I’ve just seen some interesting new research on the increasing role of AI assistants in searches for information and recommendations.
The main points that stand out for me:
1. A signficant 28% of all searches globally are now carried out via AI tools (this found by isolating the 52% of AI prompts which are ‘asking’ (i.e. searches) instead of ‘doing’). And I’m sure this proportion is rising fast as people increasingly get familiar with AI tools
2. Total searches across AI assistants and ‘traditional’ search engines like Google have increased 26% since 2023, suggesting it’s not a simple story of searches switching to AI, but of AI growing the total volume
3. ChatGPT dominates AI usage with a whopping 89% share of global sessions and 20% of all searches across AI and search engines
4. 83% of worldwide AI sessions are on mobile, and AI use is growing fastest in the US where it expanded three-fold during 2025
I think this confirms what we all knew – that AI assistants are now vital in searches and recommendations. But it also underlines that traditional search engines still play a big role, even if Google’s share of search has apparently fallen from 89% to 71% in the last two years.
So, both SEO and GEO are vital in companies’ marketing efforts.
More from the firm, Graphite.io, that carried out the study here.
