What you'll find here
AI Search is evolving rapidly, and so is this library. Here we share our research, experiments and practical insights to help businesses and professionals understand AI-powered search and prepare for what comes next.
AI Lab
Exploring AI Search through research, practical methodologies and real-world experimentation.
Major AI Search Reports, Studies & Research Sources
This page brings together major reports, research programmes, datasets, indexes and academic studies focused on AI search. It covers how people use AI search, how AI systems find and cite information, how visibility and traffic are changing, and how the field itself is developing.
The list prioritises recurring research, continuously updated data sources and significant studies, and is organised by topic for easier reference.
Last updated: August 2026
1. Official AI Search Platforms & First-Party Research
| Source | Publisher / Organisation | What It Covers | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information retrieval | Google Research | Research on search, retrieval, ranking and information discovery. | Ongoing research; no fixed schedule |
| Search & information retrieval | Microsoft Research | Research covering search, retrieval, conversational systems and generative search. | Ongoing research; no fixed schedule |
| Introducing ChatGPT search | OpenAI | Official information on web search, source retrieval and citations in ChatGPT. | Not periodic; updated as needed |
| What is Perplexity? | Perplexity | Official documentation of Perplexity’s AI-powered web search and citation-based answers. | Not periodic; updated as needed |
| Claude web search now available globally on all plans | Anthropic | Official information on Claude web search, current-information retrieval and citations. | Not periodic; updated as needed |
| Ranking & Recommendations | Meta AI | Research on ranking, retrieval, recommendation and search technologies across Meta products. | Ongoing research; no fixed schedule |
2. State of AI Search, Market & User Behaviour
| Source | Publisher / Organisation | What It Covers | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 2026 Generative AI Landscape Report | Similarweb | AI platform usage, market share, user behaviour, referrals and search trends. | Annual |
| State of Search Q2 2026: Behaviors, Trends, and Clicks Across the US & Europe | Datos | Clickstream research on traditional search, AI search adoption and user behaviour. | Quarterly |
| Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results | Pew Research Center | Independent behavioural research on AI Overviews and search clicks. | One-off study |
| New front door to the internet: Winning in the age of AI search | McKinsey & Company | Consumer adoption, discovery and commercial implications of AI-powered search. | One-off study |
| Gartner Survey Finds Only One-Third of Consumers Say GenAI Rivals Search Engines; Marketers Must Optimize for Both AI-Driven and Traditional Search | Gartner | Consumer research on GenAI, traditional search and changing research behaviour. | One-off survey |
| The State of AI Search in 2025: What Every SEO and Marketing Pro Needs to Know | OtterlyAI | Study of citations, mentions and visibility across major AI search platforms. | No recurring schedule established |
| 2025 State of AI Discovery Report: What 1.96 Million LLM Sessions Tell Us About the Future of Search | Previsible | LLM referrals, AI-mediated discovery and changes in the path to purchase. | No recurring schedule established |
| The State of AI Search 2026 | 5W | AI visibility, citation share, leading platforms and brand performance in AI answers. | Annual |
3. AI Visibility, Citations & Optimisation Research
| Source | Publisher / Organisation | What It Covers | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original Research & Studies | Semrush | Large-scale studies of AI visibility, citations, AI Overviews and search behaviour. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| AI Search | Ahrefs | Data studies on AI citations, visibility, traffic and optimisation factors. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| The BrightEdge | Weekly AI and Search Insights | BrightEdge | Longitudinal monitoring of AI Overviews, AI Mode and other AI search systems. | Weekly |
| Research | Profound | Large-scale research on citations, source selection and AI search behaviour. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| The 2026 AEO / GEO Benchmarks Report | Conductor | Benchmarks for AI citations, referrals, visibility and AI-generated search experiences. | Annual |
| SEO Research | seoClarity | Research on AI traffic, citations, AI Mode, AI Overviews and search visibility. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| GEO & AI Search Data Reports | Promptwatch | Large-scale datasets on citations, source types and behaviour across AI engines. | Regularly updated; monthly citation reports |
| Studies & Surveys | SE Ranking | Original studies on AI Mode, ChatGPT, citations, AI traffic and visibility. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| AirOps Research | AirOps | Research on retrieval, query fan-out, citations and AI search visibility. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| The data behind local AI and search visibility | Yext | Benchmarks and studies of how brands are discovered and cited in AI search. | Quarterly benchmarks; additional studies as published |
| Stay ahead in the age of AI Search | Peec AI | Data studies on citations, source selection and visibility across AI engines. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| 2026 Growth Memo research summary | Growth Memo / Kevin Indig | Collection of AI search data analyses, experiments and user studies. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| The AI Search Manual | iPullRank | Living technical reference on GEO, retrieval, citations and AI search measurement. | Continuously updated |
| The definitive research on AI citation patterns. | Lantern | AI citation indexes and industry-specific visibility research across major engines. | Ongoing; no fixed schedule |
| AIO Impact on Google CTR: 2026 Update | Seer Interactive | Longitudinal research on the effect of Google AI Overviews on organic and paid CTR. | Recurring updates; no fixed schedule |
| AI Overview User Intent Research | Authoritas | Research into AI Overviews, user intent and generative-search visibility. | Ongoing research; no fixed schedule |
| Foglift Research | Foglift | AI search visibility benchmarks, citation studies, query fan-out research and datasets. | Quarterly benchmarks; additional studies as published |
4. AI Traffic, Crawling & the Web Ecosystem
| Source | Publisher / Organisation | What It Covers | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Insights | Cloudflare Radar | Live data on AI crawlers, bot activity and interactions between AI systems and the web. | Continuously updated |
| Quarterly AI Traffic Report | Adobe Digital Insights | AI referral traffic, discovery, engagement and conversion behaviour. | Quarterly |
| State of the Bots — 2026 Q1 & Q2, The Bad Bots | TollBit | AI crawling, scraping, referrals and the impact of AI bots on publishers and the open web. | Quarterly |
5. Academic & Foundational AI Search Research
| Source | Publisher / Organisation | What It Covers | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEO: Generative Engine Optimization | Pranjal Aggarwal et al. | Introduces Generative Engine Optimization, visibility metrics and GEO-bench. | One-off academic paper |
| The Use of Generative Search Engines for Knowledge Work and Complex Tasks | Microsoft Research et al. | Empirical comparison of generative search with conventional web search. | One-off academic study |
| The Rise of AI Search: Implications for Information Markets and Human Judgement at Scale | Sinan Aral, Haiwen Li and Rui Zuo | Large-scale analysis of AI search, source diversity and information-market effects. | One-off academic study |
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