Behind the Numbers: The Death of the Click – How AI Is Reshaping the Internet’s Business Model

Podcast: Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast
Date: August 25, 2025
Host: Marcus (EMARKETER)
Guests: Drew Neisser (CEO & Founder, CMO Huddles; Host, Renegade Marketers Unite), Grace Harmon (EMARKETER Analyst)

Episode Overview

This episode takes a deep dive into the disruptive impact of AI—particularly AI-driven summaries and large language models (LLMs)—on the traditional business model of the internet. Host Marcus is joined by analyst Grace Harmon and marketing leader Drew Neisser to discuss the decline of the humble “click,” shifts in consumer search behavior, the erosion of publisher revenues, the struggle for trustworthy content, and how brands and marketers are adapting to—and, in some cases, fighting against—these transformative changes.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. How AI Is Changing Search Behavior (03:00–06:40)

• Pew Study Findings: AI-generated overviews on search engines like Google halve the likelihood of a user clicking on a website link. After viewing an AI summary, users often end their browsing session.
  • Drew Neisser: “I think it actually understates the truth rather than overstates the truth. There’s less clicking than they’re even seeing, and you can see that in the amount of site traffic that’s declined.” (03:18)
• Drop in Traffic: Notable sites—CNN, HuffPost—have seen site visits plummet 30–40% year-over-year.
  • Grace Harmon: “These [AI] options are pushing people out of search really quickly and that changes everything for brands and for publishers... all of these different engines are creating content but kind of ending discovery. So, yeah, it absolutely changes search behavior.” (04:04)
• Contextualizing Declines:
  • Other factors like social media, time spent on apps, and content fragmentation are also at play—AI is “accelerating” a slower shift.

2. The Marketer’s Dilemma: SEO Is Out, What’s Next? (06:42–10:07)

• LLMs Give One Answer, Not a List: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) relied on being in a list of links; LLMs provide a single direct answer, giving brands fewer opportunities for exposure.
• The New Frontier: AEO/GEO: Marketers are now experimenting with AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), but “nobody has a clear answer on solving this problem because of how LLMs work.” (Drew Neisser, 07:10)
  • Difficulty Measuring Impact: LLMs are non-deterministic: you get different answers to the same query, making it harder to track appearance or impact.
  • Grace’s Advice: Add FAQ pages, detailed specs, and summaries—things LLMs can scrape and regurgitate more easily.
  • Drew: “There are like probably seven different things that you can do right now. You don’t know how much it’s going to work... there is the Q&A’s and extensive Q&As... code you can put on there that will be readable by the LLM that no human will ever see.” (10:07)

3. The Changing Economic Bargain of the Web (11:02–13:22)

• Content Incentive at Risk?: The traditional model—free content monetized by ads—is threatened by AI-overviews removing reason to click through.
  • Potential Solutions:
    • Pay-as-you-crawl: AI bots pay to scrape content.
    • Credit-sharing Model: Chatbots compensate sources they use.
  • Drew’s Counterpoint: Quality content is more important in a world flooded with AI-generated “slop.”
    • “If you are creating content that is good enough that your subscribers will pay for it... I think the reputation of the content provider is never going to be more important.” (12:23)

4. Trust, Discovery, and Brand Resilience (13:23–16:36)

• Trust Gaps: Only 9% fully trust AI overviews; just 1% click on source links in those summaries (Pew). But over 70% say Google search is as good as or better than pre-AI.
  • Marcus: “It does seem like there’s a bit of a paradox here... people don’t trust news on social media, but they use it all the time.” (13:52)
• Preferred Sources & Niche Communities:
  • Google “preferred sources” lets users customize search, but constrains discovery—pushing brands to think about new platforms like Substack, Medium, or Reddit.
  • “Reddit is on everybody’s radar and they’re all trying to figure out, oh gee, how do we play in that space? And that’s obviously really hard.” (Drew, 14:35)

