2026 AI Search Report: How Americans Are Using AI and What It Means for Your Business

Key Takeaways

61% of Americans now use AI: Nearly one in five use AI daily, with adoption accelerating across all age groups including a 63% surge in Baby Boomer usage
60% of searches end without a click: Zero-click searches have accelerated as AI Overviews provide direct answers, fundamentally changing how customers find businesses
61% organic CTR decline with AI Overviews: When Google shows AI Overviews, organic click-through rates crashed from 1.76% to 0.61%, while paid CTR dropped 68%
527% increase in AI-referred traffic: AI platforms drove a 527% increase in web sessions from January to May 2025, signaling a fundamental shift in discovery

Local marketing opportunities are expanding and existing marketing channels are changing. We've put together this comprehensive report which compiles published data from authoritative sources on how American consumers are using AI assistants, which platforms they prefer, their primary use cases, and critically, how this shift is impacting traditional marketing channels including Google Search and local business listings.

The findings strongly support what local home service businesses are experiencing: The need for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategies isn't theoretical. It's happening now. We built Pantora to automate this new opportunity.

Key Statistics at a Glance

61% of American adults have used AI	60% of Google searches end without a click
61% CTR decline for organic search with AI Overviews	527% increase in AI-referred web sessions (H1 2025)

Is AI Recommending Your Business?

See how you stack up against your competitors and let Pantora get you to the top.

Section 1: Consumer AI Adoption in America

Overall Adoption Rates

Multiple authoritative surveys have established the widespread adoption of AI tools among American consumers:

61% of American adults have used AI, with nearly one in five (19%) using it daily
56% of American adults use AI tools, with 28% using them at least once per week
57% of U.S. adults interact with AI at least several times a week
99% of Americans use at least one AI-enabled product weekly, though only 36% realize these products use AI
76% of adults under 30 have used AI tools, with 50% using them weekly

Source: Menlo Ventures - 2025: The State of Consumer AI

Source: YouGov Consumer AI Survey 2025

Source: Pew Research Center - AI in Americans' Lives

Source: Gallup/Telescope - Americans Use AI in Everyday Products

Demographic Breakdown

AI adoption varies significantly by age, with interesting patterns emerging:

Age Group	AI Usage Rate	Key Insight
Gen Z (18-28)	Highest overall adoption	Digital natives, primary early adopters
Millennials (29-44)	Highest daily usage	Power users; flip typical pattern
Baby Boomers (61-79)	45% have used AI; 11% daily	63% growth in adoption (Sep 2024-Feb 2025)
Parents (children under 18)	79% have used AI	Key segment; vs 54% non-parents

The data shows AI adoption is no longer limited to tech-savvy younger users. Baby Boomers saw a 63% growth in adoption from September 2024 to February 2025 alone. If you're targeting homeowners, especially parents or older demographics, they're using AI more than you might expect.

Section 2: Which AI Platforms Americans Use

ChatGPT dominates the consumer AI market, but competition is intensifying:

Platform	U.S. Market Share	Key Metrics
ChatGPT	59.5%	800-900M WAUs; 400M weekly users
Microsoft Copilot	14%	Integrated with Microsoft products
Google Gemini	13.4%	400M MAUs; 155% YoY growth
Perplexity AI	6.2%	780M queries/month; 239% growth
Claude (Anthropic)	3.2%	20-35M MAUs; strong in coding

Source: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) - State of Consumer AI 2025

Consumer Usage Patterns

Critical finding for businesses: 91% of AI users reach for their favorite general AI tool first for nearly every task, creating significant platform loyalty and a "default behavior" pattern. This has major implications for businesses seeking visibility.

Only 9% of consumers pay for more than one AI subscription
Fewer than 10% of weekly ChatGPT users visit another major AI provider
Average session duration on Perplexity: 22 minutes (vs 15 minutes for general search engines)

What this means: If a customer's preferred AI doesn't know about your business, they're unlikely to find you through a different AI platform. You need visibility across all major platforms, not just one.

