Zero Klicks: AI will not kill the Internet but quietly the business models that are built on..

Over the past two years, a subtle but structural change has taken hold.

An increasing share of online information consumption no longer results in a website visit. Answers are displayed directly in search results, summarised by AI systems, or retrieved by AI assistants without a user ever clicking through. This phenomenon is now widely referred to as Zero-Click Searches.

Industry studies published over the last 12 to 18 months show that a clear majority of Google (and other eingines) searches already end without a click. Research by SparkToro and Similarweb in 2024, for example, indicated that well over half of all searches result in no visit to an external website. This trend is accelerated by the engines themselves by placing AI-generated summaries above traditional search results.

From a user perspective, this feels like efficiency. From a platform perspective, it represents a slow but material shift in value flow.

The blind spot

Our focus on AI is often on technology questions such as model quality, hallucinations, governance, or compliance. Those topics matter, but they only explain part of what is happening. What is often underestimated is the economic implication of Zero-Click Searches combined with AI-driven consumption.

For more than two decades, the dominant assumption was straightforward:

• Users visit websites

• Websites monetise attention through ads, subscriptions, or data

• Traffic correlates with value

Zero-Click Searches break this assumption. AI systems consume content without generating page views. Search results deliver answers without visits. Value is extracted without visibility.

What does this change mean for businesses?

Seen from the outside, this shift has several implications that go beyond marketing or SEO tactics.

• Traffic loses its role as a primary indicatorVisibility to humans and usefulness to AI systems are no longer the same thing. Organisations can remain influential while becoming economically less relevant.

• Advertising-dependent models face structural pressure If answers are delivered before a click happens, impressions decline even when demand remains stable.

• Original data gains strategic importance Platforms that own unique, authoritative data retain leverage. Aggregators and intermediaries become easier to bypass.

• Trust replaces reach as a differentiator AI systems increasingly privilege sources that are consistent, authoritative, and structured. Size alone matters less than reliability.

• The risk profile shifts upward This is no longer an operational optimisation issue. It affects revenue predictability, partnerships, and long-term valuation, which places it squarely in executive and board discussions.

The takeaway

AI is not destroying the Internet. It is reshaping how value is extracted from it, and Zero-Click Searches are one of the clearest signals of that shift.

The most significant impact is not technical. It is strategic. Assumptions that held true for decades are becoming less reliable, while many dashboards still suggest stability.

In complex digital ecosystems, the highest risk rarely comes from sudden disruption. It comes from slow changes that invalidate old mental models before organisations notice.

Just tell me how you want to evolve it.