Google says AI Search sends billions of clicks weekly

Google says its AI Search features now send billions of clicks to websites every week, a figure it has not backed with published data. Nick Fox, Google’s senior vice president of knowledge and information, made the claim in a LinkedIn post on 17 July 2026, pushing back on the fear that AI answers are choking off traffic to the open web.

What happened

Fox took on two worries directly: that AI chatbots would make search obsolete, and that AI-generated answers would end click-throughs to websites. On the first, he said the opposite has happened, and that when people can ask whatever is on their minds, they use Google Search more than ever. On the second, he said Google keeps sending billions of clicks to the web every day through Search overall, and billions every week through AI features alone.

Google did not publish a baseline, a methodology, or any breakdown showing how the weekly AI-feature number relates to total Search clicks. The figures are given only in billions, so there is no way to see what share of clicks now originates from AI Overviews or AI Mode.

Why it matters

Independent measurement points the other way for any single website. Analysing Similarweb clickstream data, SparkToro found that 68% of US Google searches ended without a click in early 2026, up from around 60% in 2024, and that AI Overviews cut click-through rates by roughly 60% on the results where they appear.

Both things can be true at once. Total clicks across an enormous query base can stay vast while the share of searches that send a visit to any given site keeps falling. An aggregate “billions of clicks” headline says little about what a specific brand’s location pages are actually receiving.

What this means for multi-location brands

For a central team running hundreds or thousands of locations, the takeaway is not to manage to Google’s aggregate number. It is to measure your own location and category pages, because that is where AI Overviews and “near me” answers decide who gets surfaced. As AI features answer more local queries in place, visibility depends on being the source an AI can cite: accurate, structured location data and content that answers the question directly. Brands should track how they appear in AI search results and invest in generative engine optimization rather than assuming a click will follow a ranking. Keeping presence and data consistent through Places AI and strong Google Maps SEO is what feeds the answers that now come before the click.

In early 2026, 68% of Google searches ended without a click, up from around 60% in 2024, and AI Overviews reduced click-through rates by roughly 60% where they appeared.

SparkToro, analysing Similarweb clickstream data

The bottom line

Google’s message is that the web is fine and AI is sending more traffic, not less. The number it chose to share cannot be checked, and independent data shows the click is getting rarer per search. For multi-location brands, the safe read is to plan for fewer clicks per query and to compete for the answer itself.