Even as predictions grow about the role AI will play in the search for new products, for right now consumers are relying on an old reliable online service: Google.
More than half, 56.7 percent, of U.S. consumers prefer to start their buying processes by performing searches on Google, a new study from Smarty Marketing discovered. This is nearly twice as much as the second choice, Amazon, where 29 percent of shoppers began their searches.
The AI platform ChatGPT ranked third in the process, the survey found, but only 7.3 percent of those searchers chose it. Social network Reddit was fourth, with 4.6 percent.
But the survey found that AI is coming...and probably soon, with ChatGPT the dominant platform by far. Almost half, 48.4 percent, of the 60.7 percent of respondents who do use AI for product discovery indicated they utilize it. Far behind were Google Gemini at 27.9 percent and Microsoft Copilot at 9.9 percent.
Another recent survey from CouponFollow had similar findings, with 72 percent of those who use AI choosing ChatGPT. It beat out the second and third choices, Gemini and Copilot, by wide margins.
Not surprisingly, the research found that millennials and Gen Zers are adapting to AI services faster than their Baby Boomer and Gen X counterparts.