AI Overviews — the generative AI summaries that appear above traditional search results for many queries — have measurably reduced click-through rates on certain query types since their broader rollout. The impact for Canadian businesses depends heavily on the query intent mix you're optimizing for and the role of your site in the buyer journey. For purely informational queries ('what is local SEO', 'how to write a meta description', 'when did Google launch BERT'), AI Overviews can absorb 30–60% of traffic that previously clicked through to organic results. Users get the answer in the overview and don't click through. Information-heavy publishers (industry blogs, how-to sites, definition resources) see the largest impact. For commercial-intent queries ('best Ottawa SEO agency', 'dental clinic Westboro', 'real estate lawyer Toronto'), AI Overviews tend to summarize options or characteristics rather than fully replace the click. Users still need to evaluate specific businesses, compare offers, or initiate contact, which requires visiting individual sites. Commercial-intent CTR reductions in our client portfolios are typically 5–15%, much smaller than informational reductions. For transactional queries ('book dentist appointment Ottawa', 'order custom suit Toronto', 'register course Vancouver'), AI Overviews are typically absent or have minimal impact — Google preserves the click for the actual transaction. The Canadian-specific considerations: Canadian queries with Quebec French often show different AIO patterns than English queries (Google's French AIO rollout has been more conservative); Canadian queries with regulatory or jurisdictional context (Canadian taxes, Canadian immigration, provincial regulations) often produce more cautious AIO summaries that drive higher click-through to authoritative sources; and queries about Canadian-specific entities (Canadian businesses, Canadian places, Canadian people) produce highly variable AIO behavior that's still maturing. The strategic response for Canadian businesses: shift content investment toward middle-funnel and commercial-intent topics where AIO impact is lower; pursue AIO citation share aggressively for the informational topics you do publish (being cited offsets some of the lost click-through with brand exposure); invest in branded search and direct-traffic generation channels (newsletter, podcast, community) that bypass AIO entirely; and measure organic performance using citation-inclusive metrics (citation share, branded search lift, qualified-lead attribution) rather than pure click-through volume. The overall picture: AIO is changing the economics of informational SEO meaningfully, but isn't an existential threat to most Canadian businesses whose SEO programs are properly diversified across intent layers. The businesses most affected are pure-content publishers monetizing through display ads — for service businesses, the impact is more modest and often offset by AIO citation visibility.