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AI search is becoming a more prominent part of how people find information online, and many small business owners believe the shift is already affecting how customers reach their websites.
According to a new Small Business Expo Research Team survey of 3,608 small business owners, 33.9% say they have noticed a decline in website traffic that they believe is related to AI-generated answers appearing in search results. More than 1 in 5 report that the decline has been moderate or significant.
The findings come as AI-generated summaries become increasingly common in search. A Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. browsing behavior found that 58% of participants encountered at least one Google search with an AI-generated summary during March 2025.¹
Highlights
- 33.9% report a slight, moderate, or significant decline in website traffic they believe is related to AI-generated search answers.
- 22.7% report a moderate or significant decline.
- 12.9% characterize the decline as significant.
- 14.8% say AI-powered search has displayed incorrect information about their business.
- Among owners who have encountered incorrect AI information, 56.0% also report declining website traffic.
- 42.8% have noticed no decline, while 14.5% aren’t sure whether their traffic has been affected.
1 in 3 Owners Say AI Search Is Affecting Website Traffic
When asked whether they had noticed a decline in website traffic they believe was related to AI-generated answers appearing in search results, 12.9% described the decline as significant, 9.8% as moderate, and 11.2% as slight.
Together, those groups account for 33.9% of all respondents.
Another 42.8% reported no noticeable decline, while 14.5% weren’t sure or couldn’t determine whether AI search had affected their traffic. Just 4.1% said their website traffic had increased, and 4.6% said their business doesn’t rely on website traffic.
The results reflect owners’ perceptions of what is driving their traffic changes and do not establish that AI-generated answers caused those declines. Still, the number of owners noticing the same pattern is notable.
More Than 1 in 5 Report a Moderate or Significant Impact
The findings aren’t limited to businesses reporting minor fluctuations.
Combining the two higher-impact categories shows that 22.7% of respondents—more than 1 in 5—believe AI-generated search answers have contributed to a moderate or significant decline in their website traffic.
Independent browsing data provides some evidence that AI-generated summaries can change clicking behavior. Pew Research Center found that users clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% of visits without one. Users clicked a source link within an AI summary in just 1% of visits.²
For small businesses that have historically relied on search engines to introduce potential customers to their websites, the rise of AI search could change how they think about online visibility.
At the same time, the broader effect on web traffic remains contested. Google has said that its overall organic click volume to websites has remained relatively stable year over year and argues that clicks generated through its AI search experiences can be higher quality.³
That doesn’t necessarily make a website less important. But it could mean that appearing accurately and prominently within search experiences matters alongside generating the traditional website click.
Nearly 1 in 6 Say AI Search Has Gotten Their Business Wrong
Traffic isn’t the only concern raised by the survey.
14.8% of owners say Google or another AI-powered search result has displayed incorrect information about their business. Another 34.4% aren’t sure whether this has happened, while 50.8% say they haven’t encountered inaccurate information.
That means nearly 1 in 6 owners have personally identified incorrect information about their business in AI-powered search results.
For a small business, inaccurate information about products, services, hours, policies, or other details could create a different visibility challenge: customers may increasingly encounter information about the company without ever visiting the company’s own website.
Incorrect Information and AI Search Traffic Declines Strongly Overlap
The most striking finding emerges when the two questions are examined together.
Among owners who say AI-powered search has displayed incorrect information about their business, 56.0% also report a slight, moderate, or significant decline in website traffic they believe is related to AI-generated search answers.
Among owners who have not encountered incorrect information, that figure falls to 31.1%.
The difference becomes even larger for significant declines. 27.9% of owners who encountered incorrect AI information report a significant traffic decline, compared with 10.3% of those who haven’t encountered incorrect information.
The survey does not establish that inaccurate AI information causes traffic declines, and other factors could help explain the relationship. But the substantial overlap shows that these two concerns are frequently being reported by the same business owners.
Final Takeaway
AI search is changing what happens between a customer’s question and a business’s website.
For 33.9% of small business owners surveyed, that change is already associated with a perceived decline in website traffic. And among owners who have seen AI search present incorrect information about their businesses, more than half also report losing traffic.
The findings point to an emerging challenge for small businesses: online visibility may increasingly depend not only on whether customers can find a business, but also on what AI tells them before they ever click through to its website.
Footnotes
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Pew Research Center. What Web Browsing Data Tells Us About How AI Appears Online. May 23, 2025. Pew Research Center report Pew Research Center
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Pew Research Center. Google Users Are Less Likely to Click on Links When an AI Summary Appears in the Results. July 22, 2025. Pew Research Center analysis Pew Research Center
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Google. AI in Search Is Driving More Queries and Higher Quality Clicks. August 6, 2025. Google’s statement
Related: Small Business Owners Are Open to AI—With Human Oversight