Two years ago, visits to the examined Hungarian websites from AI interfaces such as ChatGPT and Gemini accounted for only 0.01 percent of total traffic. According to JabJab Online Marketing's Q3 2026 AI Traffic Index, by summer 2026 that share exceeded 1 percent — a more-than-100-fold increase in under two years.
Which sectors saw the biggest increases?
The report notes that AI systems increasingly cite specific websites, and can therefore send direct referrals to those sources. The most visible growth was on news sites: over the past four months covered by the report, traffic from AI platforms was six to seven times higher than in the preceding period. The surge was driven in part by heightened demand for information around the spring parliamentary election and by AI systems including more and more prominent citations in their answers from May onward.
By category, the report shows AI-origin traffic shares roughly as follows: marketplaces nearly 1.6 percent, electronics e-shops 1.4 percent, and telecommunications sites 1.1 percent. Accommodation booking sites are comparatively better off; for them the rise in AI traffic has not been accompanied by an equally steep fall in search-driven visits as seen in several other categories.
AI gives some traffic but takes more away
Despite the rise in referrals, a less favorable trend emerges: traditional, free search traffic to the examined Hungarian websites has declined, and AI-sourced visits have so far failed to make up the difference. Comparing April–July 2026 with the same months a year earlier, the additional traffic from AI covered only 4.7 percent of the visits lost from search engines.
In other words, while AI forwards an increasing number of visitors, it overall retains even more potential clicks on its own platforms. Users often obtain the needed information directly from an AI-generated answer or an AI summary shown among search results, and therefore do not open the original site. The report stresses that checking sources remains important because AI summaries can occasionally be incorrect.
News publishers: most referrals, largest risk
News publishers receive some of the largest absolute volumes of AI-driven traffic, yet their traditional search traffic has, according to the analysis, nearly halved. The additional visits from AI have only partially offset that decline, leaving news organizations particularly exposed.
JabJab Online Marketing's report highlights how the fast-growing role of AI-driven information delivery is reshaping web traffic: some sectors benefit relatively more, while others suffer significant losses due to declining search referrals.
