Google's AI Mode hits 1 billion users, but what do the real numbers say? We break down the data on how search behaviour is shifting and what it means for your business.

Google has just dropped one of the more important pieces of search news of the year. AI Mode, the assistant-powered experience inside Google Search, has crossed one billion monthly active users globally. A year ago, it was a fresh launch from I/O. Today it sits inside the daily search habit of more people than live in the entire European Union, twice over.

We wanted to look at this critically as most of the headlines miss the most important aspects and rely on clickbait / people not delving into the data!

At The Optimisers our modus operandi is to go through the raw data ourselves. The team have analysed Google’s full set of AI Mode US insights, and the latest State of Search Q1 2026 report from Datos, the clickstream panel that powers a lot of the search intelligence used across our industry. Together they tell a much clearer story than either one in isolation.

Whilst this is predominantly US data, we still think it is a useful when looking at local market trends. Here is what the numbers are saying, and the implications for your business about being found online in 2026.

Beyond the headline numbers

According to Google, AI Mode queries have more than doubled every quarter since launch. The average AI Mode query is now three times the length of a traditional Google search. More than one in six AI Mode queries are multimodal, which means the person typed nothing and instead used voice, an image, or a live camera feed. Image input queries are growing by over 40 percent month on month. Whilst we do not believe New Zealand or Australia are at this level yet, we predict that it is only a matter of time.

However, this is just the Google version of the story, somewhat predictably with a shareholder value / biased lens in place.

The Datos data adds a useful counterbalance. AI Mode’s share of all US desktop search activity went from 0.06 percent in December 2025 to 0.16 percent in March 2026. In Europe and the UK, it climbed from 0.06 percent to 0.21 percent over the same window. That is a 2.5x rise in a single quarter in the US, and an even sharper jump in Europe.

Both things are true at the same time. AI Mode is the fastest growing thing in search right now, and it is still very small in absolute terms.

Less than a quarter of one percent of desktop searches (Note: The Datos data is exclusively focussed on desktop search so gives an incomplete picture). The trajectory matters more than the current share. However, treating it is the dominant channel would be short-sighted, especially in New Zealand and Australia.

How people are searching differently

The most interesting shift is not the numbers, it’s behavioural.

People who use AI Mode ask longer, more conversational questions. They often follow up, again conversationally. This is in line with our local findings. Google reports that follow up queries in AI Mode have grown by more than 40 percent on average per month in the US since launch. The Datos data confirms the trend right across search. Mid length queries of six to nine words are now the fastest growing segment in both regions. Six-word queries reached 6.3 percent of all US desktop searches in March, and seven-word queries hit 4.4 percent.

The top first words in AI Mode are What, How, I, Is, and Can, this is a very similar trend to the data we identified years ago when looking at voice search! The top keywords are Find, Information, Identify, Explain, and Summarize. People are not typing “best restaurants Auckland” anymore. They are typing things like “help me find a romantic restaurant for date night this Saturday with intimate seating, candlelight, and pescatarian options.” In our experience, this is especially true of the younger demographic (sub-30)

That kind of question carries far more intent. It tells the assistant exactly what the person wants and what they will accept. It also correlates with our view on where things are headed in respect of agentic search and delegated decisions (AI completing the request and transaction without human input) The old game of identifying keywords is being replaced by a conversation that already contains the answer to most of your qualifying questions.

For anyone doing marketing, three implications jump out:

  1. Your content needs to answer specific, real-world questions, not just rank for short keywords.
  2. The conversation does not end at the first query. The follow up is where the decision actually gets made, and that is increasingly where you need to be visible.
  3. The rise in multimodal search means a chunk of demand is now invisible to anyone watching only text queries. If your category is visual, voice driven, or location based, you need to think about how you show up in those formats too.

The five jobs people are delegating to AI Mode

Google has grouped AI Mode use into five buckets, and they are a useful frame for thinking about content.

Explore.

People come to AI Mode to brainstorm and discover. Queries starting with “where to,” “where should I,” and “ideas for” are climbing fast. Brainstorming related queries are growing 30 percent faster than AI Mode queries overall.

Decide.

As people get closer to a choice, they switch into comparison mode. Searches starting with “which” are up 40 percent faster than AI Mode queries overall over the last six months, with “which of” and “which one” leading the way. The top shopping topics where people ask follow up questions are Electronics, Books and Media, Apparel, Health and Beauty, and Automotive. Price, location, colour, brand, and availability are the top product attributes they probe in those follow ups.

Learn.

AI Mode is increasingly used as a personal tutor. Top quiz and study guide subjects include Math, Spanish, History, Biology, and Chemistry. Beyond formal education, people are using it to prepare for professional credentials like Security Plus, the bar exam, real estate licensing, and CPA prep.

Create.

Image creation queries on AI Mode have more than tripled since the start of 2026. People ask it to make photos, quizzes, logos, stories, code, and lists. They also ask it to edit existing photos, documents, videos, and messages.

Do.

