Every year, brightonSEO gives our team a useful snapshot of where search is heading. This year, one theme came through louder than any other: visibility is no longer just about rankings, traffic, and blue links.

Across talks covering AI search, reporting, trust, structured data, digital PR, the power of reviews, e-commerce, and content strategy, we noticed that the same message kept appearing in different words. As user behaviour has changed, so too has the way we measure visibility.

Here’s just a glimpse into some of what we learnt at this year’s conference…

Search behaviour and Google SERPs

1. 60% of Google searches end without a click

A large share of search behaviour now ends on the results page itself, with users getting what they need without visiting a website. That means businesses can no longer judge search success on traffic alone when visibility within the search experience matters more than ever.

Source: SparkToro

2. Clicks are reduced by 34.5% when AI summaries appear

When AI-generated summaries appear in search results, fewer users click through to traditional organic listings since. That means even strong rankings may no longer deliver the same traffic they once did, making visibility within the search experience itself increasingly important.

Source: Ahrefs

3. AI Overviews appear for 21% of keywords

AI Overviews are no longer niche. They are now appearing often enough to materially affect how users interact with search results, especially for informational and comparison-led queries.

Source: Ahrefs

4. In some categories, AI Overviews appear on up to 60% of searches

The impact of AI-led results is not evenly distributed. In some sectors, especially research-heavy or question-led categories, AI Overviews are already reshaping the search experience at scale.

Source: Ahrefs

5. UK mobile CTR for the #1 result dropped from 27.85% to 24.07% in one year

Even outside AI Overviews specifically, organic click-through behaviour is shifting downward. For businesses, this means SEO reporting needs to focus more on outcomes and less on raw position data.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking

6. Organic-result clicks in the US fell from 44.2% to 40.3%

This is another sign that fewer searches now translate into visits to external websites. Search is still important, but businesses should expect less direct traffic yield from the same visibility.

Source: SparkToro/Datos

7. Organic-result clicks in the EU/UK fell from 47.1% to 43.5%

The same trend is visible across European markets too. In practical terms, this means businesses need stronger brand and trust signals if they want to remain visible when fewer users are clicking.

Source: SparkToro/Datos

8. US zero-click searches rose from 24.4% to 27.2%

Search is becoming more self-contained. For businesses, this makes it more important to appear in summaries, comparisons, and branded follow-up searches — not just to rank well.

Source: SparkToro/Datos

9. 99% of keywords trigger at least one SERP feature

Traditional “10 blue links” search has effectively disappeared. For businesses, the modern search environment is now much more visual, layered, and competitive than rankings alone suggest.

Source: Ahrefs

10. 50% of all searches trigger an AI Overview (an 18% increase from last year)

This increase shows just how quickly Google is reshaping the search experience. For businesses, this means traditional organic listings are competing with a much more prominent AI-led layer in the results page.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking

AI search, discovery and online visibility

11. 24% of ChatGPT’s 2.5 billion daily queries are search-like

AI tools are increasingly being used for the kinds of exploratory and informational tasks that used to begin in search engines. That makes AI interfaces part of the wider visibility conversation for brands.

Source: NBER – How People Use ChatGPT

12. 51% of UK adults use AI tools for personal reasons

More than half of UK adults are now using AI tools in everyday life, showing how quickly consumer behaviour is shifting. Even where there is no direct sales goal, businesses need to adapt to these changing habits if they want to stay visible and generate brand awareness.

Source: Which?

13. Search engines account for 33% of global brand and product discovery

Despite the rise of AI and social platforms, search remains the leading discovery channel globally. The takeaway is not that search is dying, just evolving.

Source: GWI

14. Third-party directories account for 46.3% of citations for branded subjective queries in OpenAI

When a search is opinion-based, OpenAI relies much more heavily on third-party directories and comparison-style sources. For businesses, this means visibility in trusted external directories can play a major role in whether your brand is surfaced for subjective, recommendation-led queries.

