How Is AI Impacting How Users Access Online Search Tools And Social Media?

AI powered search tools now send a lot more visitors to websites than before. Microsoft said AI referrals to leading websites went up 357% year on year in June 2025, reaching 1.13 billion visits. The data comes from tracking linked to Bing, which, as we know, powers services such as Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Start.

These tools handle billions of queries each month, Microsoft says. People no longer scroll through long lists of links because now, they read answers written by machines that take from short passages from many pages. That behaviour changes what visibility means for website owners.

McKinsey research shows how fast this behaviour has taken hold. Half of consumers now use AI powered search on purpose. About 50% of Google searches already carry AI summaries, based on McKinsey trend analysis, with that share expected to pass 75% in 2028.

What Does This Mean For Traditional SEO Traffic?

McKinsey estimates that unprepared brands could see traffic from traditional search go down by 20% to 50%. AI tools answer many questions before a user clicks any link at all.

Money flows follow that change as McKinsey expects $750bn in US consumer spending to pass through AI powered search by 2028. Users ask questions across the buying cycle, from early research to final choice, rather than visiting many separate sites.

AI systems pull content from far more than brand websites. McKinsey found that a brand’s own site often makes up only 5% to 10% of the sources used in AI answers. Reviews, forums, publishers and affiliate pages carry strong weight.

This explains why well known brands sometimes fail to appear in AI answers. McKinsey said visibility in AI search does not line up neatly with market share or past SEO results.
 

Are AI Summaries Changing How Much Adults Search Online?

Adults in the UK now spend an average of 4 and a half hours online each day, according to Ofcom’s latest Online Nation report, and that is 10 minutes more than last year. Women spend 4 hours 43 minutess a day online on average, 26 minutes longer than men. Most of that time happens on smartphones, where adults use 41 apps a month.

Google Search is used by 82% of adults and processes 3 billion searches a month in the UK. It is the country’s dominant search service by a clear margin.

What has changed is what people see when they search. Around 30% of searches now display AI overviews. 53% of adults say they see these summaries often. In most cases, they are not asking for an AI answer. The summary simply appears at the top of the results page, written in a conversational tone and pulling together information from different sources.

But also, more people are going directly to generative AI tools. ChatGPT recorded 1.8 billion UK visits in the first 8 months of 2025. In the same period in 2024, it had 368 million visits. Clearly many users are opting to start their queries inside an AI chat interface instead of with a traditional search bar.
 

Who Dominates The Online Spaces Where AI Appears?

 
According to Ofcom’s Online Nation report, half of all time spent online in the UK now goes to services owned by Alphabet and Meta. When those companies change how search or content works, it reaches a large share of the population.

YouTube, owned by Alphabet, is used by 94% of adults. Time spent on YouTube has reached 51 minutes a day on average, not including viewing on TV sets. Facebook and Messenger, both owned by Meta, are used by 93% of adults, and WhatsApp reaches 90%.

This concentration gives AI features immediate scale. When AI summaries appear in Google Search, they are placed inside a service already used by 4 in 5 adults. When recommendation systems on YouTube or social media are refined, they influence what people read and watch for almost an hour a day.