AI Search

SEO Stats in Australia: AI Search Trends in 2026

Raaquib Pathan

Last updated September 2026 · 12 min read

Key takeaways

94% of the Australian general search market belonged to Google in August 2024, unchanged from 2021. (Source: Digital Platform Services Inquiry, Interim report 9, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)
43% of Australia's 1,000 most popular search queries ended without a click between August 2023 and July 2024, on the competition regulator's own analysis. (Source: Interim report 9, ACCC)
12% of Australian businesses reported using AI in 2024–25, up from 1% in the previous survey cycle. (Source: Characteristics of Australian Business, 2024–25, Australian Bureau of Statistics)
$8.6 billion was spent on search advertising in Australia in FY26, 43% of the entire internet advertising market. (Source: Internet Advertising Revenue Report, FY26, IAB Australia)
9% of Australians used AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to access news in 2026. (Source: Digital News Report: Australia 2026, University of Canberra)
49% of Australians say they distrust news delivered through AI platforms, against 43% overall trust in news. (Source: Digital News Report: Australia 2026, University of Canberra)
8% of US Google visits carrying an AI summary produced a click on a traditional result in March 2025, against 15% without one. (Source: Pew Research Center)

This page collects the SEO stats in Australia that survive checking. Every one of these 60 figures was read inside its source document and credited to the organisation that produced it. The sources are the ACCC, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the ACMA, the University of Canberra, IAB Australia and Pew Research Center, published between December 2024 and August 2026.

Australia sits at an unusual point in the AI search shift. Google holds a firmer grip here than in most comparable markets, AI Overviews arrived later than in the US, and only 12% of Australian businesses report using AI at all. The behavioural change is running ahead of the commercial response.

The ACCC spent five years examining digital platforms before closing its inquiry in March 2025. Its ninth report is the only regulator-grade measurement of the Australian search market, and it found a market that had not moved in three years.

94% of the Australian general search market was held by Google in August 2024, the same share the ACCC recorded in September 2021.
93.67% was the unrounded Google share the ACCC rounded to 94% for reporting in August 2024.
4.7% of the Australian search market was held by Bing in August 2024, up from 3.9% in September 2021.
0.8%, 0.6% and 0.1% were the Australian search shares of Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia respectively in August 2024, with DuckDuckGo and Ecosia both losing ground since 2021.
91% of Australian mobile browsers had Google Search as the pre-set default in August 2024, up from 89% in June 2021.
77% of Australian desktop browsers had Google Search as the pre-set default in August 2024, down from 81% in June 2021.
96% of Australian consumers were aware of Google Search when the ACCC surveyed brand awareness in 2021, a barrier the regulator described as costly for new entrants.

Source for all statistics above: Digital Platform Services Inquiry, Interim report 9: Revisiting general search services, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Zero-click search and what AI summaries do to traffic

A zero-click search is one where the user gets what they need on the results page and never visits a website. An AI Overview is a generated summary placed above the traditional links, assembled from web sources. Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of structuring content to be cited inside those answers rather than merely ranked beneath them.

Australia has one regulator-produced zero-click figure and no local study of AI-summary click behaviour. The Pew figures below are measured on a US panel and are the best available proxy.

43% of Australia's 1,000 most popular search queries were zero-click searches between August 2023 and July 2024, on ACCC analysis of Similarweb data.
50% to 65% was the zero-click range reported across the studies the ACCC reviewed from 2019 to 2024, most of them US-based.
Unavailable was the status of Google AI Overviews in Australia as at August 2024, including through Google's opt-in Search Labs programme.
18% of all Google searches in a US browsing panel produced an AI summary in March 2025.
8% of US Google visits where an AI summary appeared produced a click on a traditional search result in March 2025.
15% of US Google visits without an AI summary produced a click on a traditional result over the same period, nearly twice the rate.
1% of US visits to a page carrying an AI summary produced a click on a source cited inside that summary in March 2025.
26% of US Google pages with an AI summary ended the browsing session in March 2025, against 16% of pages showing only traditional results.
67 words was the median length of an AI summary in the March 2025 US sample.
88% of AI summaries examined in March 2025 cited three or more sources.

Sources: zero-click and AI Overview availability figures, Interim report 9, ACCC; all US click-behaviour figures, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, Pew Research Center.

Which queries trigger an AI summary

Query shape predicts AI summary presence far more sharply than topic does. Longer, question-formed queries trigger summaries several times more often than short ones.

