Australian AI search usage and statistics for 2026

Australian AI search statistics for 2026 show that AI is now common but isn’t where most local searches start. More than half of Australians aged 14 and over used an AI tool in an average four weeks of early 2026.¹ Among adults who search online at least once a week, 35% said they used an AI assistant to find information in the past 30 days.² But 4% said they usually start looking for a local place with AI.²

Here’s an example. A homeowner in Penrith wakes up to a dead hot water system. One neighbour types “plumber near me” into Google while another asks ChatGPT who to call. The numbers on this page show how many Australians use AI tools, how they use them to find information and how far they trust what the tools say. We found no national figure for how many people ask ChatGPT who to call for a job like this one, so the second neighbour is an illustration and not a measured habit.

This page collects the main figures we could find from original surveys and official releases and explains each one in plain words. Every number shows who was asked and when. Journalists and researchers can follow each figure to its source. The fine print holds the definitions. Last updated 21 October 2026, with sources checked on 20 and 21 October 2026.

Australian AI search statistics at a glance

These five figures are the safest to quote. They don’t all describe the same group of people, so each one says who was asked and we don’t add them together.

1. 35% of Australian adults who search online at least weekly said they used an AI assistant (a chat tool such as ChatGPT) to find information in the past 30 days.² YouGov asked them between 21 April and 29 May 2026.²
2. 45% of Australians aged 14 and over used ChatGPT in an average four weeks of January to March 2026, an estimated 10.5 million people.¹ That counts any use of the tool, such as writing an email.¹
3. 4% of Australian online searchers said they usually start finding a local place with AI.² This is the same YouGov survey as the first figure.²
4. 39% of those online searchers trusted information from AI assistants somewhat or a lot, compared with 63% for search engines.²
5. 12% of Australian employing businesses in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey used AI in the 2024-25 financial year.⁹ The ABS only counts businesses with staff and only asks whether they used AI at all.⁹

These studies don’t show AI replacing Google. YouGov’s report says most people who use AI also use other sources, as the next sections show.² If you run a local business, the section for a tradie turns these figures into steps. Our AI SEO agency can help you work through them.

How many Australians use ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot?

About 45% of Australians aged 14 and over used ChatGPT in an average four weeks of January to March 2026, which Roy Morgan estimates at 10.5 million people.¹ It was the most used of the tools Roy Morgan reported.¹ Roy Morgan surveyed 14,646 Australians aged 14 and over.¹

These numbers count people who used a tool for anything, such as writing an email or making a picture.¹ They don’t count searches.¹ People use more than one tool, so the rows overlap and shouldn’t be added up.

Gemini here means people who actively used Gemini itself.¹ It leaves out the AI summaries Google shows inside its normal search results.¹ We didn’t find a trustworthy Australian user count for those summaries, for Google’s chat-style AI Mode or for Perplexity, so we haven’t quoted one.

How do Australians use AI to find information?

YouGov’s report says most people who use AI for answers use it as part of a wider search.² It asked 1,002 Australian adults between 21 April and 29 May 2026.² More than 950 of them were online searchers, which YouGov defines as adults who look for information online at least once a week.² Of those, 35% said they had used an AI assistant or chatbot to look for information in the past 30 days.² Search engines were still the most used source.²

YouGov also names anyone who starts at least some new questions with an AI assistant as an AI searcher.² That includes people who do it less than once a week.² They made up 72% of the Australians surveyed, which was more than 700 people.² Among them, 43% use AI alongside other sources and 16% call it their starting point.² Every number in this table is out of that group.²

These are answers people gave about what they do, so no tool counted their clicks.² The rest of the people in each question chose other answers.

Which age groups use AI the most?

AI tool use was highest among Australians aged 25 to 34 at 74% and lowest among those aged 65 and over at 31%.¹ This is the same Roy Morgan survey and the same four-week measure for every row.¹

AI tool use by age, January to March 2026

14 to 1766%

18 to 2468%

25 to 3474%

35 to 4972%

50 to 6450%

65 and over31%

Share who used an AI tool in an average four weeks

Roy Morgan · January to March 2026

Self-reported tool use, not searches.

