For years, the internet worked on a fairly simple exchange. Let’s suppose we use Google to search for something; it shows us various website links. Out of those links, we click one link to read the article or watch the video, or an advertisement to buy something. Through this, these websites get a visitor, and that visitor is worth something through advertising, subscriptions, sales, or future engagement.

Artificial intelligence is quietly changing that conventional arrangement. Several AI tools make searching convenient for us. We simply ask a question and receive the answer without visiting the website that generates the information in the first place. Google AI Mode gives us an AI-generated summary. ChatGPT can search the web and explain what it finds for us. Perplexity can gather information from several sources and present it as one answer.

It is convenient, but convenient for whom?

The Click Is Disappearing

The problem gets instantly solved with the help of AI tools. A 2025 Pew Research Centre analysis looked at 68,879 Google searches. It found that users clicked on a search result in only 8 per cent of visits when an AI summary appeared. When there was no AI summary, the click rate rose to 15 per cent. Clicks on sources cited inside the AI summary happened in just 1 per cent of visits.

That is the basic idea behind the zero-click economy. The user gets the information, but the publisher does not necessarily get the visit. This matters because a website visitor is not just a number in Google Analytics. For many publishers, that visitor is how an article eventually pays for itself. It is an opportunity to build a relationship with visitors, with a high chance of subscription, more newsletter sign-ups, and more advertising impressions.

Remove enough of those visits and the economics of publishing start to change.

AI Did Not Create Zero-Click Search

It would be unfair to blame AI for everything. For years, search engines have been answering questions directly. Weather forecasts, sports scores, calculators, knowledge panels, and featured snippets have all reduced the need to click on a website.

AI simply takes the idea much further. Instead, AI not only searches for one fact, but an AI system........

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