AI Search vs SEO: The Truth About AI Traffic (It’s Only 1%)

In this episode of the Page 2 Podcast, Jon Clark and Joe DeVita sit down with Patrick Reinhart, VP of Services & Thought Leadership at Conductor, to unpack one of the largest AEO and GEO benchmark studies ever conducted. After analyzing millions of prompts and billions of sessions, the surprising finding was that AI referral traffic currently accounts for only about 1% of total web traffic. So why are companies reorganizing teams and shifting budgets toward AI optimization? Patrick explains how AI search isn’t really about traffic (yet)—it’s about brand visibility, citations, sentiment, and authority across large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini. As traditional search and AI search converge, marketing teams must learn how to optimize for both ecosystems simultaneously. The conversation dives into the realities behind AI Overviews, the future of affiliate-heavy sites, why schema markup and proprietary research are becoming more valuable, and how brands should think about visibility when traffic might decline but revenue continues to grow. If you’re an SEO, CMO, or digital marketer trying to navigate the AI transformation of search, this episode provides a clear, data-backed roadmap.

In This Episode

• Why AI referral traffic is only ~1% today and why that number surprises many marketers
• The difference between traditional SEO metrics vs AI search visibility signals
• How brand sentiment, citations, and authority influence LLM results
• Why affiliate-heavy sites are struggling in Google but thriving in LLMs
• The industries triggering the most Google AI Overviews (healthcare & finance)
• How CMOs are reallocating paid search budgets into AI initiatives
• The role of schema markup and proprietary research in future search visibility
• Why AI-generated content without human insight is getting crushed in rankings
• The real reason direct traffic is increasing as people research with AI first
• Predictions for AI search growth, e-commerce agents, and the future of traffic

This episode reveals how search is fragmenting—and why smart marketers must optimize for both traditional search and AI discovery channels.

Connect with Patrick Reinhart

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