AI Search Is Growing More Quickly Than Expected

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Chatbots are becoming the go-to source for online answers for many consumers, chipping away at the dominance of traditional web search and adding another avenue of outreach that brands must cultivate to connect with customers.
An estimated 5.6% of U.S. search traffic on desktop browsers last month went to an AI-powered large language model like ChatGPT or Perplexity, according to Datos, a market intelligence firm that tracks web users' behavior.
That pales beside the 94.4% that still went to traditional search engines like Alphabet's Google or Microsoft's Bing, which have tried to fight off the new competition by adding artificial intelligence summaries to the top of their search results.
But the percentage of traffic that went to browser-based AI search has more than doubled since June 2024, when it was 2.48%, according to Datos, which is part of marketing software company Semrush. It has more than quadrupled since January 2024, when the figure was just under 1.3%.
Datos says it draws its data from more than 10 million panelists worldwide who agree to have their behavior on desktop browsers observed anonymously in exchange for rewards such as free access to software products from the company's partners. The numbers exclude activity on mobile browsers and apps including those from OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google.
The rapid growth in AI searches could mark a sea change in online behavior comparable to the emergence of Google's web browser and the first social-media platforms, according to Eli Goodman, chief executive and co-founder of Datos.
The numbers are more striking among so-called early adopters, or consumers who had already started using LLMs in desktop browsers when Datos began tracking their behavior in April 2024.
Forty percent of desktop browser visits among these early adopters went to LLMs, up from just over 24% in June 2024, Datos research found. Traditional search engines' share of the desktop browser traffic from these early adopters fell significantly in the same period, to 61% in June from around 76% a year earlier.
The amount of time that consumers worldwide spent on traditional search apps and websites declined 3% from April 2024 to April 2025, according to a report released last month by market research firm Sensor Tower. The drop was twice as high among early adopters, defined as people who first downloaded ChatGPT in 2023, the report said.
Use of Google's traditional search product is still growing, and the AI overviews that now appear on Google searches are leading to more queries that connect consumers to businesses, a Google spokeswoman said.
The growth in AI searches, plus the appearance of AI overviews in traditional search browsers, is likely to further depress search traffic to the websites where brands have long directed energy, resources and search advertising, according to Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash Meredith, the publisher of magazine and digital brands including People and Better Homes & Gardens.
Dotdash Meredith Chief Executive Neil Vogel.
Organic search traffic to large news sites such as Business Insider, the Washington Post and HuffPost has fallen by large margins over the past three years, a drop publishers blame on AI responses that fulfill searchers' curiosity without requiring a click.
Marketers in response are racing to make sure their names show up in AI searches. For brands, the most important difference between LLMs and browsers is that LLMs reveal one answer rather than a list of links, giving businesses fewer openings to appear before consumers, said Vogel.
'All the brands are terrified they're not going to be included in these AI answers,' he said.
The trend has inspired a new wave of AI-optimization startups that promise to help marketers adapt.
Businesses should move cautiously despite the apparent speed of change, according to Goodman, the Datos CEO. Search engines still handle an overwhelming majority of overall search traffic and remain firmly embedded in the smartphones that occupy so much of our time, he said.
Brands must also remember that AI searches often serve different needs than a traditional google search, he said.
'Over 90% of all of the AI searches are what we call informational or productivity-based: Help me solve this problem, help me answer this question,' said Goodman. Traditional search result pages, on the other hand, were designed to lead consumers out to other destinations online, he said.
AI chatbots for now are less a replacement for traditional search engines than another emerging responsibility for marketers, according to Andrew Lipsman, founder of consulting firm Media, Ads + Commerce.
Lipsman compared the emergence of AI to the rise of smartphones, which led to predictions that consumers would abandon computers altogether. Desktop traffic numbers over the past decade have barely budged, however, even as mobile use grew, according to research from Comscore.
The spread of advertising in AI search replies may become the next turning point because it will demand new spending from brands that want to stay competitive online, Lipsman said.
OpenAI says it has no plans to develop ad products. Perplexity has begun experimenting with sponsored searches, however, and last year hired a head of advertising and shopping.
Perplexity this year also released its own web browser, where searches are handled by its AI instead of a traditional engine like Google or Bing. The company says its search gives users 'the choice to navigate the web.'
OpenAI is close to releasing a browser as well, Reuters reported this month. The company declined to comment.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI and a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.
Write to Patrick Coffee at [e-mail]