The Indicator from Planet Money · Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Google's AI-powered summaries and chatbots are contributing to a "zero-click internet," where users get answers directly from search results or AI interfaces without visiting external websites. This trend, accelerated by AI summaries introduced in 2024, has led to a significant drop in website traffic, impacting publishers who rely on ad revenue and affiliate marketing. According to Amanda Natividad, co-author of 'Zero Click Marketing,' this dynamic is an existential threat to the economics of the internet.
“And, uh, this is a trend that has been termed the zero click internet.”
“Now, 68% of all US Google searches end without a click.”
“I think it's, it's scary, right? Because Google, these AI tools, right, these things are crawling our websites, right, essentially scraping our content, and putting it more and more into their platforms.”