A new Nielsen Norman Group study shows how AI is changing search behaviors at lightning speed, but also how hard old habits are to break.
Key takeaways:
– People still default to Google out of sheer habit and convenience.
– Google’s AI Overviews now grab attention before users click through, fueling the zero-click trend and hitting publishers hard.
– Generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) is winning fans by saving time on research tasks from defining problems to synthesizing answers.
– Traditional search isn’t dead: users still fact-check and dive deeper through regular search alongside AI.
– Familiarity will decide winners: just as “Google” became a verb, some users already call ChatGPT simply “Chat.”
The search landscape is becoming hybrid: AI offers speed, while Google’s dominance rests on ingrained behavior.
The race now is about who becomes the default habit for the next decade of information seeking.
Full study: Nielsen Norman Group (Aug 15, 2025): https://lnkd.in/echaBeEu