YouGov asked a narrower question: how many new questions people start with an AI assistant to find information.² Daily use was far more common among younger adults.²

Daily AI questions by generation, April to May 2026

Gen Z59%

Millennials48%

Gen X25%

Baby Boomers and older14%

Share who start at least one new AI question a day

YouGov · 21 April to 29 May 2026

Online searchers only. All online searchers: 36%.

The two tables answer different questions, so read them one at a time. Roy Morgan counts anyone who used a tool in four weeks.¹ YouGov counts how often people start a new question each day.²

Place is harder to pin down. In auDA’s 2025 survey, 59% of adults in the five major capital cities said they used AI for at least one purpose on its list, against 56% of all adults.⁴ That is a small gap. The five cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.⁴ Of the 2,000 adults surveyed, 1,305 lived there.⁴ The survey ran in February and March 2025, so it is older than most of the other figures.⁴ We found no published figure for people outside those five cities and we haven’t worked one out, because the published results are rounded and weighted.

A separate eSafety survey asked 1,950 children aged 10 to 17 between 2 February and 4 March 2026.¹² Of them, 78% had used an AI assistant.¹² That is a different age range and a different question, so we don’t compare it with the tables above.

Do Australians trust AI answers?

Fewer Australian online searchers trust AI assistants than trust search engines.² In the YouGov survey, 39% of online searchers trusted information from AI assistants somewhat or a lot, against 63% for search engines.² Both numbers come from the same question and the same people.²

Trust in two sources of information, April to May 2026

Search engines63%

AI assistants39%

Trust somewhat or a lot

YouGov · 21 April to 29 May 2026

Self-reported trust, not accuracy.

Trust is a feeling and isn’t a test of accuracy. Other surveys ask about trust in different ways, so their numbers don’t line up with YouGov’s.

We can’t draw a trend from these rows because they ask about different things at different times. Ipsos ran its survey for Google.⁵

Are Australians using AI to find local businesses?

Not as a first step for most people. In the YouGov survey, 4% of online searchers said they usually start finding a local place with AI.² The report shows search engines as the most common starting point for most tasks it tested, with maps apps the runner-up for finding a local place.²

That question let each person pick one usual starting point.² It doesn’t count people who ask AI later in their search. A local place also covers more than hiring a tradie. We found no national figure for how many Australians use AI to hire a tradie or book a local service.

We tested what AI tools say when someone asks for a tradie and published the answers in our Sydney trades AI search study. ChatGPT named 122 different businesses across 50 full answers. Four tools gave a full answer to 47 of our questions. Only 6 of those had a business that every tool named. We planned 200 checks and got 197 full answers. This is a sample of what the tools said to our questions on 16 and 17 October 2026. It doesn’t measure what Australians do.

How do Australian businesses use AI?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 12% of Australian employing businesses used AI in the 2024-25 financial year.⁹ Other surveys give much higher numbers.⁷³ They ask different businesses different questions, so the figures aren’t like for like.

The ABS only counts businesses that have staff.⁹ If you’re a sole trader with no employees, this figure doesn’t include you.⁹ It also leaves out some industries and records only whether a business used AI at all.⁹ The table shows selected industries from its results, so it isn’t a full ranking.⁹

AI use in selected industries, 2024-25

Information, media and telecommunications38%

Professional, scientific and technical services24%

Retail9%

Construction6%

Accommodation and food services5%

Share of employing businesses that used AI

ABS · 2024-25 financial year

Selected industries, not a full ranking.

Two other surveys give much bigger numbers.

These three numbers don’t describe the same thing, as the fine print explains. The auDA figure is a broad one: it counts an owner or manager who has used AI for any purpose and not only a business that uses AI in its operations.³

What does this mean for a tradie?

