Markus Brinsa’s analysis uses Brainlabs data from 54 advertisers to show a significant change in search behavior: organic sessions fell 10.5%, from 140.1 million to 125.4 million, while referrals from AI platforms rose 163%. More importantly, AI-driven visitors generated recorded “key events” at 1.5 times the rate of organic-search visitors. The implication is that AI search can answer users’ initial questions without a click, leaving fewer people visiting websites—but those who do click may already have a clearer purpose.
The reason may be the conversation that happens before the click. An AI user can provide context, budget, preferences and constraints, ask follow-up questions and compare options before opening a cited website. By contrast, a traditional search visitor might click several results while still figuring out what they want. AI therefore acts as a filtering layer: it can satisfy low-intent users completely while sending a smaller group of more motivated users to external sites. Brinsa cautions, however, that the data does not prove AI referrals create more valuable customers; the tracked “key events” can include relatively weak actions such as scrolling.
This creates a major challenge for SEO and digital marketing measurement. Traffic remains economically important, but it no longer captures the full impact of search because AI systems can influence a purchase or brand decision without generating a visible referral. Marketers therefore need to measure AI referrals alongside qualified leads, purchases, pipeline progression and revenue, while also tracking where their brands and content appear inside AI answers. The analysis also warns against treating rapidly growing AI-referral percentages as proof of a major channel when the absolute volume may still be small.
The broader takeaway is that AI search is changing the value of a visit, not simply eliminating the visit. Brands may need to accept fewer informational clicks while making the remaining traffic far more valuable through better landing pages, stronger product information, comparisons, pricing details and conversion experiences. The strategic question is therefore shifting from “How much traffic did SEO generate?” to “How much qualified demand did our visibility in search and AI actually create?” Until that connects reliably to revenue, AI search should be viewed as a promising behavioral shift rather than proof that fewer visitors automatically means better customers.
