Chatbots Are Now a Search Channel
New research from Pew shows that 42% of US adults use AI chatbots for search, and that looking up information is now the most common thing people use chatbots for.
That is a significant milestone. For years, AI chatbots were framed as writing assistants or novelty tools. This data suggests a large share of people now treat them as a genuine alternative, or at least a companion, to traditional search engines.
Why It Matters
If more than four in ten adults are using chatbots to find information, your brand’s visibility can no longer be measured purely by Google rankings. People are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and others for recommendations, comparisons and explanations, and the answers they receive shape their shortlist before they ever visit a website.
The challenge is that this activity is largely invisible in traditional analytics. A chatbot might recommend your business, and the customer might then search for you by name or visit directly, with no referral trail pointing back to the original AI answer.
What You Should Do
Start checking how AI tools describe your business. Ask the main chatbots the questions your customers ask and see whether you are mentioned, how accurately and in what context.
Watch your branded search volume and direct traffic as indirect signals of AI-driven discovery. And strengthen the foundations these systems rely on: consistent information about your business across the web, genuine reviews, and clear, expert content that answers real customer questions. Our ChatGPT optimisation service helps make sure AI tools describe your business accurately.
