How many people use AI assistants and AI search?
900 million
People using ChatGPT every week.
Source: OpenAI announcement, reported by TechCrunch, 27 February 2026 · Global · Weekly active users
2.5 billion+
Monthly users of Google's AI Overviews.
Source: Google I/O keynote, reported by CNBC, 19 May 2026 · Global · Monthly users
What happens to clicks when AI answers appear?
8% vs 15%
Visits where people clicked a traditional search result, with an AI summary on the page versus without one.
Source: Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025 · United States · 900 adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025
1%
Visits where people clicked a link inside the AI summary itself.
Source: Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025 · United States · 900 adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025
26% vs 16%
Pages after which people ended their browsing session, with an AI summary versus without one.
Source: Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025 · United States · 900 adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025
1 in 5
Google searches in March 2025 that produced an AI summary.
Source: Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025 · United States · 900 adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025
60%
Searches phrased as questions (starting with who, what, when or why) that produced an AI summary, compared with 8% of one- or two-word searches.
Source: Pew Research Center, 22 July 2025 · United States · 900 adults, 68,879 Google searches, March 2025
How are B2B buyers using generative AI?
45%
B2B buyers who used generative AI during a recent purchase, mainly to gather information on vendors and products.
Source: Gartner, 20 May 2026 · Global B2B buyers · Survey of 645 buyers, August–September 2025
7
Information sources the average buyer used during a recent purchase.
Source: Gartner, 20 May 2026 · Global B2B buyers · Survey of 645 buyers, August–September 2025
69%
Buyers who turn to sales reps to validate AI-generated insights.
Source: Gartner, 20 May 2026 · Global B2B buyers · Survey of 645 buyers, August–September 2025
51%
Buyers who say they are more likely to encounter misleading information from generative AI (49% say the same of sales reps).
Source: Gartner, 20 May 2026 · Global B2B buyers · Survey of 645 buyers, August–September 2025
Is AI sending shoppers and customers to brands?
693%
Year-on-year growth in visits to US retail sites from generative AI tools during the 2025 holiday season.
Source: Adobe Analytics, 12 January 2026 · United States · Over 1 trillion visits to US retail sites, November–December 2025 holiday season
31%
How much more often those AI-referred visits converted than visits from other traffic sources.
Source: Adobe Analytics, 12 January 2026 · United States · Over 1 trillion visits to US retail sites, November–December 2025 holiday season
539%
Growth in generative AI traffic to travel sites over the same period. Financial services grew 266%, and tech and software 120%.
Source: Adobe Analytics, 12 January 2026 · United States · Over 1 trillion visits to US retail sites, November–December 2025 holiday season
How we choose these statistics
- Primary sources or established research organisations only; no figures from SEO or AEO tool vendors.
- Every figure shows its date, market and sample, because a US statistic is not a global one.
- Interpretation is labelled as ours and kept separate from the data.
- We re-check every figure each quarter and date the page when we do.
You're welcome to cite these statistics. Please link to the original source, and to this page if it helped.
Frequently asked questions
How many people use AI search?
More than 900 million people use ChatGPT every week (OpenAI, February 2026), and Google's AI Overviews reach over 2.5 billion people a month (Google, May 2026).
Do AI Overviews reduce clicks to websites?
Pew Research Center found people clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% without one, and clicked links inside the summary on 1% of visits (United States, March 2025).
How many B2B buyers use generative AI?
In a Gartner survey of 645 B2B buyers, 45% said they used generative AI during a recent purchase, mainly to research vendors and products.