derived metric sessions for the absolute move; the relative move inherits the product's contested delta-percent scale · higher is better

AI referral session change

also called Assistant referral trendAI referral session delta

Definition

The movement in assistant-referred sessions between two comparable periods, in sessions and as a relative change.

Scope, grain and dimensions

Grain: One traffic-source value (or the whole-domain total) across a pair of date ranges.
Dimensions: source/medium · landing page · country · device
Required filters: date range · comparison date range
Aggregation: A comparison between two period reads, not a measure that aggregates. Both periods must use the same source/medium selection or the change describes the selection rather than the traffic.
Metric type: derived metric · sessions for the absolute move; the relative move inherits the product's contested delta-percent scale

Data sources

GA4 or Adobe Analytics Source page →

Where you'll see this

Named reports that normally include this metric.

AI referral traffic report

Skills and analyses that use it

Skills carry the judgment; the analysis verbs do the reading.

Skills

search-to-revenue significance-referee anomaly-investigator

Method rungs and levers

R5 Rewarded

A rung tells you what a movement here can and cannot explain, read the rungs below it first.

levers L7 AI-answer visibility

Ask Quattr

"Is AI referral traffic growing?" Simulate this →
"Did assistant referrals move enough to matter this month?" Simulate this →

Caveats, freshness and failure modes

Inherits the classification blocker: if the hand-picked source list differs between the two periods, the change is an artefact of the selection.

The relative change is returned as a fraction by one part of the product and as a percent by another, so a delta percent is ambiguous until you know which produced it.

At the volumes typical for assistant referrals, most period-over-period moves fail a significance test, report the trend across several periods rather than one comparison.

A per-source time series is available, the trend mode combines with a traffic-source breakdown for exactly this, but a comparison range and a trend are still separate modes, so a two-period delta and a series are two reads, not one.

Freshness: loads nightly, a same-day question gets yesterday's number, labelled as yesterday's.

Common failure modes

Quoting a triple-digit percentage growth that rests on a move from nine sessions to twenty-eight.
Reading a delta percent as a percent when the module that produced it returned a fraction.

Watch this metric read in a real run

All runs →

Metrics

AI referral sessions Period-over-period change Period-over-period change, relative Real, noise or can't-tell

Verification

Last verified 2026-08-04 · reference version 1.1 { } This metric as JSON ↗

A definition is the smallest part of this.

The measurement matters because something acts on it. Here is the rest of the showcase, in the order most people find useful.

Watch it work Ask a question, see the answer take shape → A labelled simulation on a fictional account, nothing connects to your site. Workflows Dashboard rituals, translated to one sentence → Mined from real product sessions, the before, and the after. The plugin The skills that carry the judgment → Each one is the routing, the statistical bar and the reporting rules for a question. Blog Why this is worth measuring at all → Definitions live here; the arguments live there.