How Much Website Traffic Do AI Assistants Send to Local Businesses?

Abstract

This brief uses Google Analytics 4 data from 37 small business websites managed by Make It Loud Digital Marketing, most of them in Metro Atlanta and North Georgia, from January 2025 through October 2026. From January through October 2026, the 37 websites recorded 308,600 visits, of which 2,073 (0.67%) came from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude, about one AI visit for every 59 organic search visits. The trend is upward: on nine websites with traffic in both January 2025 and October 2026, AI-referred visits rose 86% year over year while overall traffic fell 8%, and October 2026 set a record. ChatGPT sent 89.3% of AI-referred visits, and AI visitors engaged at nearly the same rate as visitors from Google search. Because Google's own AI Overviews and AI Mode clicks are counted as Google search traffic, and some AI apps pass no referral, 0.67% is a floor rather than the full picture. This is a convenience sample of agency clients that receive ongoing SEO work, not a random sample of all businesses.

Methodology

This brief was prepared by Make It Loud Digital Marketing as an analysis of its own client analytics, reviewed in November 2026, and figures are reported as measured. Google Analytics 4 data for 40 client website properties was pulled for January 1, 2025, through October 31, 2026, by month, by default channel group and by session source. Two properties had no data and were excluded, leaving 38 with traffic during the period and 37 with traffic in 2026. AI-referred visits are sessions whose source was an AI assistant: chatgpt.com and other OpenAI sources, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com, copilot.com and Bing Copilot sources, and claude.ai. One website's campaign traffic tagged with the source chatgpt (a paid campaign, not an AI referral) was excluded, as were a handful of single visits from minor or unclear AI tools. Organic search uses GA4's Organic Search default channel. Engagement figures use GA4's engaged-session and user-engagement-duration metrics. The growth comparison uses the nine websites with traffic in both January 2025 and October 2026, so that new clients joining during the period do not distort the trend. Data was retrieved Nov. 2, 2026. This is an aggregate analysis of agency client data, not an original survey or peer-reviewed study, and it is not legal, financial or purchasing advice.

Findings

From January through October 2026, the 37 websites recorded 308,600 visits, of which 2,073 (0.67%) came from AI assistants and 122,785 (39.8%) came from organic search, roughly 59 times as many. In October 2026, 27 of the 35 websites with traffic that month received at least one AI visit, up from 11 of 14 a year earlier, and every one of the 28 websites with at least 500 visits in 2026 received AI-referred traffic. On nine websites tracked since January 2025, AI-referred visits rose from 484 to 899 (86%) while total visits fell 8%, and AI visits per 1,000 organic search visits rose from 2.2 in early 2025 to 20.3 in October 2026. ChatGPT accounted for 89.3% of AI-referred visits in 2026, followed by Gemini (5.6%), Perplexity (2.3%), Copilot (1.7%) and Claude (1.1%). AI-referred visitors engaged at nearly the same rate as search visitors (59.0% versus 60.7%). Among the 28 websites with at least 500 visits, AI's share ranged from 0.06% to 4.92%, with a median of 0.82%; healthcare sites were lowest at 0.27% and home service sites at 0.66%. Because Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode clicks count as Google search, 0.67% understates AI's real influence.

Overview

What Google Analytics data from 37 small business websites says about how much traffic ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude actually send.

Business owners keep hearing that AI is replacing search, but how many customers actually click through from an AI assistant to a local business website? Published numbers usually come from large national websites, so small local businesses rarely see data that looks like their own. This brief uses Google Analytics 4 data from 37 websites managed by Make It Loud, most of them small businesses in Metro Atlanta and North Georgia, measured from January 2025 through October 2026 and compared with visits from organic search. All data is anonymized and reported in aggregate.

The short answer is that AI assistants send real, measurable visitors, but still a small number: 0.67% of visits over the first ten months of 2026, about one AI visit for every 59 from organic search. The trend is clearly upward, ChatGPT sends almost nine of every ten AI visits, and those visitors engage at nearly the same rate as search visitors. Because Google’s own AI answers are counted as Google traffic, the real influence of AI is larger than these numbers show.

Download the full brief

You can download the full research brief as a PDF. It is a Google Analytics 4 analysis prepared by Make It Loud Digital Marketing, dated November 2026, and reproduces the tables, methodology, limitations and sources below.

Finding 1: AI assistants send less than 1% of visits today

From January through October 2026, the 37 websites recorded 308,600 visits. Of those, 2,073 (0.67%) came from AI assistants, while organic search, mostly Google, brought in 122,785 visits (39.8%), roughly 59 times as many. AI referrals are measurable, but they are a small channel next to search, social media, advertising and direct visits.

Source: Google Analytics 4, 37 Make It Loud client websites.

Reach is broad even though the volume is small. In October 2026, 27 of the 35 websites with traffic that month received at least one visit from an AI assistant, up from 11 of 14 a year earlier, and every one of the 28 websites with at least 500 visits in 2026 received AI-referred traffic.