Section 3: How Consumers Use AI Assistants

Primary Use Cases

Research indicates the following primary consumer use cases:

Use Case	Percentage Using AI
General research	50%
Academic support	43%
Movie & dinner recommendations	39%
Online shopping/product research	39%
Research for work/school	36%
Managing childcare (parents)	34%
Learning languages	30%
Summarizing articles	28%

Source: Attest - 2025 Consumer Adoption of AI Report

AI for Shopping and Product Research

AI shopping behavior is rapidly evolving:

55% of consumers use AI-powered search to research products
47% rely on AI for product recommendations
72% of AI users rely on AI as their primary tool for researching products and brands
Shopping-related ChatGPT prompts doubled from January to June 2025
AI referral traffic to retail sites grew 1,300% during holiday 2024 vs prior year

Source: Adobe - The Explosive Rise of Generative AI Referral Traffic

Source: Bain & Company - How Customers Are Using AI Search

For home service businesses: If 72% of AI users rely on AI as their primary research tool, and your business isn't being recommended, you're invisible to a majority of potential customers during their decision-making process.

Section 4: Impact on Traditional Search and Marketing Channels

The Zero-Click Search Phenomenon

The rise of AI has accelerated the "zero-click" trend where users get answers without visiting websites:

60% of Google searches end without a click (2024-2025)	80% of consumers rely on zero-click results in 40%+ of searches

Zero-click searches grew from 54% in 2017 to 60% in 2024-2025, with AI Overviews accelerating this trend.

Google AI Overviews Impact

Google's AI Overviews now reach 1.5 billion users monthly across 200+ countries. The impact on click-through rates is dramatic:

Organic CTR declined 61% (from 1.76% to 0.61%) for queries with AI Overviews
Paid CTR crashed 68% (from 19.7% to 6.34%) for queries with AI Overviews
Even queries WITHOUT AI Overviews saw 41% CTR decline year-over-year
Position #1 organic results saw CTR drop from 28% to 19%
AI Overviews appear on 13-25% of all search queries

Source: Seer Interactive - AIO Impact on Google CTR (September 2025)

Source: Semrush - AI Overviews Study 2025

The bottom line: Even if you rank #1 on Google, your click-through rate has dropped dramatically. And if AI Overviews appear for your target queries, you're competing for a fraction of the clicks you used to get.

Traffic Shifts to AI Platforms

Traffic patterns are fundamentally shifting:

Google's global market share fell below 90% for most of 2025, first time since 2015
Google traffic declined 1% YoY (June 2024-June 2025); unique visitors fell 4%
AI chatbot traffic grew 80.92% YoY while search engine traffic declined 0.51%
Ratio of Google users to AI search users compressed from 10:1 to 4.7:1 in one year
AI-referred web sessions jumped 527% from January to May 2025

Source: ContentGrip - Google vs AI Search Market Share

Source: AlixPartners - The Future of Search Report

Section 5: Impact on Local Search and Home Services

Local Search Statistics

Local search remains critical for home service businesses, but AI is reshaping how consumers find local providers:

46% of all Google searches have local intent
1.5 billion "near me" searches happen monthly (50 million daily)
76% of local searchers visit a business within 24 hours
80% of local searches convert into customers
84% of consumers search for local businesses daily; 73% multiple times daily

Source: Rio SEO - 2025 Top Local Search Trends

Changing Home Services Search Behavior

Consumer search patterns for home services are fundamentally shifting:

27% of consumers have used AI to find a local business in the past week
71.5% of Americans use AI tools for search
82% of voice search users look for local business information
76% of smart speaker owners conduct local searches weekly

Search Query Evolution:

Old Pattern	New Pattern
"plumber tampa fl"	"Why won't my toilet stop running and how much will it cost to fix?"

Younger homeowners expect AI to understand context and deliver specific answers, not just lists of contractors. This creates opportunities for businesses that provide comprehensive, problem-solving content.

