The New Shape of Search: How Conversational AI Recomposes Information Seeking

People more often reach chatbots after browsing, while Google searches usually come before browsing.

+20.6

percentage points

Direction reversal, assistant vs search

Web content follows search but precedes assistant use, same users

How it works

Assumed answer-engine shape
Chatbots are pictured as the start of a search: ask, get an answer, maybe click out. Nobody had checked real journeys.
Link chats to browsing
An opt-in panel logs prompts, responses, searches and pageviews per user. These are split into 30-minute sessions and classified by event order.
Assistants sit deeper inside
Content tends to come before assistant use but after search. Assistant sessions stay off the web far more often.

From the paper