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AI Now Commands 56% Of Search Volume Worldwide, Study Finds

TL;DR

LLM usage has reached 45B monthly sessions globally (34% of search in US), with ChatGPT capturing 20% of search traffic as market expands rather than cannibalizes.

Key Points

  • AI sessions hit 45B monthly worldwide, 5.4B in US; ChatGPT dominates with 89% global LLM market share
  • Google's search market share dropped from 89% (2023) to 71% (Q4 2025), but total search volume grew 26% as pie expanded
  • 83% of AI usage occurs on mobile apps, making previous web-only estimates understate actual adoption by 4-5x
  • Search-related 'Asking' prompts comprise only 52% of LLM usage; remaining prompts are task execution or expression, not search substitutes

Why It Matters

This data challenges the zero-sum narrative that AI will kill search. For developers and product teams, it means search and AI represent complementary markets with growing total demand. The shift from web-only metrics to mobile-inclusive analysis reveals actual user behavior patterns that previous analyses missed, affecting how companies should allocate engineering resources.
Read the full research analysis

Source: graphite.io