5. AI Slop and a “Bifurcated” Internet (17:03–21:12)

• AI Slop’s Toll:
  • Flood of low-quality, AI-generated content (“AI slop”) is making it harder to trust or even discern real content.
    • Grace: “It erodes user trust, it erodes platform utility and you know, a huge amount of it. It’s like SEO spam times 100... I think it’ll make people have less trust in what they’re seeing.” (17:57)
  • Some argue this might push users to seek “slow web” alternatives: niche newsletters, small communities, and trusted brands.
    • “You might see people nudged offline and also just away from what these legacy platforms that are getting more inundated with AI.” (18:43)
  • Drew’s Take: Skeptical that widespread behavior will shift offline (“it’s like an addiction, people aren’t going cold turkey”), but a “countertrend” toward human-made, high-quality content will emerge. (18:43)
• Bifurcation Risk: Increased divide between those embracing AI mediated environments and those seeking authentic, human-driven content.
  • Drew: “There’s a really good chance a lot of people, if you miss the AI wave... you’re putting yourself at risk.” (20:19)

6. Takeaways for Brands & Marketers (22:26–24:10)

• Quality and Trust as Differentiators: Publishers and brands must double down on trusted brands, paywalls, and newsletters—environments where users know the content is reliable and human-made.
  • “If the New York Times had a video feed, I would say, oh, I trust that because it’s a brand that I trust.” (Drew, 21:50)
• CMO Huddle Insights: The marketing profession is undergoing its biggest transformation—staffing, org design, even the tactics for discovery are all in question.
  • “We are dealing probably with the biggest transformation in marketing that—certainly in my lifetime. The CMOs are feeling that. And all of course, because of Gen AI.” (Drew, 22:50)
• Advice from the Experts:
  • Grace: “AI search isn’t going anywhere. How it works might become less mystified. But... figuring out those strategies is going to be key because if you want brand discovery, if you want communication, if you want to establish a relationship, part of that means appearing in queries.” (23:51)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On declining human search traffic:
  "Worldwide search traffic by humans fell 15% in the year to June. Certain sites, health ones in particular, close to 30%." – Marcus (05:09)

• On SEO vs. AEO
  "How do we make AEO work the way SEO did?" – Drew (07:52)

• On AI slop’s consequences:
  “It’s like SEO spam times 100.” – Grace (17:57)

• On trust in the AI-driven web:
  "The reputation of the content provider is never going to be more important." – Drew (12:50)

• On publishers’ value propositions:
  "If you are creating content that is good enough that your subscribers will pay for it... people are going to seek sources they trust and they'll pay a certain amount of money to get that content." – Drew (12:23)

• On bifurcation and missing the AI wave:
  "If you ignore these tools in your personal lives and in your professional lives, you're putting yourself at risk." – Drew (20:19)

Key Takeaways

• AI is fundamentally changing how users interact with the web, making organic click-throughs rarer.
• Marketers and publishers are in a high-stakes, experimental phase—search discoverability now demands new, less-understood tactical approaches.
• Trust, brand reputation, and high-quality, paywalled content will be crucial defenses against AI-generated “slop” and fragmentation.
• Brands must prepare for a bifurcated online culture: some users embracing AI’s efficiency and others demanding human, authentic, community-driven experiences.
• The marketing organization itself is up for reinvention as AI reshapes who, how, and where brands communicate.

Listen From:

• AI Disrupting Web Search & Clicks: 03:00
• SEO’s Uncertain Replacement (AEO/GEO): 06:42
• Pay-for-content, Credit-share Models: 11:02
• Trust, Brand, and Discovery: 13:22
• AI Content Pollution/Bifurcation: 17:03

Final Word

This episode provides a sobering yet constructive look at the "death of the click" and the scramble to adapt business models, marketing strategies, and user trust in an AI-upended internet. Marketers are left with enormous challenges, but also new frontiers—where trust, quality, and community matter more than ever.