Ever since Google started putting AI-written answers at the top of its search results, one question has kept coming up from the business owners I work with: is it costing me customers?
The honest answer has been “nobody really knows”, and that includes me. Google has been showing us some of the picture, but not the bit that matters most. That’s about to change, at least on paper, and for once it’s because of a decision made in the UK.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA, the regulator that looks at whether markets are fair) has given Google until 3 December 2026 to start giving websites proper data on how their content performs in Google’s AI features, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.
That deadline has been on the calendar since June, but it came back into the news this week when Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Roundtable asked whether Google was about to add AI click data to Search Console. Google’s Gary Illyes replied, as reported by both sites, that “the team is super interested in giving more data, data that makes sense, but we don’t have anything to announce yet.”
So nothing has launched. But the clock is ticking, and the requirement is a legal one.
In October 2025, the CMA gave Google what’s called “strategic market status” in search. That isn’t a finding that Google has done anything wrong. It just means the CMA has decided Google is so dominant in UK search that it can set specific rules for it. Importantly, the CMA said AI Overviews and AI Mode are included.
Then, on 3 June 2026, the CMA set the first of those rules, covering how Google treats websites whose content it uses. The CMA calls them “publishers”, but its definition is broad: “any party that makes content available on the web.” My reading is that a small business website counts just as much as a national newspaper, although the CMA doesn’t mention small businesses specifically.
What Google has to provide
According to the CMA’s interpretative notes, Google must give each website three things for its AI search features:
Impressions, meaning how often your content is shown as part of an AI answer. Clicks, meaning how many people click through to your website from links in those answers. And click-through rate, meaning the percentage of people who see you and then click.
Crucially, that data has to be kept separate from normal search results, and provided “through a commonly accessible platform, such as Google Search Console.” Search Console isn’t guaranteed, but it’s the obvious place for it.
There’s more in the same package. Google also has to let websites stop their content being used in its AI search features without disappearing from normal search, and it mustn’t punish websites that choose to do so, for example by pushing them down the rankings. A separate set of CMA rules from June requires Google to rank search results, including AI Overviews, using “objective and non-discriminatory criteria”, and to give businesses a way to raise concerns .
These rules cover AI features shown to people in the UK. Whether Google provides the new data only for UK searches or for everyone hasn’t been announced.
What you can see today
If you already use Google Search Console (Google’s free tool for seeing how your website performs in search), you might be thinking you already have some of this. You have a bit of it.
Your normal Performance report includes visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode, but Google lumps them in with ordinary search results. A click from an AI Overview counts as a click, but you can’t tell it apart from any other click.
Earlier this year, Google also added a separate generative AI performance report, which has been available to all websites worldwide since the end of August. It shows impressions, meaning how often links to your site appeared in an AI answer, broken down by page, country and device. What it doesn’t show is clicks, click-through rate or the questions people asked. It also tends to be missing entirely for smaller sites with low numbers.
So at the moment, you can see that Google’s AI showed your website, but not whether anyone came through the door. That’s the gap the CMA wants filled.
Why this matters to a small business
A lot of what’s been written about AI search and small businesses is, frankly, guesswork. Some people say AI answers are killing website traffic. Others say they’re sending better-quality visitors. Studies point both ways, and most of them are based on large websites, not a plumber in Rugby or a beauty salon in Lutterworth.
Proper click data would let you stop guessing. If AI Overviews are mentioning your business and nobody’s clicking, that tells you something. If you’re getting a small number of very good enquiries from them, that tells you something else. Either way, you’d be making decisions based on your own figures rather than somebody else’s headlines.
I’m also pleased, in a quiet sort of way, that this is coming from UK regulation. We’re usually at the back of the queue for Google features. This time, UK websites are the reason it’s happening at all.
I’ll add one note of caution. Google has until 3 December, and Mr Illyes’ comment didn’t exactly sound like a launch was imminent. Regulators and big tech companies don’t always agree on what “compliance” looks like, so the first version may be more limited than we’d like. I’ll write a follow-up once we see what actually arrives.
What I’d do now
If you haven’t set up Google Search Console, do it now. It’s free, and you’ll want a few weeks of data in there before anything new turns up, so you have something to compare against. I explained how it works in my article on Search Console’s social media reporting.
If you already have it, have a look for the generative AI performance report and make a note of what it says today, even if it’s not very much. That’s your starting point.
Don’t rush to opt out of Google’s AI features. Search Console now has a setting to stop your site appearing in AI Overviews and AI Mode, and it can be tempting to flick it off on principle. Sites that opt out will not receive any traffic or impressions from those features, so I’d wait until you can actually see what they’re worth to you.
And keep doing the basics. AI answers are built from websites and Business Profiles, so a clear, accurate website with good SEO and a well-kept Google Business Profile are still the best way to be the business Google’s AI mentions.
Need a hand?
If you’d like help setting up Google Search Console, or you’d like someone to look at what it’s telling you and explain it in plain English, I’m happy to help. Just get in touch.