Planning queries have grown 80 percent faster than AI Mode queries overall in the last six months. Trips, fitness plans, budgets, dinner parties, theme park strategies. Hawaii, Tokyo, and Italy lead the list of top travel destinations for itinerary requests. People are using AI Mode as an assistant that helps them get something finished, not just answered.

If you sell into any of these areas, your content needs to show up at the right point in the journey. Explore content is different from Decide content, which is different from Do content. Lumping them all together is the most common mistake we still see in client briefs. A category page is not a comparison guide. A comparison guide is not a planning template. People are now searching for each of these formats specifically, and the brands that produce all three will quietly outperform the brands that only produce one.

A more complete picture of AI search

Google AI Mode is one slice of a much bigger story. The Datos data shows that all AI tools combined still account for under 2 percent of desktop activity in both the US and Europe.

ChatGPT remains the clear leader. In the US it sits at 34.80 percent of AI tool usage in March 2026. In Europe and the UK, it holds 44.82 percent. In our opinion, the gap is and will continue to close.

Gemini has firmly established itself as the number two. In the US it grew from 10.41 percent in November 2025 to 16.06 percent by March 2026. In Europe it climbed from 12.29 percent to 18.88 percent over the same window.

Claude is the surprise (or not – we’ve moved to Claude internally at The Optimisers) mover of the quarter. It jumped from 3.58 percent to 8.54 percent in the US over a single quarter, and from 3.77 percent to 9.61 percent in Europe. That is one of the steepest accelerations Datos has tracked for any AI tool.

There is another quieter shift worth flagging. In the list of top US destination domains visited after a search, ChatGPT dropped from position five to position nine. Reddit, Wikipedia, Amazon, and YouTube are picking up more of that downstream traffic. People are still using AI tools, but the journey is consolidating around a few trusted destinations. Like it or not, third party validation, trust and recommendations are key.

That detail matters more than it might first appear. It suggests AI assistants are not becoming the destination. They are becoming the bridge. People ask an AI tool a question, then click out to a known platform to verify, transact, or go deeper. Which means the places you have always invested in are arguably more important now, not less. Your Reddit presence, your YouTube channel, your Amazon listing, your Wikipedia entry. These are the surfaces an AI tool is most likely to send a curious customer to next.

If you have spent the last year worrying about visibility inside ChatGPT, you are right to keep worrying. But you should also be paying equal attention to Gemini and Claude.

We have coined this the new SEO; Search Everywhere Optimisation

And you should be present where the real conversations are happening, on Reddit and YouTube in particular.

What this means for your business

This is probably the most relevant part most people skip to.

1. Traditional search is not dying.

The Datos data is very clear on this. Google still holds 94.3 percent of US desktop search and 95.5 percent in Europe. Searches per Google user in the US rose from 95.3 in December 2025 to 102.5 in March 2026. Zero click rates are falling for the first time, dropping from 24.5 to 22.4 percent in the US over the quarter. Organic click through is rising. The open web is having a slightly better moment than it has had in years.

2. AI search is likely to still only be a partial picture this year.

It is sitting alongside traditional search. People use both, often inside the same task. Datos calls this integration rather than replacement, and the numbers back it up. AI tool adoption is growing without impacting Google usage.

3. The reality is that search is changing.

Longer queries, follow up conversations, voice and image input. These are not edge cases anymore. They are the new default. If your content is built for two-word keyword searches, it will get less relevant every quarter.

4. Your content must do more work.

AI Mode and other assistants pull from sources to answer specific, layered questions. If your site is the clearest, most useful answer to the exact question a person is asking, you are far more likely to be the source they pull from and the link they pass on. The way to engage with audiences is now the race for the most useful answer.

5. Do not pick one platform.

The data shows clearly that influence is fragmenting. Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram are all rising in importance for both search and sentiment. SEO is now Search Everywhere Optimisation. ChatGPT is the largest AI tool but losing share. Gemini is rising fast inside Google’s own ecosystem. Brand visibility is no longer predominantly a single channel it’s now part of a portfolio decision.

Our Interpretation

If we had to give one piece of advice based on all of this, it would be this. The opportunity is huge for those that choose to adapt and evolve.

Search is not over its metamorphosing. The rules of how people find information, make decisions, and act on them are visibly shifting, the data is telling us a clear story. The businesses that get ahead in the next two years will be the ones who treat AI search as a real and growing channel, get serious about how they show up in it, and keep doing the unsexy fundamentals of great content and great answers.

We are watching the data and behaviour shift in real time at The Optimisers, and we will keep sharing what we learn. If you want to talk through what any of this means for your own setup, data and reporting, we would love to talk. The clients getting it right are the ones who started early, kept it practical, and built for the way people search now, not the way they used to.

One of the key things we are seeing bigger business do, is cleaning their first-party data getting it ready for an agentic world, current commercial insights from the cleaned data and a shift in their communication approach.

The opportunity is now to take advantage of the shifts. Early(ish) adopters are the ones that will ultimately survive and thrive in this new world.

Source: Richard Conway, CEO, The Optimisers, 28th May 2026