The Collapse of Clicks: How AI Changes Public Informaiton
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The Collapse of Clicks: How AI Changes Public Informaiton
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About this listen
AI-generated summaries at the top of search results are quietly reshaping how residents get their information. Instead of clicking through to articles—or even city websites—many stop at the AI overview. That behavior shift is collapsing referral traffic for publishers and raising new challenges for local governments that depend on clarity, accuracy, and trust.
In this episode, we focus on the implications for cities and towns:
Why declining clicks to local media outlets matter for civic accountability.
How AI overviews could misrepresent policies, notices, or emergency information.
What residents’ demand for speed and simplicity means for government communication.
Strategies local governments can adopt—like machine-readable data, direct channels, and trust-building—to stay visible and credible in an AI-first search world.
Why the real issue isn’t just AI, but changing resident expectations shaped by years of frustration with cluttered news sites.
The zero-click future is already here. Local governments must decide whether they will be left out of the conversation—or become the trusted answer residents find first.
Show Notes:
AI in Government Newsletter
Learn more about Micah's work