[For dramatic effect please read in Steve Harvey’s voice] And the survey says….NO!
Well... kind of. But before I explain, let’s take a step back.
In the digital marketing world, especially among SEOs who have spent years optimizing for traditional search platforms like Google (and, I guess, Bing), the rise of AI-powered platforms has become THE topic of conversation.
Clients and prospects are asking questions such as:
- Do traditional SEO efforts impact brand visibility in AI-driven platforms like SearchGPT and Perplexity?
- What is the difference between SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
- How will AI-powered platforms impact website traffic?
- Are people actually ditching Google for AI alternatives?
All great questions.
But the one I want to tackle is the last: Are people moving away from Google search? And if so, how much market share have AI platforms peeled away from the 800-pound gorilla?
To get some answers, I took the novel approach: I just asked people. We surveyed 1,012 individuals to find out what answer engines they’re using and whether they are using multiple platforms. Without getting too personal, I threw in a few demographic questions to see if there were any noticeable trends.
A quick disclaimer: I kept the questions very simple. Trust me, I was tempted to dig deeper (e.g., What do you use for personal vs. professional searches? What about desktop vs. mobile? Do you prefer AI for deep research but Google for quick lookups, like finding a restaurant’s phone number?). But when it comes to surveys, the more you ask, the lower the participation rate. So, simplicity won.
Also, many more search and answer engines are out there, but I left many off the selection list either because I believed their usage was too small or, in my opinion, they fall into a different category (e.g., YouTube and Facebook).
What is your primary answer engine?
Every time I see Google’s search market share referenced, it’s usually around 90%, so seeing it closer to 80% was interesting.
AI-powered platforms accounted for less than 4% of all respondents – ChatGPT/SearchGPT made up less than 3%, while Perplexity came in at under 1%.
Surprisingly, DuckDuckGo received over 6% of responses.
Clearly, traditional search engines are still the dominant player in the space.
What answer engines do you use daily?
If you were to ask me which answer engine I use, I’d say Google. However, I’m not 100% loyal. I’m constantly trying new tools – sometimes out of curiosity, sometimes because I believe they’ll give me the best answer, and sometimes just to compare results by running the same query across multiple platforms.
For that reason, I wanted to see how many people were jumping between different tools. To no surprise, many people are using more than one. In fact, about 40% reported doing so.
But honestly, I was surprised to see that fewer than 20% of respondents said they use SearchGPT or Perplexity daily. Given the nature of my work, my colleagues, clients, and connections are more likely to explore AI, so I assumed most others outside of my circles were doing the same – but apparently not.
What was your primary answer engine in July 2024?
I tossed in this question hoping to spot a trend, but it turned out to be a dud. The results were nearly identical to those from February 2025 – only 7% of respondents reported switching their primary answer engine since July 2024.
A good pollster would probably call me out for even asking this. How can you expect people to accurately recall something from over six months ago? But curiosity got the best of me. It was worth a shot.
Demographic Correlation
#1: Age
I asked two demographic questions. The first was age. I was really curious whether answer engine usage correlated with age, and the results didn’t disappoint. There were a couple of interesting takeaways.
Let’s start with AI usage by age group. Below is a breakdown of the percentage of each age group that uses SearchGPT/ChatGPT and/or Perplexity daily. As expected, younger users were far more likely to engage with AI, with almost 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds reporting daily use, while usage declined with age, dropping to just 7% among those 65 and older.
On the flip side, DuckDuckGo usage increases with age.
For reference, here is the age distribution for the entire population:
#2: Education
My other demographic question explored education level and whether there was a skew toward a particular answer engine. The short answer is that there wasn’t. There was almost no difference between population groups.
For reference, here is the population distribution by education level:
Final Thoughts and What’s Next
Overall, the results weren’t too surprising. Google remains the dominant player, and DuckDuckGo may have more market share than typically reported. AI-powered platforms are gaining traction, but they’re not as widely used as I expected.
Like everything these days, the search landscape is evolving rapidly, with AI accelerating the pace. I’m curious to see how these numbers shift over the next 12 months – or even the next six or three. Every week, sometimes daily, a new AI advancement or tool (e.g., DeepSeek) emerges, expanding search options or creating opportunities we hadn’t even considered. I’d love to run this survey again in July 2025, but by then, the landscape may have changed so much that the questions and response options might not even capture the full scope of possibilities. So, we will see if that makes sense.
Regardless of what comes next, I’m confident users will benefit from more choices and better answers to their questions. However, businesses will face the challenge of adapting to this evolving landscape while staying focused on their core goal – building authority and answering the questions people are asking.