AI hasn’t taken over your traffic… yet.

A new benchmark report from Conductor shows AI answer engines drive just 1.08% of all website visits across 10 major industries — and ChatGPT accounts for 87.4% of that slice.

On paper, that sounds tiny. In reality, that 1% represents millions of high-intent visits that are routed after an AI system chooses which brands to show, quote, and recommend.

In other words: AI may not be your biggest traffic source, but it’s quickly becoming a powerful performance channel and a new gatekeeper of brand visibility.

Let’s break down what the data actually says, why it matters, and how to adapt your SEO strategy for AI search.

What the Conductor data really says about AI referrals

Conductor analyzed 3.3 billion sessions, 3.5 million AI prompts, 17 million AI responses, and 100 million citations across 13,770 domains in 10 GICS-style industries, between May and September 2025 (U.S. only).

Here are the headline numbers:

AI referral traffic: just over 1% (for now)

• 1.08% of all website visits came from AI referrals (clicks from AI answers / LLM interfaces).

• ChatGPT drove 87.4% of all AI referrals in the dataset, making it the clear leader among AI answer engines.

• IT (2.8%) and Consumer Staples (1.9%) saw the highest share of their traffic coming from AI referrals.

• Communication Services (0.25%) and Utilities (0.35%) saw the lowest shares.

• On average, AI referrals grew about 1% month-over-month across industries, showing steady (if not explosive) adoption.

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So yes, you’re not suddenly getting 20% of your traffic from AI. But that small slice is trending up and, more importantly, is curated by AI systems that decide which brands users see first.

AI answer engine market share: it’s still the ChatGPT show

Overall market share (across AI answer engines) looks roughly like this:

• ChatGPT – dominant by a wide margin, responsible for nearly 9 out of 10 AI referrals.

• Perplexity – a clear but distant second.

• Gemini & Copilot – smaller players overall, but surprisingly strong in certain industries:

  
  

  • Gemini drove 21% of AI traffic in Utilities.

  • Copilot drove 5% in Financials.

Takeaway: if you’re only paying attention to ChatGPT, you’re missing pockets of opportunity in other engines — especially in specific verticals.

AI vs. traditional channels: organic search still rules

Despite the buzz, organic search remains the primary driver of traffic across all industries analyzed:

• Health Care: 42.4% of sessions from organic search

• Communication Services: 39.6%

• Industrials: 33.8%

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AI’s 1.08% share is tiny next to that. But here’s the nuance: organic search and AI search are increasingly intertwined — especially through Google’s AI Overviews.

AI Overviews: when Google’s SERP becomes an AI answer

Conductor also looked at 21.9 million Google searches (Sept. 15–Oct. 12, 2025) to see how often AI Overviews appear and what they cite.

Key findings:

• 25.11% of queries triggered an AI Overview – that’s about 5.5 million searches.

• Industries with the highest AI Overview presence:

  • Health Care: 48.7% of queries showed an AI Overview

  • Financials: 25.7%

  • Utilities: 25.4%

  
  

• Industries with the lowest:

  • Real Estate: 4.4%

  • Consumer Staples: 6.8%

Most-cited page types in AI Overviews:

1. Blog posts

2. Videos

3. Articles

4. News content

5. Product pages

So the content you already create for SEO (blogs, explainers, product pages) is also what AI Overviews lean on. But the selection criteria aren’t identical to traditional blue-link rankings.

AI vs. Google: same queries, different winners

One of the most interesting parts of the report: AI answers and Google rankings don’t always highlight the same brands.

Across 17M AI answers and 100M citations, certain patterns emerged:

• Consumer industries (retail, e-com):

  AI often recommended big retailers for product/shopping queries – think Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Chewy.

  
  

• YMYL verticals (Health, Finance):

  AI leaned heavily on authoritative, trusted sources:

  • Health: Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic

  • Finance: NerdWallet, Bankrate, Vanguard

  
  

• Tech & B2B:

  For expert/professional queries, AI favored industry giants:

  • Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Deloitte, McKinsey, SAP

  
  

• Real Estate & Utilities:

  AI often surfaced major authorities:

  • Hines, Public Storage, CBRE, New Fortress Energy, GE Vernova

    
    

If your brand isn’t being cited here, AI could be bypassing you even when you rank well in traditional search.

