When Will ChatGPT Replace Search Engines? Maybe Sooner Than You Think

pcmag.com:

If you follow tech news, you know that ChatGPT and similar AI-powered tools from Google, Microsoft, and others have the potential to alter society in profound ways.

In a matter of seconds, generative AI chatbots and image generators can transform a short text prompt into award-winning images(Opens in a new window), essays worthy of top marks, blog posts, poetry, and even functioning computer code.

Much has been written about the implications of AI-powered tools performing business tasks that once required hours of human labor. Understandably, much of the debate over AI has centered on the technology putting jobs at risk in fields including content creation, customer service, data entry, and even computer programming(Opens in a new window). Another big change is coming, though: one that could fundamentally alter how we obtain information and possibly upend the current ad-supported internet paradigm we’re all familiar with.

In March 2023, I conducted an Aberdeen Strategy & Research survey of 642 professionals working across a broad range of industries to learn more about the impact of artificial intelligence in the workplace(Opens in a new window). (Disclosure: Aberdeen Strategy & Research is owned by PCMag’s parent company, Ziff Davis.)

When we asked respondents to predict how they’ll find internet-based information in the future, AI chatbots (42%) bested search engines (24%) by a wide margin.

Not only do users believe they’re more likely to use chatbots for web searches in the future, but many are already utilizing them today.In March 2023, nearly six out of 10 survey respondents had tried generative AI tools. Respondents were almost three times as likely to have tried chatbots (56%) such as ChatGPT than text-to-image