Itera reports massive shifts in AI search citation shares

Itera Inc. has released its August 2026 LLMO/AIO Trend Report, highlighting significant shifts in AI-driven search landscapes. The report reveals that while Google's August spam update had a relatively minor impact on traditional search rankings, AI search platforms experienced massive volatility. Specifically, the citation share for a particular platform on ChatGPT search plummeted by approximately 86%, dropping from 3.83% to 0.52% within a few days.

In Japanese search results, the appearance rate of Google's AI Overviews has reached 86.5%. This rise in AI-generated summaries is contributing to a “zero-click” trend, where users find answers directly in the AI response. Data shows that when AI Overviews appear, the click-through rate for the top search result decreases from an estimated 28.4% to 15.3%.

To address the difficulty businesses face in measuring the impact of AI search optimization, Itera has also introduced new features to its “LLMO Cheki” tool. These include an ROI dashboard designed to convert AI-driven visits and conversions into estimated monetary values, helping companies justify investments in AI search visibility.