AI search and clicks: what AI Overviews do to B2B SaaS traffic

Do AI Overviews reduce clicks to websites?

Both large studies read for this site say yes, for the organic results below the AI Overview.

Both studies describe correlation, not proof of cause. Seer says its data is "directional." The full comparison is in AI Overviews and click-through rate. Ahrefs' figure rests on a forecast of what click-through rates would have been without AI Overviews, built from keywords that never had one.

How large is the effect by position?

Largest at the top and smaller further down. Ahrefs reports the drop in click-through rate at each position on keywords with an AI Overview.

For position 1, Ahrefs gives the underlying rates. Keywords with an AI Overview had a click-through rate of 0.073 in December 2023 and 0.016 in December 2025. Informational keywords without one fell from 0.076 to 0.039 over the same period. So clicks fell on both groups, but much further where an AI Overview appeared.

Is being cited in an AI Overview worth it?

Yes, on Seer's data, though it does not restore all the clicks. Seer's full-year 2025 averages for informational queries:

Seer sums it up: "Being cited in the AIO delivers +120% more organic clicks per impression versus when you are not cited." Cited brands still trailed queries with no AI Overview by 38%. Seer adds a caution that matters for B2B SaaS: "Higher-authority brands are also more likely to be cited." Some of the gap may come from brand strength, not from the citation itself.

Are clicks recovering?

Partly, in Seer's latest data. Organic click-through rate on queries with an AI Overview fell to 1.31% in December 2025 and rose to 2.36% in February 2026. Queries without an AI Overview were at 3.82% in February 2026, so the gap remained.

Seer also reports a steep fall for brands not cited. On queries with an AI Overview where the brand was not cited, "CTRs declined by 67% over 2025." Two months of recovery is too short to call a trend, and Seer's forecasts for later months are projections, so this site does not repeat them.

What do these studies mean for a B2B SaaS site?

Three things, with a caveat. Neither study isolates B2B SaaS, so the size of the effect on any one site needs checking in its own data.

1. Informational pages carry the most risk. Both studies focus on informational queries, the "what is" and "how to" questions that many B2B SaaS blogs and guides target.
2. Citation is the part that can be influenced. A page cannot stop an AI Overview from appearing. It can be the source the AI Overview names.
3. Brand and product queries still matter. Queries for a company's own name and product pages were not the focus of either study, and may be less exposed. Their share of organic traffic may rise as informational clicks fall.

How AI Overviews choose and display sources is on the Google AI Overviews page.

How can a site see the effect in its own data?

Search Console counts AI feature traffic inside the overall numbers, not separately. Google says sites in AI features "are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console," in the Performance report under the Web search type.

That means the effect has to be inferred. Comparing click-through rate over time for informational queries against brand and product queries is one practical method. A falling rate on informational queries at stable rankings points to AI Overviews or other search features. Citation tracking across AI tools is covered on the tracking AI visibility page.