By Sam Boughedda
In a note to clients Friday, TD Cowen analysts told investors in a research note that in a survey it conducted, Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google search engine "remains the clear leader in search."
The analysts revealed that 89% of respondents used Google in February, with 36% aware of ChatGPT, which launched in November, while 8% used ChatGPT in February.
"In our proprietary monthly survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers, we asked our respondents which search engines they had used in the past 30 days. Unsurprisingly, Google Search was the clear leader, with 89% of respondents indicating they used Google Search in Feb '23, Yahoo was a distant second (27%), followed by Bing (19%)," the analysts wrote.
TD Cowen found that around 70% of respondents who have used ChatGPT indicated the platform or another similar AI-powered chatbot could replace their usage of traditional search engines.
"While the high % of respondents suggested chatbots could replace trad'l search, in our view, it is highly unlikely that AI-based chatbots would replace search engines for all types of queries," they said.
"We view this as potentially likely for perhaps 5-10% of total search queries."