I surveyed 2,127 people about AI search. Here's what surprised me most.

I help founders and businesses build visibility online. In April 2026, I surveyed 2,127 U.S. adults about how they use, trust, and verify AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. My goal was to find helpful data about the ways people are using AI to find information online, compared to traditional Google searches.

I had some assumptions going in. Most of them held up. But there were also a few surprises

What I expected to find

The survey found that 78.5% of Americans have made a real-life decision based on information from an AI tool. That tracked with what I see every day. I use AI tools, and so does nearly everyone I work with.

The verification numbers didn't surprise me either. Only 17.4% of AI users say they always verify what AI tells them. That may sound alarming as a headline, but I think it requires some context. People don't verify everything they read on a blog or in a Wikipedia article. For low-stakes questions, accepting the answer and moving on is perfectly reasonable. Important decisions deserve fact-checking. Asking ChatGPT what year a movie came out does not.

The adoption stat (97.6% have used AI tools to find information) also confirmed what I was already seeing anecdotally. AI search isn't a niche behavior. It's the default for most people now.

What actually surprised me

Here's the number I didn't expect: 68% of Americans already trust AI-powered search results as much or more than traditional Google search results.

What surprises me is how fast we got here. Google has been the dominant information source for more than two decades. AI-powered search has been mainstream for about two years. And in that window, two-thirds of American adults have reached a point where they consider AI at least as trustworthy as the search engine they've relied on for most of their adult lives.

The generational breakdown made it even more interesting. I would have guessed that younger people were driving that trust. They're not. 33% of adults 61 and older trust AI search more than Google, compared to just 23% of Gen Z respondents. Gen Z is actually the most skeptical generation in the survey. That completely inverts the usual assumptions about who adopts new technology most enthusiastically.

I should note that the Boomer sample was the smallest group in the survey at 100 respondents, so I'd interpret that specific number with some caution. But the overall trend held up across every age bracket. Trust in AI increased consistently with age.

Why this matters if you're building a business

If two-thirds of Americans already trust AI search as much as Google, those numbers are very likely to keep growing. That means how your business, your product, or your personal brand shows up in AI-generated answers is becoming just as important as your Google rankings.

If you've built your growth on SEO, this isn't a reason to scrap that work. The survey actually shows that Google is still the primary verification tool. 72% of people who verify AI answers do it by Googling. Even among respondents who said they trust AI more than Google, 59% still went to Google to double-check. So Google results still matter, but they're increasingly serving a different purpose. They're becoming a trust layer for AI rather than the starting point of the search.

The businesses that start paying attention to AI search visibility now are going to have a real advantage as those trust numbers climb. The ones that wait until AI search is the obvious default will be playing catch-up.

The bigger picture

The speed of this trust shift says something about how people form trust with information sources. It took Google years to earn the level of confidence it has today. AI tools compressed that timeline dramatically, partly because they deliver answers in a format that feels more direct than a page of links.
The full report with all the demographic breakdowns is available at clearsparkdigital.com.