Don’t Blame AI: Is Google Algorithm Update The Reason For Lost Search Traffic?

Ask around about AI’s effect on search results, and you’ll hear most publishers talk about what feels like drastic drops in traffic and visibility.

According to new research from the UK, that feeling is more than just anecdotal. But AI isn’t the main culprit to blame.

“Around six in ten of the UK’s biggest news websites have seen a drop in their visibility in Google search results in 2025 so far,” writes Press Gazette’s Charlotte Tobitt, highlighting what appears to be the result of an algorithm update that Google implemented in June. 

 

How People Think About AI’s Role In Journalism And Society

There is a clear ‘comfort gap’ between AI- and human-led news. On average, only 12% are comfortable with news made entirely by AI; this rises to 21% with a ‘human in the loop’, 43% when a human leads with some AI help, and 62% for entirely human-made news (an increase of 4 percentage points since 2024).

 

AI Companies Steal Publisher Traffic Then Undermine Trust By Getting Answers Wrong

The dangers of using generative AI platforms to surface news information have been highlighted in a devastating new report by the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC. … Using a variety of news related questions, the research analysed the accuracy of answers given by the leading AI companies scraping news content: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini. The research points to a generally corrosive impact of AI answer engines on the news ecosystem.

 

Data Snags: B2C Marketers Face Challenges In Unifying Sources

B2C marketers are still plagued by challenges in managing data across sources. For instance, 69% see data unification as a complex pain point. Yet 53% rate their data strategy as very effective  —  up from 46% last year.