How AI Is Reshaping Search & What It Means for SEO
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Non-click Google searches are increasing but much of a successful SEO strategy remain unchanged.
HC
Written by
Head of Organic
Our SEO team is always working hard to keep up with changes in user behaviour and algorithm updates to ensure our clients stay ahead of the competition. But the rise of Google’s AI-powered search results means more users are getting information faster—and often without clicking through to a website.
This marks a fundamental shift in search behaviour, and we’re starting to see a drop in clicks for terms with a research-based intent.
It’s a delicate balancing act for Google. The AI-generated results are now dominating the search results page, often appearing above ads and organic listings for many informational queries. With the threat of ChatGPT drawing users away, Google is under pressure to keep surfacing AI-driven results to retain search traffic and meet user expectations.
Google remains significantly faster at returning results and is still by far the dominant force in search. However, ChatGPT is leading the way in search innovation—creating a fascinating battle for the future of how we find information.
Ultimately, users remain the top priority. It’s important to remember that most AI-generated responses still reference traditional SEO-optimised pages. And when Google detects commercial intent, it continues to present a more traditional results page with ads and organic listings.
Our SEO team is on the case, working closely with clients to understand how AI is reshaping the search experience—and closely monitoring how these changes unfold.
Helpful content, intuitive site structure, fast load times, and clear messaging remain essential. While AI may change how queries are phrased and results are delivered, search engines still reward relevance, quality, and user-focused experiences. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to understand user intent—what they need, how they express it, and how we can best serve them, no matter the platform or technology.
Some big stats to remember:
Google saw more than 5 trillion searches in 2024, or about 14 billion per day, giving it a 93.57% market share.
ChatGPT saw an estimated 37.5 million search-like prompts per day, giving it a 0.25% market share. That’s less than Microsoft Bing (4.10%), Yahoo (1.35%), and DuckDuckGo (0.73%).
Google saw ~373 times as many searches as ChatGPT in 2024.
In April 2025, every 1 000 browser‑based web searches in the UK, roughly 933 go to Google, 2 reach ChatGPT, and 65 land on Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and others.
