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40% of U.S. adults use chatbots for search, making information lookup their most common AI chatbot activity, according to Pew Research. #
AI is changing how Americans search for information. A new Pew Research Center report found that 60% read AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, and about 40% use chatbots to find information.
AI-generated answers now appear across both traditional search results and dedicated chatbot platforms, including tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, Pew found.
**AI summaries reach most searchers. **Six in 10 U.S. adults said they’ve read AI summaries at the top of search results, Pew found. Three in 10 said they haven’t.
- Another 10% were unsure, suggesting some users don’t clearly recognize AI summaries in search results.
- Men were slightly more likely than women to report reading them, 63% versus 57%. Adults 65 and older were the least likely age group to read them.
**Chatbots are search tools. **About half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots, up from about one-third in 2024. Roughly one in four adults use them daily.
- Searching for information was the most common chatbot use Pew measured. About 40% of U.S. adults use chatbots for search, ahead of entertainment, image and video creation, medical advice, fitness information, news, emotional support, and companionship.
- Work was close behind. Among employed adults, 38% said they use chatbots for job-related tasks.
**ChatGPT dominates. **ChatGPT remains the most widely used chatbot by a wide margin. Pew found that 44% of U.S. adults now use ChatGPT, up from 34% last year and more than double the share measured in 2023.
- Gemini ranked second, with about a quarter of adults using it. Copilot and Meta AI followed.
- Grok, Claude, and Character.ai had much smaller reach. About one in 10 adults or fewer said they had used each tool.
**Why we care. **People now find information through traditional results, AI summaries, and chatbot answers. A traditional search ranking may not reflect every place people now find answers.
Dig deeper. AI search adoption rises as consumer trust declines: Study
**About the data. **Pew Research Center surveyed 5,119 U.S. adults from Feb. 17-23, 2026, through its nationally representative American Trends Panel. The full-sample margin of error was plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.
The report. Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. We remain committed to providing high-quality coverage of marketing topics. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.