Google has announced plans to make website links and articles more visible in its AI-powered search results, addressing concerns from publishers about declining traffic. The Alphabet subsidiary has been integrating AI features into search results for over two years, starting with AI Overviews in May 2024, which provided summarized answers to queries. In March 2025, Google introduced AI Mode, offering more comprehensive answers and additional links in a separate window.
Now, Google will display contextual links more frequently and higher up in AI-generated content. The company will also expand its global link carousel, which shows headlines with images for relevant articles. The algorithm will prioritize articles from users' preferred sources and include content from social media posts and forums. Links at the end of AI-generated summaries will also be made more engaging and prominent.
During its second quarter 2025 results, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that AI Overviews had over two billion monthly users in more than 200 countries. However, studies have shown that AI summaries significantly reduce the rate at which users open suggested links. A report by consultancy Chartbeat indicated that news website publishers saw a 40 percent drop in traffic from Google between July 2025 and July 2026.
In August, Apig, a group representing daily newspapers in France, alerted the Competition Authority that AI summaries were in breach of agreements reached with news publishers in 2022.