By Sara Guaglione * October 20, 2025 *
Ivy Liu,
As more people use these platforms for search, the number of generative AI platforms is exploding. While AI referrals for publishers are also growing, this is not enough to compensate for the Google search referral traffic losses that many are experiencing.
Some publishers are seeing decent visibility on AI platforms, such as ChatGPT and Google AI Mode. AI platforms rely heavily on traditional search engines like Google and Bing, which means they must follow the same rules as traditional SEO. They also need to ensure that their content is easily accessible by AI crawlers. Semrush’s AI Visibility Index reportthat was released last month.
According to Semrush President Eugene Levin, the best way for publishers to improve their AI visibility would be to sign a licensing agreement with AI platforms. This is especially true since publishers will not see similar referral traffic as they did in the pre-AI era. Publishers and AI companies will often sign licensing agreements that promise them prominence in AI search results. This helps them to get in front of eyes with the attribution.
Here are some recent data that shows the current state of AI searches and what this means for publishers.
The number of search platforms that use AI is growing
There’s no question that generative AI platforms are growing. Google still reigns supreme in terms of overall market share of search platforms — ChatGPT is still small compared to Google’s 15 billion searches, about 5 billion of which trigger AI Overviews, according to Levin.
Here’s the year-over-year growth for major generative AI platforms when comparing desktop and mobile web visits from September 2024 to September 2025, according to Similarweb data:
- ChatGPT grew 90.3% from 3.1 billion to 5.9 billion.
- Perplexity grew 134.5% from 72.3 million to 169.5 million.
- Claude grew 123% from 70.4 million to 157 million
- Copilot grew 169.2% from 37 million to 99.6 million.
- Anthropic grew 80.3% from 7.1 million to 12.8 million
- Meta grew 42.3% from 7.8 million to 11.1 million.
AI referrals are increasing, but not in a way that is generating notable traffic
Similarweb data shows that large news publishers have seen a year-overyear increase in referrals coming from generative AI platforms. (This does not include Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode) This still represents less than 1% in their overall traffic.
From the September 2024 to the September 2025, AI traffic referrals grew:
- 98.4% at The New York Times;
- 174.3% at CNN;
- 214.6% at Fox News;
- 503.9% at People,
- and 503.9% for USA Today.
SEOClarity has tracked over 16.5 million visits from the top four AI search engines in the past nine months, and estimates that every click driven by an AI search result is fueled by about 20 searches (from across different sources) by the AI platform — which helps explain the increase in referral traffic some publishers are seeing.
According to SEOClarity’s “AI Search Trend Report”released last monthshows that about 3.5 percent (or 3.5%) of all searches take place on ChatGPT and that about 28 percent (or 28%) of ChatGPT AI answers cite at least one reference.
From SEOClarity’s “AI Search Trend Report” Despite its rapid growth, AI traffic doesn’t drive conversions
According to a study, generative AI search platforms don’t drive conversions (taking action after visiting a website, such as signing up for a mailing list or making a purchase). BrightEdge dataOrganic search is the main driver of conversions. BrightEdge discovered that AI search only accounts for less than 1 percent of referral traffic. The majority of these referrals come from ChatGPT. Google was not included in the survey.
AI search serves as a research channel, with “near-zero” direct conversions tracked by BrightEdge, according to a report out last month. However, this means that AI search could be valuable for top-of-funnel discovery for publishers, who can convert audiences through direct channels.
Some publishers maintain visibility in AI search.
According to Semrush data, publishers are frequently cited on two major AI platforms, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, in categories like business and professional services and consumer electronics. This shows that these platforms prioritise editorial content as a source, and publishers appear in front of generative AI users.
The data also shows that generative AI platforms have a different approach to sourcing information. ChatGPT, for example, cites Reddit a lot (141,2%) and Wikipedia a lot (151,9%) in the business and professional service category. Each of these sources is cited more than once on average per prompt. TechRadar (29.53%) and Forbes (23.82%), which are industry-specific, also feature prominently.
Google AI Mode cites mainly LinkedIn (24.1%), followed by Google’s properties (21.9%), and Yelp (21.4%).
“Publishers play an important role in the authority of certain topics. AI has to rely on the authority of certain media outlets,” Levin said.
However, as the study shows, AI is more likely to pull information from user-generated content from sources like Reddit and YouTube. This explains, in part, why publishers are seeing less referral traffic overall, Levin said.
“As the mix of sources have changed, traditional media companies have gotten less traffic,” he said. “It’s a redistribution [of referral traffic] because of AI… Reddit gained more [traffic growth] than all of the media companies combined [in the report] have lost.”
