Tag Archive for: artificial intelligence

AI Use Equals More Than Half of Search Usage According To New Study

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A new analysis indicates that AI tools are now generating enough sessions to be equivalent to more than half of search engine volume – highlighting the surge in artificial intelligence usage in recent times. 

According to data from Graphite.io CEO Ethan Smith, AI tools drive more than 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide, equivalent to roughly 56% of search engine volume. 

The study analyzed usage from both web traffic and mobile apps going to major artificial intelligence tools including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude.

While desktop usage accounted for a significant amount of LLM usage, the report indicates that mobile tools have been the driving force behind the major rise in AI usage.

Notably, the study found that the increased usage of AI didn’t necessarily come at the cost of traditional search engine usage. Instead, the combined use of online search and LLM tools rose 26% since 2023. 

What The Report Says

The report specifically reviewed usage of the five largest AI tools available (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude), and compared them against the largest search engines. 

It found that all the artificial intelligence platforms combined generated approximately 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide, including 5.4 billion sessions in the U.S. each month. 

Of all AI usage, 83% came from mobile apps. In the U.S., mobile apps drove 75% of artificial intelligence use. 

While other AI platforms have shown increased usage in recent months, the study shows that ChatGPT still leads the pack by a wide margin, driving 89% of global LLM usage. 

These findings are notable because this is one of the only studies to compare online search with LLM usage across both desktop sessions and mobile apps. This leads the report to suggest that most comparisons between AI use and online search usage underestimate AI use by 4-5x. 

At the same time, the findings suggest that artificial intelligence and digital search are not necessarily in competition with each other. While search may be losing some use to LLMs, Smith suggests that the increase in overall usage suggests both search and artificial intelligence may both be essential for users. Rather than AI superceding search, brands need to invest in both to maintain visibility to users. 

For more, read the full report here. 

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Google Says You Don’t Need Special SEO For AI Overviews

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While AI overviews upend much of how we look for information online, marketers have been split on how to respond. Some say that traditional SEO is all that is necessary to get your site cited by Google’s AI overviews, while others have been arguing that a new “SEO for AI” is needed. Now, Google has weighed in. 

During a talk at Search Central Live, Google’s Gary Illyes, told attendees that AI search tools don’t mean marketers need to use a new type of optimization and that standard SEO practices are all that is needed to be included in Google’s AI overviews and AI mode. 

While we were not present at the event, Google Search Advocate Kenichi Suzuki shared a detailed overview of what Gary Illyes discussed, including three main focus areas: 

  1. AI uses traditional SEO infrastructure and signals.
  2. Content quality matters, but so does authenticity
  3. Google has used AI in its traditional search for a long time.

How AI Uses SEO

Illyes emphasized that Google’s AI tools rely on the same basic systems and infrastructure used elsewhere by Google, including relying on the same search signals and indexing approach. 

As Suzuki says:

“[Illyes] explicitly stated that there is no need for a new acronym or a separate discipline. The core principles of creating helpful, reliable, people-first content remain the foundation for visibility in all of search formats.”

Authenticity Matters

Gary Illyes said that while Google does not punish sites that publish content made with AI, it watches for signs of abuse, including sites that churn out tons of low-quality AI content or pages with deceptive information like fake author personas or AI-generated images presented as real. 

Suzuki summed up Illyes’s statements, saying:

“Search Quality Raters are instructed to give the lowest possible rating to any content that is deceptive. This includes creating fake author personas with AI-gen images or churning out content that simply rehashes information from other sources without adding unique value or experience.”

Google Has Been Using AI For a Long Time

Throughout his presentation, Gary repeatedly emphasized that Google’s use of AI goes back years before the current surge in generative AI tools. Specifically, Illyes pointed to Google’s MUM system as a form or predictive AI to understand the intent behind queries.

While the introduction of MUM did cause some shifts in how we approach SEO in general, it did not call for an entirely new optimization discipline, just as new generative AI tools do not require a new “SEO for AI”. 

The Takeaway

While AI is undeniably making us change some aspects of search engine optimization, it doesn’t call for your business to adopt “GEO” or “AI SEO” or any other separate approaches to optimization. 

Instead, it is essential that you adapt your current SEO strategies, focus on providing content that provides real value to readers, and develop strategies to cement your authentic authority in your field.

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Bing Is Limiting Its AI Following Rocky Rollout

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After an… interesting rollout, Bing is making some changes to its much-talked-about AI chatbot. As the company announced yesterday afternoon, Bing will limit users to 50 questions per day and 5 questions per session to rein in the new system. 

Since its rollout, users have been sharing examples of the chatbot, created in a partnership with OpenAI, getting up to all sorts of bad behavior. Some of the most notable include gaslighting users about the year, committing accidental racism, and even trying to blackmail a user by threatening to release personal information.

Early AI Chatbots “Somewhat Broken”

Addressing the situation in a tweet thread, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that the current AI tools are “somewhat broken” but stressed the importance of letting the world see and influence these early stages to help “get it right” down the line. 

“We think showing these tools to the world early, while still somewhat broken, is critical if we are going to have sufficient input and repeated efforts to get it right. the level of individual empowerment coming is wonderful, but not without serious challenges.”

At the same time, Altman says it is important to regulate these tools while they are more bark than bite, saying “we are potentially not that far away from potentially scary ones.”

What Bing Is Changing

Bing is limiting chat sessions to 50 chat “turns” or questions a day, with each session being limited to 5 “turns”. Specifically, Microsoft defined a turn as a complete exchange including a question from a user and a reply. 

“Our data has shown that the vast majority of you find the answers you’re looking for within 5 turns and that only ~1% of chat conversations have 50+ messages. After a chat session hits 5 turns, you will be prompted to start a new topic. At the end of each chat session, context needs to be cleared so the model won’t get confused. Just click on the broom icon to the left of the search box for a fresh start.”

For more, read the announcement from Bing here. 

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Google’s Danny Sullivan Addresses Using AI-Generated Content To Rank

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Google continues to be relatively tight-lipped about its stance on AI-generated content, but a new statement from Google’s Danny Sullivan suggests the search engine may not be a fan.

Artificial Intelligence has become a hot-button issue over the past year, as AI tools have become more complex and widely available. In particular, the use of AI to generate everything from highly-detailed paintings to articles posted online has raised questions about the viability of AI content.

In the world of SEO, the biggest question about AI-generated content has been how Google would react to content written by AI systems.

Now, we have a bit of insight into how the search engine’s stance on AI-created content – as well as any content created solely for the purpose of ranking in search results.

In a Twitter thread, Google Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, addressed AI-generated content, saying:

“Content created primarily for search engines, however it is done, is against our guidance. If content is helpful & created for people first, that’s not an issue.”

“Our spam policies also address spammy automatically-generated content, where we will take action if content is “generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience.”

Lastly, Sullivan says:

“For anyone who uses *any method* to generate a lot of content primarily for search rankings, our core systems look at many signals to reward content clea/rly demonstrating E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).”

In other words, while it is possible to use AI to create your content and get Google’s stamp of approval, you are walking a very thin line. In most cases, having content produced by experts with experience providing useful information to those who want it will continue to be the best option for content marketing – no matter how smart the AI tool is.

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