AI is a new place customers look, though it isn’t where most local searches start.² These steps are our reading of the numbers. We haven’t tested that any of them changes who AI names.

1. Keep your Google listing and website accurate first. Only 4% of online searchers usually start finding a local place with AI.² Search engines and maps apps were the usual starting points.²
2. Ask the AI tools about your own business. Write three questions a customer would ask, such as who to call for a blocked drain in your suburb. Put them to ChatGPT and Google’s AI and save each answer with the date. Our guide to checking your business in ChatGPT has more detail.
3. Make your website answer the job and the suburb in plain words. Among AI searchers, 31% most often click through to the links an AI answer gives them, so a clear website still matters after the AI answer.² For the basics, read how AI SEO works.
4. Think about the age of your customers. Starting at least one new AI question a day was 59% among Gen Z and 48% among Millennials but 14% among Baby Boomers and older.² If most of your customers are younger, AI may matter to you sooner.
5. If the answers keep leaving you out, bring them to our AI SEO agency. We can go through the gaps with you and pick what to fix first.

The ABS figure of 6% for construction counts construction businesses that used AI at all.⁹ It doesn’t count how many are working on how they show up in AI answers.

How we put this together

We started from the original reports and official releases, not from articles that quote them. We opened each source ourselves on 20 or 21 October 2026 and checked every figure against the page where it appears.

We kept a figure only when we could say who was asked and what the question was. Where a report left out details such as dates or sample size, we say so in the text.

We keep a register of the research figures on this page, with one row for each of the 54 statistics. Each row gives the number and what it measures. It also gives who was asked, the sample size, the dates, the publisher, a link and the report page. We also note how confident we are in each figure and anything we calculated or could not confirm. You can download the figure register as a CSV file that opens in Excel or Google Sheets and check our work. It leaves out prices and the generation birth years because those aren’t research results.

We keep three dates apart: when people were asked, when the report came out and when we checked it. We never label older survey results as 2026 results.

Last updated 21 October 2026. We add new figures as the sources publish them. If you spot a mistake, tell us through the contact button at the end of this page. We will fix it and say so in the change log below.

The fine print

Who was asked and when

Plain definitions

• An online searcher in the YouGov survey is an adult who looks for information online at least once a week.² There were more than 950 of them.²
• An AI searcher is an adult who starts at least some new questions with an AI assistant, including less than once a week.² There were more than 700 of them.²
• In the generation table YouGov counts adults only.² Each generation had more than 200 online searchers and Millennials had more than 250.²
• Trust in the YouGov survey means trusting a source somewhat or a lot.²
• Roy Morgan’s figures are for use in an average four weeks of the March quarter 2026.¹ They are self-reported and don’t measure searches.¹
• The ABS counts a business as using AI when it ticks AI on a list of technologies.⁹ It doesn’t measure how much the business uses it.⁹
• auDA’s 2026 figures come from people who signed up to an online research panel.³ The samples were weighted to reflect the population.³ The 61% and 72% are labelled “Have used AI for any purpose”, so they don’t show how much a business uses AI in its work.³

Why the numbers differ

What we could not find

• A trustworthy Australian user count for Google’s AI Overviews (the AI summary at the top of some results), Google’s AI Mode or Perplexity (an AI search tool).
• A national figure for AI search use by state or for people outside the five major capital cities.
• A national figure for how many Australians use AI to hire a tradie or book a local service.

What the numbers can’t tell you

These are answers people gave to surveys, rounded to whole numbers. They show what people say they do because no tool recorded it. They don’t show how many customers an AI sent to any business. Our Sydney sample covers only the questions we asked on 16 and 17 October 2026.

How to cite this page

Give the original survey for any number and add the group asked and the dates. For example: Roy Morgan, March quarter 2026, Australians aged 14 and over, January to March 2026. Please link to this page if you quote our tables or explanations.

Change log

• 21 October 2026: first version. Sources checked on 20 and 21 October 2026.

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