A study from Pew Research is based on data from 900 US adults who agreed to share online browsing activity. From this data the research team pulled AI activities.

Currently, 18% of all searches result in an AI summary but that number jumps to 60% for questions such as "how can I manage my diabetes better?"

As more people rely on the AI summaries to answer their questions, clicks to websites are shrinking. This means that more people are getting their questions answered directly from the Google summary. Brands need to know where they show up on these summaries. Try this example: "what are the top treatments for multiple myeloma?"

SEO is a secret magic that only the rarest analysts can control, maybe even a bit Strange (don't bring your movie preferences into this -Ed.). The good news is that what is good for readers is generally good for search engines, including Google AI Summaries.

While high-authority sites like Wikipedia and government sites rank highly, they are still only in 12% of AI summaries. In fact, the top five types of sites only account for 26% of links in Google AI summaries. The other 74% of links are fair game for authoritative sources. Your brand.com won't be that (unless the search is for the brand) but Associations and other reputable health sites could be.

So, see where your main patient queries take you with Google AI summaries and then craft a plan to get into that stream of content. Warning: it won't be easy as the most influential sources are those that are often not easily aligned with pharma.

Talk to your Klick Rep to get connected to an SEO team that can help you with that precise task (promotional, but Sharon Virtue is pretty awesome so I'll allow it -Ed.).

Muck Rack, a PR monitoring company, analyzed over 500,000 AI search queries to see what the tools are using as source material. It turns out that owned materials are often referenced in results.

With over 500,000 queries, Muck Rack was able to separate results into 10 industries including healthcare. When looking just at this industry we see that the top five sources for the three major AI search algorithms lean heavily on government sources, especially the NIH.

Healthcare is mid-pack for the uniqueness of its sources, other industries are likewise concentrated. This reinforces that, while overall sources can be influenced by brands, the top sources will almost always be third-party.

Invoca surveyed 600 marketers from the US and UK last October about their use of AI. For this fast-paced subject that nine months can make a difference but the data is interesting nonetheless.

As the title of this story says, 89% of marketers say their AI budgets are increasing. Only 3% say their budgets are decreasing.

The reason budgets are increasing is obvious when you see the ROI results. 80% of respondents said their ROI exceeded expectations for the technology.

With all this investment you might think that marketers are under-spending on AI but that's not the perception. Marketers see budgets increasing but 93% say they are already spending enough or too much.

This report also looks at how marketers feel about their AI skills. 92% say they are "advanced" or "expert" users of AI, which seems a bit optimistic but maybe it's just me who feels like the eternal beginner (it's not just you, but no personal stories -Ed.).

Marketers are optimistic about AI in the workplace as well:

DoubleVerify has released regional versions of its Global Insights report for APAC, EMEA, Latin America, and North America. We looked at the North America version but the others are at the link.

Since DoubleVerify does not handle Search ads they are not included in their media list. Typically that channel would be at the top with Social second. Here, Social is #1. CTV is gaining ground as marketers get more familiar with the channel.

Marketers were asked which channels they use.

Social's performance has always been strong and the new Meta Reels products that compete with TikTok are top of the list of those that perform better than marketers' baselines.

For more information about ad measurement and other regions check out the DV site.

A report from Twilio looks at consumers' and business leaders' views on AI and customer service. This report is based on surveys of 7,640 consumers and 637 business leaders across 18 countries from January 3 to February 17, 2025. There is a slight selection bias as the consumers were required to own a smartphone and have shopped online in the past six months.

One of the more interesting findings is the trust gap between business leaders who say they disclose AI usage and consumers who say the same. We have global and US data shown together on this chart.

The business leaders' numbers are essentially the same, but US consumers are considerably more skeptical of brands' disclosure of AI.

Images and videos are catching up with text in AI use cases. Nearly half of marketers are using the technologies for visual materials. 

It's interesting that video has matched imagery in this survey taken in January. Its rapid rise shows how quickly things are changing. Now, six months later the numbers might be different again.

Google's Q2 investor report included a blowout number for its AI Overview tool. The product now gets to 2 billion people every month. Some points:

B2B marketers live by their industry contacts databases and they are an important company asset. Integrate surveyed 167 B2B marketers in early April from B2B companies with revenue over $100MM.

When asked how much of their internal data is out of date or incorrect, the largest group of marketers said 10-25%. 

Most marketers say missing data is the top issue they face but duplicates and internally inconsistent data are close. Maintaining professional data in an environment of roughly 10% annual turnover takes time and effort. 

When asked about the barriers they face to improving their data quality, marketers said staffing first followed closely by regulations.

For some reason Integrate also asked how marketers were using AI in their work. Since this data is usually pretty interesting we're including it too even if it doesn't directly relate to the report topic.

The esa surveyed 4,000 US gamers and 1,000 non-gamers in February to get a sense of how gaming is evolving.

Video games are a health tool for many Americans. The ages of gamers has grown older over the years and now solidly spans all of the generations. With Boomers we see that females beat out males as the top gamers.

Of the many reasons Americans play games, many of them relate to mental and emotional health. Some of the more obvious ones are highlighted below.

If we dig into the reasons to play a bit more we can see how age leans players towards the health benefits. Keeping mental acuity is especially important to older gamers.

To get a sense how many people can be reached via games, consider the size of the industry.

And many households have a PC gaming computer. These can obviously also be used for research if something health-related catches the players attention (though the phone might be the first choice).