AI Search vs. Google 2026
The End of the "Click" — Why Local Businesses Must Win the AI Conversation
The search landscape has shifted. As of July 2025, ChatGPT is processing 2.5 billion prompts every day—nearly 20% of Google’s total daily volume. But here is the critical data for small business owners: while Google is still the "firehose" for website traffic, AI is where the decisions are being made.
The Death of the Website Visit? Google still sends 190x more traffic to websites than ChatGPT. However, ChatGPT’s click-through rate (CTR) is 96% lower than Google’s. This sounds like bad news, but it actually reveals a new business model: Google connects people to links; AI keeps them in a conversation.
If a customer asks an AI, "Who is the best plumber in [City]?", and the AI answers without providing a link, you haven't just lost a click—you've lost a customer. To survive in 2026, your business must be the cited authority that the AI trusts enough to recommend by name.
https://ahrefs.com/blog/chatgpt-has-12-percent-of-googles-search-volume/