Home topics news via pexels News News Why appearing in AI search summaries doesn’t always help your business Yajush Gupta January 30, 2026 Jason Morris from Profit Engine warns that appearing in AI summaries doesn’t always translate to commercial success, with just 1% of users clicking through when AI answers their query. What’s happening: When an AI summary appears at the top of search results, 26% of users end their search entirely, whilst another 34% abandon Google altogether to continue searching elsewhere. This creates a dilemma for brands: visibility without traffic, recognition without attribution. Why this matters: Brands must now build presence across platforms like Wikipedia, Reddit and YouTube that AI systems prioritise, moving beyond owned properties to establish distributed authority across the entire web ecosystem. As Google’s AI Overviews changes search behaviour, brands are being surfaced or ignored based on their presence across key platforms, not just their websites. The move has created uncertainty across marketing teams. Traditional SEO strategies focused on ranking websites, but AI systems synthesise information from across the web, often citing sources users never visit. Jason Morris, Owner and CEO of Profit Engine, a specialised link building agency working at the intersection of SEO and AI-driven discovery, sees this transformation daily in client campaigns. “We’re seeing a major change in how brands need to think about online visibility,” says Morris. “A website has to rank, but AI Overviews pull from platforms that many brands have ignored, and if you’re not present there, you won’t be