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Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) analysts highlighted a significant shift in the digital search landscape. AI agent usage share increased by 130 basis points month-over-month in February, up from a 50 basis point gain in January, now accounting for 6.2% of total agent and search instances, which includes web visits and app sessions.
This growth has notably come at the expense of established search engines, with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) search and Bing experiencing declines in their global usage shares by 120 basis points and 10 basis points, respectively, during the same period.
The report indicates that the rise of AI agents is a global phenomenon, with similar trends observed in both the United States and the rest of the world (ROW). It was noted that the international market experienced slightly higher AI agent usage at 6.3%, compared to 5.9% in the U.S.
ChatGPT, in particular, has continued to demonstrate strong momentum, with its month-over-month share gain accelerating to 80 basis points in February, compared to a 30 basis point increase in January. This surge in popularity is likely a contributing factor to the loss in Google search’s share.
Year-over-year growth for ChatGPT has also been impressive, accelerating by 18 percentage points in February. Since June 2024, ChatGPT has maintained a year-over-year usage growth rate of approximately 300%, showing no signs of abating. On the other hand, Google search’s year-over-year usage growth has remained relatively modest, registering flat in February after a 3% increase in January.
The report also shed light on the performance of newer entrants in the search engine market. DeepSeek, launched in late January, has already seen a meaningful share gain of 40 basis points month-over-month in February. Its global usage share of around 0.6% has now eclipsed that of Bing.
Meanwhile, Gemini, despite its recent spinoff from the Google search app on iOS, did not show any significant uptick in web visit and app usage. The timing of Google’s official removal of Gemini from the iOS Google app in mid-February could be a factor in its current performance.
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