That leads to a critical mindset shift:

Ranking in Google ≠ Automatically showing up in AI answers.

You can own page-one organic rankings and still be completely invisible in the AI layer users see first.

Why that 1% AI traffic matters more than it looks

So why should marketers and SEOs care about a channel that’s only 1.08% of traffic?

1. AI referrals are high-intent.

   Users who click out of an AI answer are often deeper in their research and looking for a solution, not just browsing. Early case studies indicate higher conversion rates and fewer sessions per conversion from AI referrals vs. average traffic.

   
   

2. AI answers shape perception before the click.

   Even when users don’t click, AI answers are telling them:

   • Which brands exist

   • Which products to compare

   • Which sources to trust

   That early influence can impact everything from branded search to close rates.

   
   

3. AI is a new “front door” to your brand.

   Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot are all places where users can now discover you before or instead of traditional search results.

   
   

4. The growth curve is pointed up, not flat.

   ~1% month-over-month growth across industries may sound small, but compounded over a few years, it’s substantial — especially if competitors are already optimizing for AI and you’re not.

What to do about it: a practical playbook for AI visibility

You don’t need to panic or rebuild your entire SEO strategy around AI — but you do need to start treating AI visibility as its own performance channel.

Here’s a simple, practical approach.

1. Start measuring AI referral traffic separately

• Tag or segment referrals from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, etc. where possible.

• Track:

  
  

  • Sessions & conversions from those sources

  • Pages most frequently landed on

  • Differences in behavior vs. other traffic channels

Even rough tracking is better than ignoring the channel entirely.

2. Audit your presence in AI answers

• Manually test key prompts in:

  • ChatGPT (esp. with browsing / search enabled)

  • Perplexity

  • Gemini / Copilot (for your vertical)

  
  

• Look at:

  • Which brands the AI highlights

  • Which domains it cites

  • What content types (blog, guides, tools, product pages) keep showing up

  
  

Use this to build a short list of “AI competitors” — the brands you’re actually competing with in AI answers, which may be different from your SERP competitors.

3. Build AI-friendly content (without blowing up your SEO plan)

The same report that analyzed AI Overviews found that they most often cite blogs, videos, articles, news, and product pages.

To increase your chances of being cited:

• Structure content around natural-language questions and conversational queries, not just head terms.

• Use clear, scannable H2/H3s that match how people actually ask questions.

• Add FAQ sections that directly answer common follow-ups.

• Keep explanations concise, accurate, and up-to-date — AI systems tend to favor clear, authoritative language.

• Use schema (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Article) to help both Google and AI engines parse your content.

  
  

Think: “Would an AI model find this page easy to understand, quote, and trust?”

4. Double down on E-E-A-T in YMYL & B2B categories

Because AI heavily cites trusted, authoritative brands in health, finance, and high-stakes B2B:

• Showcase expert authorship (bios, credentials, org profiles).

• Reference reputable sources and keep content meticulously accurate.

• Align with Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines — they’re highly compatible with what AI engines prefer to surface.

  
  

5. Think beyond ChatGPT if your industry demands it

If you’re in Finance or Utilities, remember:

• Gemini claims a 21% share of AI traffic in Utilities, while Copilot holds 5% in Financials.

So while ChatGPT is the big prize, industry pockets may lean more heavily on other engines. Prioritize testing and optimization accordingly.

The bottom line: 1% today, much more tomorrow

Right now, AI referrals are:

• Small in volume (1.08% of traffic)

• Skewed heavily to ChatGPT (87.4% of AI referrals)

• Growing steadily month-over-month

• Shaping brand visibility earlier in the journey than traditional SERPs

  
  

Organic search is still your workhorse. But AI search — ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot — is quickly becoming the layer that decides who even gets a chance to earn that click.

If you’re invisible in AI answers, you’re increasingly invisible to the customers who rely on them.

You don’t need a total strategy reset. You do need to:

• Measure AI referrals

• Audit your presence in AI answers

• Structure content so AI can easily understand and cite it

• Treat AI visibility as a distinct, trackable performance channel

  
  

That’s how you turn “just 1% of traffic” into a competitive advantage while everyone else is still arguing about whether it matters.

https://www.conductor.com/academy/aeo-geo-benchmarks-report/