AI Overviews are shrinking organic CTR

The chart behind this claim comes from Seer Interactive’s Nov 2025 analysis of 3,119 queries across 42 organizations and 25.1 million impressions. For queries with AI Overviews, organic CTR fell from 1.76% to 0.61% – a 61% drop.

That does not mean search volume disappears. It means Google is answering more queries before the click, so top rankings can lose traffic even when they still exist.

My read: the useful debate is not SEO vs AEO as labels. It is whether the engine you optimize for still delivers a click.

Data source: Seer Interactive

Related read: Are we optimising for the right engine? Insights from the latest SEO / AEO research