Google AI Mode Cut Clicks by 18.8 Points in a Randomized Study. Search Console's New AI Report Can't Tell You Where You Stand.

Two things landed in the last two months that every B2B marketing lead should read together: the first randomized field experiment on Google AI Mode, and the fine print of the Search Console report Google built to measure AI features. One says clicks are leaving. The other can't tell you how much you lost.

The study: AI Mode removes clicks and doesn't win users over

A preprint posted to arXiv on August 18, 2026, from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Northeastern University, ran a preregistered randomized field experiment through a browser extension. 1,444 US adults enrolled, 1,100 made at least one search, and participants were assigned for seven days in March 2026 to No AI Search, Current Search, or AI Mode Search. (Relevant Audience summary)

The results versus standard Google:

• AI Mode produced an 18.8 percentage-point drop in click-through to external sites.
• Hiding AI Overviews produced an 8.8 point rise.
• Clicks fell most on Reddit (-21.2 points), then news sites (-12.5) and Wikipedia (-9.9).
• AI Mode users rated usefulness and satisfaction lower and were 11.2 points more likely to search on Bing, DuckDuckGo or Yahoo.

(Relevant Audience summary)

The caveats matter. It is a preprint, a seven-day window, with AI Mode forced rather than opted into, a sample skewed younger and more educated, and only 51.1% of AI Overviews were actually hidden because of a Google HTML change. Read it as strong directional evidence, not a forecast of your own traffic.

The reporting: Search Console sees impressions, not outcomes

Google rolled out generative AI performance reports in Search Console starting June 3, 2026, with worldwide availability by August 31, 2026. (TechWyse) The limits, per TechWyse's September 14 write-up:

• No position inside an AI Overview. John Mueller confirmed every link in an Overview gets the position of the whole block.
• No click data in the AI report; clicks appear only in the standard performance report.
• Not additive. The report is a filtered subset of web search data, so adding it to standard totals double-counts.
• Impressions are generous. An impression counts when the answer appears on the served page, even if the user never scrolls to it, while links behind "show more" count only if expanded.

(TechWyse)

What a lean team should do

Pair the two findings. If AI features reduce outbound clicks, the metrics that still tell you something are the ones closer to the business:

The point

The clicks you used to count are the part of the funnel Google is shrinking, and its own report doesn't cover the gap. Optimize for being cited in the answer, and measure with signals Google doesn't control.