AI cuts free traffic and raises the cost of winning clients
In brief
According to Pipedrive, a major restructuring plan would cut nearly 70 percent of its staff in Estonia. In a 29 October letter, chief executive Paulo Cunha links the fall in unpaid traffic to small businesses asking AI which software to choose. Paid traffic bought to make up the gap costs more, he says.
Source : Journal du Net - « Le cas Pipedrive : l'IA menace aussi les modèles de croissance »
What it changes for an SME
If you win customers through content and search, an AI answer can inform them before they reach your site. A Pew Research Center study published in July 2025 found that in US searches observed in March, a classic result was clicked in 8 percent of visits with an AI summary, versus 15 percent without one, and links in the summary itself were clicked in only 1 percent of those visits; the study does not measure an effect on sales. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode have been available in France since 22 July. Extra advertising only replaces cheaper organic visits if extra sales cover the cost; if visits fall but sales hold, the response should differ from when both decline.
What you can do
- Cross-check organic visits, qualified leads, sales and acquisition cost instead of watching traffic alone.
- Ask a public AI which software to pick in your category and see whether your firm is recommended.
- Treat claims of a special AI ranking recipe with caution: according to Google, ordinary search fundamentals still apply.
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