Source: Yext Research

15. Google gets 138x the traffic that ChatGPT does

The AI search shift matters, but it is important not to overstate it. Traditional search remains vastly larger in raw usage terms, so businesses need both short-term realism and long-term adaptability.

Source: chatgpt-vs-google.com,

16. 85% of brand citations in AI come from third-party sources

This is one of the clearest signals that off-site authority matters more than ever. Brands can no longer rely on their own website alone to shape how they appear in AI-led search experiences.

Source: AirOps

17. ChatGPT referrals rose from 1 million to 25.2 million between January-May 2025

AI referral traffic is growing quickly even if it remains much smaller than Google overall. That makes it a channel businesses should monitor now rather than wait for it to mature fully.

Source: Similarweb

18. 89.6% of ChatGPT prompts trigger 2+ sub-queries

Most ChatGPT prompts branch into follow-up searches, so tracking one keyword alone is no longer enough for an accurate measure of citation visibility. For businesses, it may depend just as much on the related questions AI asks behind the scenes.

Source: AirOps

19. 91% of AI citations come from sources brands can directly control

The good news is that a large proportion of AI visibility is still influenced by assets brands can shape, such as websites and listings. This means AI visibility is not entirely out of your hands.

Source: Yext Research

20. 46.9% of AI citations come from websites and 43.7% from listings

Together, websites and listings make up the majority of cited sources in one major AI citation dataset. That underlines the importance of structured, accurate, and well-maintained digital assets.

Source: Yext Research

E-commerce and AI-assisted buying

21. 47% of online shoppers have used AI to make a purchasing decision

There’s no denying that AI is becoming a more common part of the shopping journey. For businesses, that means AI is no longer a future trend in e-commerce – it’s already influencing how people compare options, evaluate products, and decide what to buy.

Source: Eight Oh Two

22. 89.3% of “ready to buy” users purchase after using answer engines as a final check

AI search is not just an awareness tool – in some cases it is already acting as a final decision-support layer. That makes it especially important for brands in considered-purchase categories.

Source: Try Profound – AI Shopping Journey 2025

23. 68.9% of users researching a specific product purchase

This suggests AI-assisted shopping behaviour is strongest when the buyer already has some product-level clarity. The nearer someone is to a decision, the more commercially valuable AI visibility becomes.

Source: Try Profound – AI Shopping Journey 2025

24. Visitors driven by AI Search convert 4.4x more than traditional organic searchers

Although AI search may send less traffic than traditional search, the users it does send are often much higher intent. This suggests AI visibility could become commercially valuable very quickly to a business, even before it becomes a major traffic driver.

Source: Semrush

25. 76% of UK and European consumers use AI for purchase research

AI is already becoming part of how consumers compare options before buying. This makes AI visibility especially important for retail, e-commerce, and considered purchases.

Source: Verdane Emerging Trends in Consumer AI Adoption in Europe

26. 27.7% of users comparing across a category purchase

Comparison behaviour remains a major opportunity area. Brands that appear consistently during the evaluation stage may be better placed even if they are not always the first point of discovery.

Source: Try Profound – AI Shopping Journey 2025

Thought leadership and professional visibility

27. 94% of B2B buyers now use AI in their buying process

In B2B, AI is rapidly becoming part of how buyers research and validate options. Businesses in professional services and complex-sale categories need to adapt to this shift early.

Source: 6sense

28. The average B2B buying committee now includes 13 people

That larger group dynamic makes visible expertise and third-party trust signals even more important. Content and visibility strategies now need to support multiple stakeholders, not just one decision-maker.

Source: Forrester

29. 71% of hidden buyers find thought leadership more effective than traditional marketing

This is a strong argument for expert-led content and off-site authority building. In a more complex search landscape, brand trust is increasingly built before a buyer ever speaks to sales.

Source: Edelman/LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report 2025

30. LinkedIn profiles that are public and verified can see 60% more profile views and 50% more engagement

Strong professional visibility is becoming part of how trust is built online. For B2B brands in particular, leadership visibility and expert presence are increasingly tied to discoverability.

