---
title: "Who is Talking to My Users?"
description: "AI's impact on web traffic: New data shows 47% drop in clickthrough rates when AI summaries appear. What this means for startups and publishers in 2024."
categories: ["AI","web"]
keywords: ["AI traffic impact","clickthrough rates","AI summaries","web traffic decline","startups and publishers","Pew Research AI study","Cloudflare data","content disintermediation","Theory Ventures","Tomasz Tunguz"]
ai_summary: "AI summaries lead to a 47% drop in clickthrough rates, reshaping web traffic dynamics for startups and publishers."
date: 2025-08-11
lastmod: 2026-07-31
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/who-is-talking-to-my-users/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

In 1999, the dotcoms were valued on traffic. IPO metrics revolved around eyeballs.

Then Google launched AdWords, an ad model predicated on clicks, & built a $273b business in 2024.

But that might all be about to change : [Pew Research's July 2025 study](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/) reveals users click just 8% of search results with AI summaries, versus 15% without - a 47% reduction. Only 1% click through from within AI summaries.

[Cloudflare data shows](https://blog.cloudflare.com/ai-search-crawl-refer-ratio-on-radar/) AI platforms crawl content far more than they refer traffic back : Anthropic crawls 32,400 pages for every 1 referral, while traditional search engines scan content just a couple times per visitor sent.

![Crawl to Click Ratio](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/v1754929939/k1uox81rjt0b4r37ddf5.png)

The expense of serving content to the AI crawlers may not be huge if it's mostly text.

The bigger point is AI systems disintermediate the user & publisher relationship. Users prefer aggregated AI answers over clicking through websites to find their answers.

It's logical that most websites should [expect less traffic.](https://tomtunguz.com/chegg-aio/) How will your website & your business handle it?

---

_Sources:_

- [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/) - Athena Chapekis, July 22, 2025
- [Cloudflare: The crawl before the fall of referrals](https://blog.cloudflare.com/ai-search-crawl-refer-ratio-on-radar/)
- [Cloudflare Radar: AI Insights - Crawl to Refer Ratio](https://radar.cloudflare.com/ai-insights#crawl-to-refer-ratio)
- [Podcast: The Shifting Value of Content in the AI Age](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shifting-value-of-content-in-the-ai-age/id1668002688?i=1000721098174)