Google adds more links to AI Mode and AI Overviews: will people actually click?

On 15 October 2026, Hema Budaraju, Google’s VP of product management, announced several changes to how answers look in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google says the aim is to make exploring the web simpler and more clickable.

The main change is that links embedded in words or phrases within answers (inline links) will appear more often and higher up, at the point where the reader reaches the relevant information. For tasks or information covered by only a few official sites, a separate section at the top of the answer will surface those links with a short note on why they are useful.

• News article carousels are expanding to more countries and languages and highlight users’ Preferred Sources
• Some links at the end of answers now carry thumbnails for a more clickable layout
• In a test of AI Mode video results, clicking a creator’s name opens their Google Search profile first, not their own site
• Google says use of Preferred Sources grew 7x this year

Both Search Engine Land and BetaNews point out that Google shared no click data from AI answers with this announcement. So it is not yet possible to say how much the extra links will translate into real traffic.

Site owners’ tools do not fill the gap either. On 3 June 2026, Google launched Generative AI performance reports in Search Console. They show impressions, pages, countries, devices and dates across AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI features in Discover, but no clicks or click-through rate, and they are rolling out to a subset of sites first.

Google says it is working with site owners on which insights would help most and expects to add metrics over time, with no timeline given.

Outside data suggests concern about clicks is justified. Ahrefs analysed 300,000 keywords using aggregated Search Console data, comparing December 2023 with December 2025, and estimated that AI Overviews reduce the click-through rate of the top-ranking page by about 58%. Its April 2025 study had put the figure at 34.5%.

The effect is not limited to position one. Position two fell by about 50.8%, position three by about 46.4%, and even position ten by about 19.4%. The whole first page is affected, not just the top result.

A 2025 Pew Research Center study that tracked the real browsing of 900 US adults paints the same picture. Users clicked a search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% when it did not, and clicked a link inside the AI summary itself on only about 1% of visits.

In our view, more links is a good sign, but plans should not assume traffic will return to previous levels. The Ahrefs and Pew figures come from the US, so results in Thailand may differ, but the direction is worth planning for. Businesses that rely on general how-to articles for traffic should expect fewer clicks.

What this update does show is that Google favours links to official sources and to sources users have chosen. A business’s source pages, such as prices, services, booking steps and contact details, should be clear enough for Google to pick as the link a user needs to complete a task.

Measurement is the other issue. While Search Console does not separate AI clicks, businesses should track metrics closer to revenue, such as enquiries, bookings or orders from search, rather than clicks alone.

There is no shortcut to earning links in AI Overviews, but there are things you control, consistent with Google’s own advice that SEO basics still decide visibility.

Set clear expectations with your team and management: more AI impressions do not necessarily mean more clicks. Until Google releases click data, enquiries and sales are the most reliable measures.

• Check whether your site has the Generative AI performance report in Search Console and track impressions monthly
• Make service, pricing and contact pages complete, official sources in one place
• Compare impressions and clicks in the main report to see which keywords are affected
• Set up conversion goals in analytics to measure enquiries and sales from search
• Invest in content with business-specific information that AI cannot easily summarise away