Source: LinkedIn

31. LinkedIn is the #1 source AI models cite for professional knowledge

For professional and B2B sectors, LinkedIn is becoming more than a social network. It is increasingly acting as a trust and authority layer that feeds into AI-led discovery.

Source: Profound

Content strategy and content quality

32. ChatGPT is 3x less likely to use self-promotional listicles than other models

Compared with some other AI models, ChatGPT appears much less likely to cite listicles that are heavily self-promotional. This suggests that businesses can’t rely on overly sales-led “best of” content alone and may need stronger third-party validation, clearer product information, and more genuinely useful content to improve visibility.

Source: Peec AI

33. 55% of UK AI searchers use it for general information and advice

Most UK AI search users are not turning to these tools for product or service recommendations. That makes informational content an important part of any visibility strategy, helping businesses stay present earlier in the research journey and build familiarity before a buying decision is made.

Source: Which?

34. Longer articles can hold attention for nearly 30 seconds more than shorter ones

The gap in engaged time between a 500-word article and a 2000-word article is almost 30 seconds. This suggests that more in-depth content can do a better job of holding attention, especially when readers are actively researching or comparing options.

Source: Chartbeat

35. 80% of top-ranking content is human-written

Despite the rise of AI-generated content, the vast majority of top-ranking pages are still human-written. For all businesses, that is a reminder that AI can support content creation, but relying on it too heavily without human input can weaken quality and performance.

Source: Semrush

36. 59% of PR professionals say AI and automation will grow in importance over the next five years

This matters because digital visibility now sits across SEO, PR, content, and brand strategy. As AI becomes more central, the lines between those functions will continue to blur.

Source: Muck Rack State of PR 2025

Social media and off-site influence

37. 73% of businesses have Reddit threads ranking on p1 for their branded searches

Reddit is now showing up prominently when people search for brands by name, making it a more common part of the research and validation journey. For businesses, that means off-site conversations are increasingly shaping brand perception before a user even reaches your website.

Source: Smarty

38. 71% of people who discover a brand elsewhere then research it on Reddit

Reddit’s role in the customer journey has shifted from “forum noise” to a meaningful validation channel. That matters because AI systems also cite Reddit heavily.

Source: Reddit

39. 88% of users have made a purchase based on information found on Reddit

Reddit is not just influencing opinions — it is influencing revenue. Brands that ignore it risk missing both human and AI-led visibility opportunities.

Source: Reddit

40. Reddit was the #2 most-cited source in AI Overviews in 2025

This is one of the clearest examples of how search and community content are now blending. For businesses, it means authentic external discussion is becoming harder to ignore.

Source: Semrush

41. 94% of YouTube AI citations went to long-form videos

This suggests AI systems are generally favouring more substantive, explanatory video content over short clips. For brands investing in video, usefulness appears to matter more than brevity alone.

Source: OtterlyAI

42. 40.8% of cited videos had fewer than 1,000 views

Popularity is not the same as usefulness. AI systems may cite smaller creators if the content clearly answers the question better than more widely viewed alternatives.

Source: OtterlyAI

What these statistics are telling us

Taken individually, some of these stats are quite interesting thoughts to share in a meeting. Taken together, they tell a much bigger story.

Search is becoming:

  • More zero-click
  • More fragmented across platforms
  • More influenced by AI systems
  • More dependent on trust and off-site signals
  • Harder to measure using old SEO models alone

For businesses, that means the old SEO playbook is no longer enough. Rankings and traffic still matter and are still valuable data sets to collect and analyse, but visibility now depends on a much wider mix of factors.

For many businesses looking to adapt their digital strategies, focus needs to be directed to brand strength, content quality, structured data, reviews, third-party mentions, platform presence, and whether your business looks credible wherever people (and AI systems) find you.

If you want help turning these changes into a clearer digital visibility strategy, Submerge can be there – book a free consultation today.