AI Streamlines Online Searches, Cutting Web Traffic to Major Sites

(MENAFN) Artificial intelligence is swiftly reshaping the digital landscape, streamlining online searches while diverting critical web traffic from major content providers, according to recent figures from SimilarWeb and other analytics sources.

Advanced AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are offering users immediate, summarized answers—dramatically reducing the need to click through to traditional news, informational, or e-commerce sites.

Data from SimilarWeb revealed a steep year-over-year decline in U.S. search-driven traffic across multiple sectors in 2024–2025. Travel and tourism websites experienced a 20% drop, followed by a 17% dip in news and media. E-commerce declined by 9%, finance and food each fell 7%, and lifestyle saw a 5% decrease.

Wikipedia, once a dominant force among global websites, saw its daily visitor count plummet from 165 million in March 2022—coinciding with the early buzz around ChatGPT—to just 128 million in March 2025, marking a 23% loss.

SEO firm BrightEdge noted that as Google’s AI Overviews gained widespread adoption since their rollout about a year ago, AI-generated answers grew rapidly in popularity, while direct clicks to websites fell by 30%.

Meanwhile, a study by The Decoder revealed that news-related queries on ChatGPT skyrocketed by 212% in 2025 compared to the previous year. In contrast, conventional news searches on Google rose only 5%.

Amid these shifts, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has disclosed plans to launch its own AI-integrated web browser to rival Google Chrome—a strategic move that could further redefine how users engage with online content.

By merging browsing capabilities with AI-powered tools, OpenAI aims to gain deeper access to user behavior data—intensifying competition with Google, which still depends on advertising for roughly 75% of its revenue.

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