Google’s Gary Illyes confirmed in early November 2026 that the company is not yet reporting AI clicks in Search Console, ahead of a UK regulatory deadline that would require it. Search Console’s AI report currently counts impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode, but the clicks that come from those features sit inside regular Search Console click data with no way to separate them.
For local businesses spending time and money on AEO and GEO, that is a real problem. You cannot optimize what you cannot measure, and right now you cannot measure how many people actually click through to your site from an AI answer.
What Search Console Reports Today
Google added an AI report to Search Console earlier in 2026. It shows impressions: how many times your site appeared in an AI Overview or AI Mode answer. That is useful for understanding whether AI features are surfacing your content at all.
What it does not show is clicks. When someone reads an AI Overview, sees your link and taps it, that click gets counted in your overall Search Console performance data. But it is not labeled as an AI click. You cannot filter for it, segment it, or compare it against your regular organic clicks.
Illyes said the team wants to share more data, but nothing is announced yet. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has a deadline approaching that could force Google’s hand, but for now, the gap remains.
Why This Matters for Local Businesses
If you run a business in Chandigarh, Mohali or anywhere in India, you might think AI search reporting does not affect you yet. But Google AI Overviews and AI Mode are live in India, and they show up for a growing share of local-intent queries. When someone searches “best dentist in Chandigarh” and an AI Overview appears at the top of the page, your organic result gets pushed down.
The question is whether the AI Overview sends you traffic or whether it answers the question so completely that the customer never clicks through. Without click data, you are guessing. You might be investing in AEO and GEO with no way to know if it is driving visits.
How to Estimate AI Traffic Without Official Click Data
Since Google will not give you AI clicks directly, here are three workarounds that work right now:
- Track impression growth in the Search Console AI report. If your AI impressions are rising month over month, your content is appearing in more AI answers. That is a leading indicator even without click data.
- Compare total Search Console clicks before and after AI Overviews appeared for your keywords. If impressions went up but total clicks stayed flat or dropped, the AI Overview may be cannibalizing your organic traffic. If both rose, the AI feature is sending you additional clicks.
- Use UTM parameters on links you control. If you publish content that gets cited in AI Overviews, add UTMs to internal links within that content. When traffic arrives with those UTMs, you know it came from the page the AI cited, even if you cannot confirm the click originated in the AI Overview.
None of these are perfect. Together they give you a directional read on whether AI features help or hurt your traffic.
What the UK Deadline Could Force
The UK Competition and Markets Authority has been pushing Google to provide more transparency around AI search. The regulatory pressure could result in Google being required to break out AI clicks separately in Search Console, at least for UK users. If that happens, it typically rolls out globally because the reporting infrastructure already exists.
Illyes’s comment that the team wants to share more data suggests Google is already working on it. The regulatory deadline may just accelerate the timeline.
What to Do While You Wait
The reporting gap does not mean you should pause your AEO efforts. It means you should track what you can and make smart bets based on the direction of the data:
- Check your Search Console AI report weekly. Track impression trends for your top keywords.
- Watch your overall organic click-through rate. If CTR drops while impressions rise on keywords where AI Overviews appear, that is a signal the AI answer is absorbing clicks.
- Invest in being cited, not just ranked. Even if AI Overviews reduce overall clicks, the clicks that do happen go to the businesses named in the answer. Being cited is still better than being invisible.
- Diversify your traffic sources. AI search is one channel. Keep your paid ads, direct traffic, and referral traffic healthy so no single channel change can tank your business.
- Build brand search volume. When people search for your business by name after seeing it in an AI answer, that traffic shows up as branded organic search, which you can measure perfectly well.
How AI Overviews Affect Click-Through Rates
Multiple studies in 2026 have shown that AI Overviews reduce organic click-through rates for some queries, especially informational ones where the AI answer satisfies the user’s question completely. But for commercial and local queries, the effect is different. When someone searches “best dentist in Chandigarh,” the AI Overview typically lists businesses with links, and users who want to book an appointment still click through.
The key is understanding which of your keywords are informational versus transactional. Informational queries where AI Overviews answer fully will see lower CTR. Transactional queries where the AI lists businesses with links may see CTR hold steady or even improve, because the AI Overview puts your link above the regular organic results.
Check your Search Console performance report for keywords where impressions jumped but clicks did not. Those are the queries where AI Overviews are likely absorbing clicks. For keywords where both impressions and clicks rose together, the AI feature is helping you.
The Bigger Picture
The lack of AI click reporting is frustrating, but it is a temporary problem. Google built the AI report in Search Console, which means the infrastructure exists. The company is under regulatory pressure to add clicks. It is a matter of when, not if.
In the meantime, the businesses that invest in AI visibility now, while measurement is imperfect, will have a head start when the data arrives. The ones that wait for perfect reporting will be playing catch-up.
If you want help understanding your Search Console data or setting up AI visibility tracking, get in touch. We will show you exactly where you stand and what to watch until Google fills the reporting gap.