OpenAI’s SearchGPT joins the battle for search engine supremacy

The news: OpenAI announced it’s testing SearchGPT, a prototype AI search engine designed to challenge Google’s dominance. 

• The prototype marks a significant escalation in the generative search segment, potentially reshaping search and posing an existential threat to Google’s most profitable business.
• SearchGPT offers conversational search with real-time web information from relevant sources and integrates visual search and deep user customization.

What this means for OpenAI: The flurry of generative AI (genAI) model announcements and innovations from competing AI startups and Big Tech companies is quickly eroding OpenAI’s leadership position. 

• OpenAI needs to coalesce its technology and focus on a specific product segment. A pivot into generative search could help break Google’s dominance while transforming SearchGPT into a challenger to the legacy search business.
• A pure play generative search solution powered by OpenAI offers users a more conversational search experience without the burden of algorithms, SEO, and advertising.
• Publishers and businesses could benefit from SearchGPT partnerships, ensuring wider adoption and customization as an alternative to Google Search.

What this means for Google: Given that Search is responsible for more than half of its Q2 earnings, Google is caught between going after the genAI market and defending its leadership position in search solutions.

• Google’s monopoly on search faces a significant threat, pushing the company to innovate faster.
• A successful SearchGPT could cut into Google’s search advertising revenue and alter existing ad cost structures.
• Google might need to reconsider its relationships with publishers and content creators as AI alters web traffic patterns.

Our take: Google Search owns 91% of the search market. It reported $175 billion in revenues from Search and attached ad sales in 2023. With SearchGPT still in its prototype stage, it will take years for OpenAI to chip away at Google’s lead. 

Dive deeper: For a more comprehensive look at AI in search, read our Generative Search Trends report.