Finding 2: AI traffic is growing as overall traffic dips

To measure growth fairly, we looked at nine websites that had traffic in both January 2025 and October 2026. On those sites, AI-referred visits rose from 484 in January to October 2025 to 899 in the same months of 2026, an 86% increase, while total visits fell 8%. AI’s share of visits rose from 0.21% to 0.43%. Measured against organic search, these sites received 2.2 AI visits for every 1,000 organic search visits in early 2025 and 20.3 in October 2026.

Source: Google Analytics 4, nine Make It Loud client websites with traffic in both January 2025 and October 2026. Quarterly totals; October 2026 is a single month.

One month is not yet a trend, but the direction is consistent, and AI’s share reached a record 0.73% on these sites in October 2026.

Finding 3: ChatGPT sends nearly 9 of every 10 AI visits

ChatGPT dominated AI referrals, accounting for 89.3% of AI-referred visits in 2026, down slightly from 91.9% in 2025. Google’s Gemini app was the fastest-growing source, rising from 1.3% of AI visits in 2025 to 5.6% in 2026. Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude each sent fewer than 3%.

Source: Google Analytics 4, 37 Make It Loud client websites. Gemini counts only visits from the Gemini app (gemini.google.com); clicks from Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are recorded as Google search.

For local businesses, that makes ChatGPT the AI assistant to watch first. As Finding 2 of our companion study, Do AI Assistants Recommend the Same Local Businesses as Google Maps?, shows, ChatGPT often recommends different local businesses than Google does, so visibility in ChatGPT takes deliberate effort.

Finding 4: AI visitors engage about as much as search visitors

AI-referred visitors behaved much like visitors from organic search. In January to October 2026, 59.0% of AI-referred visits counted as engaged in Google Analytics, compared with 60.7% for organic search. Average engagement time was 43.6 seconds per AI visit and 47.6 seconds per organic search visit.

Source: Google Analytics 4, 37 Make It Loud client websites.

Visitors arriving from an AI assistant have often already read a summary of the business, so they arrive with context. They are not low-quality traffic; there just are not many of them yet. Too few of the websites tracked conversions consistently to compare conversion rates reliably.

Finding 5: Results vary widely by business

The average hides a wide spread. Among the 28 websites with at least 500 visits in 2026, the share of visits from AI assistants ranged from 0.06% to 4.92%, with a median of 0.82%. Healthcare websites, mostly medical practices, had the lowest share, and all other industries combined had the highest.

Source: Google Analytics 4, 37 Make It Loud client websites with traffic in 2026.

Websites that answer the questions people ask AI, explain services in detail and are referenced across the web tend to be the ones AI tools cite and link to. That makes AI visibility something a business can influence.

Finding 6: Analytics undercount AI’s real influence

The numbers in this report count only visits where an AI assistant passed a referral to the website, and several kinds of AI influence never show up that way. Clicks from Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are recorded as ordinary Google search traffic. Some AI apps do not pass referral information, so their visits appear as direct traffic. And many people read an AI recommendation, then search the business name or call without visiting the website at all. In other words, 0.67% is a floor, not the full picture.

What this means for local businesses and marketers

Do not panic, but do not ignore AI. AI assistants send under 1% of visits today, while organic search sends about 40%, so search remains the core channel. But AI referrals are growing and reached a record in October 2026, which is why a complete Google Business Profile and strong local SEO still do the heavy lifting while AI visibility becomes worth building toward.

Focus on ChatGPT first, since it sends almost nine of every ten AI visits. Make your website easy for AI to cite with clear service pages, answers to common customer questions, accurate location details and current reviews, which is the core of AI search optimization. Then track AI traffic in your own analytics by watching referral sources such as chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com and claude.ai, and follow the trend over time rather than any single month.

Key figures and sources

Source: Google Analytics 4 session, engaged-session and engagement-time data by month, channel and source for 37 Make It Loud client websites, January 2025 to October 2026, retrieved Nov. 2, 2026.

Limitations

This is a convenience sample of agency clients, not a random sample of all businesses, and these websites receive ongoing SEO work. Industry groups are small. AI referral counts are small in absolute terms, so month-to-month changes can be noisy. GA4 cannot see AI influence that does not produce a referred click, so the reported share is a floor rather than the full picture. Conversion rates were not compared because few websites tracked key events consistently. This brief offers general information only. It is not legal, financial or purchasing advice, and figures may change as AI usage grows, so confirm current details before relying on them.

Sources

Google Analytics 4, session, engaged-session and user-engagement-duration data by month, channel and source for 37 Make It Loud client websites, January 2025 to October 2026, retrieved Nov. 2, 2026.

Make It Loud Digital Marketing, companion field test: Do AI Assistants Recommend the Same Local Businesses as Google Maps?, Nov. 2, 2026.