How to show up in ChatGPT and Google's AI summaries: the real data

Published: June 2026 · By Wen López

The short answer: you show up with citable content (citations, statistics, quotes: up to 40% more visibility according to the academic paper that created GEO), with mentions of your brand in the sources each engine reads, and with continuous measurement. No guarantees, no tricks: editorial work with evidence. And one piece of context almost nobody tells you: traditional search is not declining. Google grew more than 20% in 2024 and processes about 210 times more searches than ChatGPT. What is declining, fast, is the click. When Google shows an AI summary, people click a result only 8% of the time, versus 15% without one. Visibility no longer equals traffic. And the little traffic that does arrive from AIs converts better than traditional organic. In this article we go through the real data, separate what holds up from what circulates without a source, and close with what to do if you run a startup.

The myth: "search will drop 25%"

In February 2024, Gartner published a prediction that has appeared in every agency pitch since: traditional search volume would drop 25% by 2026 because of AI chatbots.

It's 2026. It didn't happen.

SparkToro and Datos measured real behavior with clickstream panels: Google grew 21.6% in 2024, and by late 2025 it was still processing about 210 times more searches than ChatGPT. Google itself confirmed it processed more than 5 trillion searches in 2024, its first official figure in nine years.

Why start here? Because if your strategy is built on a figure that never materialized, your strategy is miscalibrated. The real story is more interesting.

The real shift: volume holds, clicks fall

Pew Research analyzed 68,879 real searches from 900 adults in the United States during March 2025. The finding: when Google shows an AI summary (AI Overview), users click a traditional result only 8% of the time, versus 15% when there is no summary. And only 1% click the sources cited inside the summary itself. Google publicly disputed the methodology, but it remains the most serious independent study available.

Ahrefs measured the same thing from another angle: the CTR of position #1 on Google fell 34.5% on informational queries when an AI Overview appears. Their December 2025 update, across 300,000 keywords, puts the drop above 50%.

And AI summaries are no longer an experiment: AI Overviews went from 1.5 billion monthly users in early 2025 to 2.5 billion by May 2026, according to Alphabet. ChatGPT passed 800 million weekly users in October 2025, and OpenAI's research with NBER across 1.1 million conversations found that seeking information is one of its three main uses.

Your brand can be in the answer and still not get the click. The question changed: it's no longer just "do I rank?", it's "am I in the answer?".

The opportunity: fewer visits, better visits

Here is the data point that matters most to us as a growth lab. According to Semrush data on their own dataset, the average visitor arriving from an AI search is worth 4.4 times more than the average traditional organic visitor, measured by conversion rate. Semrush does not publish the full methodology, so we cite it for what it is: their internal measurement, not a universal truth. But the logic behind it is sound: someone who lands on your site after an AI explained the topic and mentioned your brand arrives with a more mature decision.

For a startup with a limited budget, that trade is a good one: less volume, more intent.

LATAM is not behind. It's ahead

The Our Life with AI study by Google and Ipsos (21,000 interviews across 21 countries, 2026 edition) found Mexico above the global average in AI adoption: 66% use chatbots versus 62% globally, and it leads in optimism. Argentina and Brazil show similar patterns.

An honest note: there is still no public study with solid methodology measuring AI search behavior specifically in LATAM. What we do know is that general AI adoption in the region is above average. Your market is already asking ChatGPT. The only question is whether your brand is in the answer.

What to do: the playbook with evidence

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) means optimizing your brand for the answers of generative engines. It is not magic and not a guarantee: it is strategy, editorial work and measurement. Here is what the evidence says works:

1. Citable content, not inflated content. The academic paper that coined the term GEO (Princeton, IIT Delhi and Georgia Tech, published at KDD 2024) measured that adding source citations, statistics and quotes can raise visibility in generative answers by up to 40%. Classic keyword stuffing barely helps. That is editorial direction work, not prompting.

2. Brand mentions over backlinks. Ahrefs analyzed 75,000 brands: web mentions of a brand are the factor most correlated with appearing in AI Overviews (0.664 correlation), three times more than backlinks (0.218). Correlation is not causation, but the signal is consistent with how these models work.

3. Each engine cites differently. Profound analyzed 680 million citations: Wikipedia is ChatGPT's #1 source, Reddit is #1 for Perplexity and for AI Overviews. Your presence strategy has to map the sources each engine reads, not just your own site.

4. Measure before and after. Without continuous measurement there is no way to know whether the strategy is moving. That is why the first step of our method is always a score, not a promise.

We don't control what a model answers. We control the work: citable content, presence in the right sources and continuous measurement. That is honest GEO.

If you publish AI-made content, this one matters too: Who owns AI-generated content?

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Frequently asked questions

Is Google search declining because of ChatGPT?

No. Google grew more than 20% in 2024 and processes about 210 times more searches than ChatGPT, according to clickstream measurements by SparkToro and Datos. What is falling is the click: with AI summaries in the results, fewer people visit websites.

What is an AI Overview and why does it affect my traffic?

It is the AI-generated summary Google shows above the results. More than 2.5 billion people already see them monthly. According to Pew Research, when one appears, clicks to traditional results drop from 15% to 8%, and only 1% click the cited sources.

Is traffic from AIs worth it?

According to Semrush data on their own dataset, visitors arriving from AI search convert 4.4 times better than traditional organic visitors. It is an internal measurement without a fully public methodology, but it points to something logical: someone who arrives after an AI explained the topic arrives more decided.

What is GEO and how is it different from SEO?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) means optimizing your brand for the answers of generative engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini: citable content, presence in the sources each engine reads and continuous measurement. SEO optimizes to rank links; GEO optimizes to be in the answer. They complement each other, they don't replace each other.

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Sources: SparkToro · Datos, Google vs ChatGPT · Pew Research, AI summaries and clicks · Ahrefs, AI Overviews and CTR · Gartner, 2024 prediction · Semrush, AI search traffic study · Alphabet Q1 2025 (SEC) · OpenAI · NBER, How People Use ChatGPT · GEO paper, KDD 2024 · Ahrefs, brand mentions and AI Overviews · Profound, citation patterns · Google · Ipsos, Our Life with AI 2026