# Study: Google AI Mode cuts clicks, erodes trust in search

Published: 2026-09-21T12:03:25.475Z · Source: Search Engine Journal (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/research-shows-google-ai-mode-sends-less-clicks-is-a-poor-user-experience/590221/)
Source date: 2026-09-21
Entities: google, ai-mode

A preregistered field experiment by researchers at Northeastern University and the University of Pennsylvania — Stephanie Wang, Jeffrey Gleason, Yakov Bart, Christo Wilson and Danaé Metaxa — tracked 1,100 participants' Google searches over one week under three conditions: AI Overviews hidden, normal search behavior, and a forced AI Mode experience. Removing AI Overviews increased click-through to publisher sites without reducing satisfaction, while the forced AI Mode condition cut click-through and lowered users' trust, satisfaction and sense of the results' relevance, with effects strongest among heavy searchers, per Search Engine Journal's write-up of the paper, posted to arXiv in August 2026. The researchers also reported that in the no-AI condition, only 51.1% of AI Overviews could be reliably hidden, citing Google's changing page structure.

Why it matters: It's a preregistered randomized experiment, not an observational study, putting a causal estimate on AI Mode's cost to publisher clicks and finding no offsetting user-experience gain — evidence outside Google's own framing of the format.

## What this answers

**Does Google's AI Mode reduce clicks to websites?**

Yes — a preregistered field experiment (N=1,100) by researchers at Northeastern University and the University of Pennsylvania found a forced AI Mode experience cut click-through to external sites versus regular search, while removing AI Overviews entirely increased those clicks.

**Does Google AI Mode hurt user trust or satisfaction with search results?**

The same study found the forced AI Mode condition lowered users' trust in and satisfaction with the results, with effects strongest among heavy searchers.


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