A new research effort reported by Search Engine Journal finds that Google's AI Mode sends significantly fewer clicks to websites than traditional search results, and that users rate the experience it delivers as poor.

The findings land at a moment when publishers are already measuring traffic losses tied to AI Overviews, Google's AI-generated answer layer in standard search results. AI Mode, launched as a standalone experience, removes the familiar list of blue links even further from the user's path, and the early data suggests the click-through consequences are severe.

According to the research, AI Mode's click rates fall well below what sites receive from conventional organic listings. Where a standard query page presents users with ten blue links and a clear pathway to publisher content, AI Mode responds with an open-ended, chat-style interface. Users ask follow-up questions and receive synthesized answers, and the visible incentive to leave Google and visit a source site shrinks accordingly.

The study's second conclusion may be the more surprising one for Google: users themselves judge the experience negatively. The research characterizes AI Mode as a poor user experience, not merely a poor referral engine. That combination — fewer clicks for publishers and lower satisfaction for searchers — challenges the core assumption that replacing links with AI-generated answers improves the search product.

It is worth separating what is confirmed from what is inferred here. The click-rate findings and the user-experience assessment come from the study's measurements, not from any statement by Google. Google has not publicly endorsed these figures, and the company has not commented on the research's methodology as reported.

For publishers, the impact is uneven across site types. Informational publishers, news outlets and content sites that depend on top-of-funnel organic traffic face the largest exposure, because AI Mode answers the informational queries that traditionally drove their visits. Transactional sites, brands with strong direct traffic, and publishers whose audiences arrive via navigational queries are structurally less dependent on the click path AI Mode disrupts.

The timing matters for measurement. Early data on any new search surface tends to overstate or understate long-term effects as user behavior settles. Site owners comparing periods before and after AI Mode exposure should segment by query type — informational versus transactional — before drawing conclusions about their own traffic, since aggregate analytics can mask AI Mode's effect on specific high-value query clusters.

The research also adds fuel to an ongoing industry debate about attribution. When AI Mode synthesizes answers from multiple sources, the referring mechanisms available to publishers may not capture the visit even when Google's systems used the publisher's content. That makes traffic-loss estimates from analytics packages a conservative floor rather than a full account of AI Mode's footprint.

For search professionals, the practical implication is monitoring discipline. Track click-through rates on queries where AI Mode appears, segment by intent and vertical, and watch whether Google iterates on the interface in response to user-experience criticism of the kind this study documents. The next signals to watch are whether Google modifies AI Mode's link presentation, expands or contracts its query coverage, and whether subsequent studies replicate the low click-through findings at larger sample sizes.