Google's AI reduces media’s exposure on the internet and impacts its sustainability

By Carolina Martínez Elebi, associate researcher at OBSERVACOM.

The implementation of tools like AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search—two chatbots that answer search engine users’ questions—is transforming searches into responses generated by AI systems, drastically reducing clicks to news sites. The decline in organic traffic is forcing media outlets to rethink their sustainability models in an environment increasingly dominated by technology platforms.

Google’s implementation of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools, such as AI Overviews —which summarizes search results at the top of the page for users who have this option enabled in Search Labs —and AI Mode —which interacts with users in a conversational manner and is currently only available in the US and in English—is generating a profound change in the way information is accessed on the internet. This new paradigm—based on automatic responses generated by AI systems, without the need to click on links—is currently in an experimental phase but is already causing a steep drop in traffic to news sites, further exacerbating the sustainability crisis facing digital media.

US outlets like HuffPost and The Washington Post have lost more than 50% of their organic search traffic in the last three years, according to data from the consulting firm Similarweb. For Business Insider the decline was 55% between April 2022 and April 2025, which forced the outlet to lay off 21% of its staff. According to its CEO, Barbara Peng, the cuts were necessary to “withstand an extreme drop in traffic beyond our control.”

The deployment of these AI tools is a response, among other things, to competition from platforms like ChatGPT. Specifically, AI Overviews offers summaries of information at the top of the search results page, while AI Mode interacts with users in a conversational manner, drastically reducing the number of links offered. This is how Google describes its AI Mode system : “AI Mode is Google’s most powerful AI search experience. You can ask anything and get an AI-powered answer.” “Google is moving from being a search engine to an answer engine,” said Nicholas Thompson, executive editor of The Atlantic, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

For digital media, this transformation represents a structural threat. For more than a decade, traffic derived from organic searches on Google was one of the main drivers of visibility and monetization. Today, outlets like The New York Times have seen their share of traffic from Google drop from 44% to 36.5% in just three years. Even in the case of The Wall Street Journal, which increased its traffic volume, the relative weight of organic traffic also decreased, from 29% to 24%.

Faced with this situation, several media outlets are modifying their strategies. The Atlantic has decided to strengthen its direct connection with its audiences through a revamped app, more print issues of its magazine, and in-person events. The New York Times, Politico, Business Insider, and The Wall Street Journal are also investing in subscription models, conferences, and their own digital products to mitigate the loss of referral traffic.

At the same time, the shift in search logic comes amid increased pressure on copyright. The language models that power chatbots have been trained on data scraped from the web, including newspaper articles. Some media companies, such as The New York Times, have initiated legal action against companies like OpenAI and Microsoft for unauthorized use of their content. Others, such as News Corp—the parent company of The Wall Street Journal—have opted for content licensing agreements with OpenAI, while two of its subsidiaries have sued Perplexity.

Google, meanwhile, asserts that it remains committed to redirecting traffic to websites and that users who click after seeing an AI-generated summary spend more time on those pages. They also state that they don’t apply these features to searches related to current news. However, they do apply these features to older content, such as how-to guides, health, lifestyle, travel, reviews, and other genres that are part of the diverse content of digital journalism.

However, this new feature has caused some issues for some users because generative AI doesn’t distinguish between a reliable source and a stray comment on a Reddit thread. Those warning about the potential problems with these systems explain that while AI Overviews and AI Mode include links to sources, by providing the answer users are looking for, why would anyone bother clicking?

Some even believe the future could be a “machine web,” where websites are built to be read by AI, not humans, and where reading chatbot summaries could become the primary way to consume information.

Although a few media outlets have managed to maintain or even increase their traffic through loyalty strategies, the overall trend shows a worrying scenario: fewer clicks, less visibility, and greater dependence on decisions made by large technology platforms, lacking transparent criteria. This new phase, with the use of AI in Google search engines, deepens the challenges for the sustainability of media and news journalism.

Google’s AI reduces media’s exposure on the internet and impacts its sustainability

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