# AI search market signals: methodology

Updated: 8 August 2026

## Scope

This package compiles selected public indicators for AI assistant adoption, AI-driven website referral growth, and referral-channel scale. It contains no proprietary BGraph data, customer data, or person-level records.

## Source inputs

- Pew Research Center: reported ChatGPT use among U.S. adults from 2023 to 2026.
- Adobe Digital Insights: year-over-year AI-driven traffic growth during the U.S. 2025 holiday season by industry.
- Similarweb: estimated AI platform referrals, Google search referrals, and AI referral growth in June 2025.

The source URL for every row appears in `public-calculations.csv`.

## Transformations

Published values were transcribed without combining the publishers' datasets. The AI referral share of Google referral volume is a BGraph calculation using 1.13 billion divided by 191 billion and is marked as calculated. Values shown by publishers in rounded form remain rounded.

## Reproducibility

Filter the CSV by `series` to reproduce each panel. Preserve the `period`, `geography`, `source_name`, and `comparability_note` fields in any reuse. Do not add values from different series to create a market total.

## Limitations

- Survey adoption is not query volume or commercial intent.
- Adobe and Similarweb use proprietary measurement systems and publisher-defined coverage.
- Referral visits observe clicks leaving an AI platform, not every answer or citation viewed inside it.
- The 2026 Pew question also referenced other chatbots and is not directly comparable with the earlier wording.
- Public figures are contextual benchmarks and do not describe BGraph product coverage.

## Preferred citation

BGraph Research. (2026). AI search market signals. Updated 8 August 2026. https://bgraph.io/research/ai-search-market-signals.