications of Google’s AI summarization.

In a statement, a Google representative described the study as being “based on inaccurate and flawed assumptions and analysis,” citing a set of searches that does not accurately reflect all queries and results in outdated estimates regarding news website traffic.

“Users are attracted to AI-driven experiences, and AI features in search enable them to pose more questions, creating new avenues for discovering websites,” the spokesperson stated. “We consistently direct billions of clicks to our websites daily and do not observe a significant decline in overall web traffic, as suggested.”

A secondary survey revealed a substantial decline in referral traffic stemming from Google’s AI overview. A month-long study conducted by the US Think tank Pew Research Center found that users clicked on a link under the AI summary only once for every 100 searches.

A Google spokesperson noted that this study employed “a distorted query set that illustrates flawed methodologies and search traffic.”

Senior executives in news organizations claim that Google has consistently declined to share the necessary data to assess the impact of AI summaries.

Although the AI overview represents only a portion of Google search, UK publishers report feeling its effects already. MailOnline executive Carly Stephen noted a significant decline in clicks from search results featuring AI summaries in May, with click-through rates falling by 56.1% on desktop and 48.2% on mobile devices.

Legal actions against the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority involve partnerships with the technology justice organization FoxGlove, the Independent Publishers Alliance, and advocates for the Open Web movement.

Owen Meredith, the CEO of the News Media Association, accused Google of “keeping users within their own enclosed spaces and trying to monetize them by incorporating valuable content, including news produced through significant efforts of others.”

“The current circumstances are entirely unsustainable, and eventually, quality information will be eliminated online,” he stated. “The Competition and Markets Authority possesses tools to address these challenges, and action must be taken swiftly.”

Rosa Curling, Director of FoxGlove, remarked that the new research highlights “the devastating effects the Google ‘AI Overview’ has already inflicted on the UK’s independent news sector.”

“If Google merely takes on the job of journalists and presents it as its own, that would be concerning enough,” she expressed. “But what’s worse is that they use this work to promote their own tools and advantages while making it increasingly difficult for the media to connect with the readers vital for their survival.”