Google Business Profile Impact

GBP signals account for 32% of local pack ranking factors
Businesses in Google 3-Pack get 126% more traffic and 93% more actions
88% of people use Google Maps to find local businesses
75% of consumers read at least 4 reviews before deciding
21% say how brands respond to reviews influences their confidence

Section 6: The Case for Answer Engine Optimization

Why AEO and GEO Matter Now

The data overwhelmingly supports the need for Answer Engine Optimization strategies:

GEO Market Growth	GEO Effectiveness
$886M (2024) → $7.3B (2031), 34% CAGR	Adding statistics: +40% visibility. Citing authoritative sources: +40%

Source: Valuates Reports - GEO Services Market

Source: Princeton/Georgia Tech - GEO Research Study

Key Findings for Home Service Businesses

Brands cited in AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks
Only 52% of AI Overview citations come from top 10 traditional search results, creating opportunity for smaller businesses
89% of B2B buyers consider AI search the top source across the buying process
AI platforms already drive 6.5% of organic traffic, projected to hit 14.5% within a year
Citations are making a comeback: 3 of top 5 AI search visibility factors are citation-based

Source: Search Engine Journal - Impact of AI Overviews on Publishers

The opportunity: Only 52% of AI citations come from the top 10 search results. This means smaller businesses with clear, well-structured content can appear in AI recommendations even if they don't dominate traditional search rankings.

Forecasted Timeline

By 2026: Reliance on search engines expected to drop 25%; 30% of browsing sessions may be screenless
By 2027: LLM traffic projected to overtake traditional search
By 2028: Gartner forecasts 50% reduction in traditional organic traffic due to AI search

What This Means for Your Business

The data is clear: AI is fundamentally changing how consumers find and choose service providers. The shift isn't coming. It's here.

The businesses that act now have a significant advantage. Just as the contractors who collected reviews aggressively a decade ago now have thousands of reviews that newer competitors can't easily match, the businesses building AI visibility today will establish positions that will be difficult to challenge later.

Here's what the data tells us you should focus on:

Ensure AI platforms can find and understand your business. Consistent information across the web, clear service descriptions, and comprehensive answers to customer questions all matter.
Track your AI visibility. You can't improve what you don't measure. Pantora monitors how your business appears across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other AI platforms so you can see exactly where you stand.
Optimize for how people actually ask questions. The shift from "plumber tampa fl" to "why won't my toilet stop running" represents a fundamental change in how customers search. Your content needs to match.
Don't abandon traditional SEO, but don't rely on it alone. The 61% decline in organic CTR when AI Overviews appear means you need both traditional search presence and AI visibility.
Move quickly. The window for establishing dominant AI visibility is open now, while most competitors haven't caught on. Early movers in AI visibility will build compounding advantages.

Pantora was built specifically to help home service businesses navigate this shift. Pantora creates an AI-optimized website for your business, provides weekly recommendations to improve your visibility, and tracks how you appear across all major AI platforms. See how AI is recommending your business today..

Methodology

This report compiles data from peer-reviewed academic research, industry analyst reports, and authoritative surveys including Menlo Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Pew Research Center, Brookings Institution, Gallup, Adobe, Bain & Company, Seer Interactive, Semrush, and others. All sources are cited inline and listed in full below.

Full Source List

Primary Research Reports & Data Sources:

Research compiled January 2026 by Pantora

Frequently Asked Questions

The research shows that 61% of American adults now use AI assistants, with AI fundamentally changing how consumers discover and choose businesses. Organic click-through rates have declined 61% when Google AI Overviews appear, while AI-referred web sessions increased 527% in the first half of 2025.

According to the research, 19% of American adults (nearly one in five) use AI assistants daily. Weekly usage is even higher, with 28% of adults using AI tools at least once per week, and 57% interacting with AI several times per week.

60% of Google searches now end without a click, up from 54% in 2017. This 'zero-click' trend has accelerated as AI Overviews provide direct answers to user queries, reducing the need to visit websites.

Traditional SEO focuses on ranking websites in search results, while AI visibility (AEO) focuses on getting your business recommended when people ask AI assistants questions. The research shows only 52% of AI Overview citations come from top 10 search results, meaning strong SEO rankings don't guarantee AI visibility.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of optimizing your business's online presence so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity recommend you when potential customers ask for help finding a service provider. The GEO services market is projected to grow from $886M in 2024 to $7.3B by 2031.