Query type	Share producing an AI summary
Searches of one or two words	8%
Searches of 10 or more words	53%
Searches beginning with a question word	60%
Searches containing both a noun and a verb	36%
All Google searches in the sample	18%

US Google searches, March 2025, n = 68,879. Source: Pew Research Center.

Australian business AI adoption

The ABS Business Characteristics Survey is the official measure, and it is deliberately conservative: it asks whether a business used AI, from a checklist of technologies, without measuring intensity. The result is a much lower number than industry surveys report.

12% of Australian businesses reported using AI in 2024–25.
1% of Australian businesses reported using AI in the previous survey cycle, 2021–22.
20% of innovation-active Australian businesses used AI in 2024–25, against 6% of businesses that undertook no innovation activity.
19% of innovation-active small Australian businesses used AI in 2024–25, almost five times the 4% rate among small businesses doing no innovation.
37% of innovation-active large Australian businesses used AI in 2024–25, compared with 29% of large businesses that were not innovation-active.
38% of Australian businesses in Information, Media and Telecommunications used AI in 2024–25, up 30 percentage points from 8% in 2021–22.
24% of Australian businesses in Professional, Scientific and Technical Services used AI in 2024–25, level with Financial and Insurance Services.
1% of Australian businesses in Transport, Postal and Warehousing used AI in 2024–25, the lowest rate of any industry.

Source for all statistics above: Characteristics of Australian Business, 2024–25, Australian Bureau of Statistics.

How Australian businesses show up online

The same ABS release tracks how businesses use the internet commercially. Two measures moved sharply backwards, which sits oddly against the AI narrative.

51% of Australian businesses used social media for their online presence in 2024–25, up from 47% in 2021–22.
32% of Australian businesses received orders online in 2024–25, broadly unchanged from 30% in 2021–22.
10% of Australian businesses actively collected or analysed data to make informed decisions in 2024–25, down from 24% in 2021–22.
6% of Australian businesses used predictive analysis to plan business activities in 2024–25, down from 18% in 2021–22.
34% of Australian businesses reported that using information and communication technology improved responsiveness to customer needs in 2024–25.
23% of Australian businesses reported that using information and communication technology delivered better sales or marketing methods in 2024–25.
16% and 13% of Australian businesses cited insufficient staff skills and uncertainty about costs and benefits respectively as limits on their technology use in 2024–25.

Source for all statistics above: Characteristics of Australian Business, 2024–25, Australian Bureau of Statistics.

How Australians actually get online

Australian internet access is effectively saturated, so growth now shows up in device count and frequency rather than reach. That matters for search: more devices means more entry points, and mobile dominates all of them.

99.7% of Australian adults used at least one device to go online in the six months to June 2025.
97% of Australian adults used a mobile phone to go online in the six months to June 2025, up from 95% in 2024.
91% of Australian mobile internet users went online with the device multiple times a day in the six months to June 2025.
88% of Australians aged 75 and over used a mobile phone to go online in the six months to June 2025, up from 18% in 2017.
4.1 device types on average were used by Australian adults to access the internet in 2025, up from 3.7 in 2024.
40% of Australian adults used five or more devices to go online in 2025, up from 30% in 2024.
94% of Australian adults accessed news and information online in the six months to June 2025, up from 91% in 2024.

Source for all statistics above: Communications and media in Australia: How we use the internet, Australian Communications and Media Authority.

AI, social media and the collapse of the direct visit

The Digital News Report is the closest Australia has to a tracking study of AI-mediated discovery. Its 2026 edition recorded a structural change that should concern anyone relying on direct or organic traffic.

For the first time social media overtook direct visits to news websites as the main pathway Australians use to reach online news, in 2026.
57%, 56% and 52% of Australians used television, social media and news websites or apps respectively as news sources in 2026.
9% of Australians used AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to access news in 2026.
49% of Australian AI chatbot news users said they use the technology to explore news stories in greater depth in 2026.
49% of Australians said they distrust news delivered through AI platforms in 2026.
51% of Australians said they distrust news delivered through social media in 2026.
43% was overall trust in news among Australians in 2026, while trust in self-selected sources rose to 54%.
43% of Australians accessed news from creators or influencers in 2026.
48% and 60% of Australians aged 18 to 24 used TikTok for news and had never used a newspaper as a news source respectively, in 2026.
77% of Australians were worried about telling what is real from what is fake online in 2026, among the highest levels recorded globally.

Source for all statistics above: Digital News Report: Australia 2026, University of Canberra.

What Australian businesses spend on search

Search remains the single largest destination for Australian digital advertising money, and it grew faster in FY26 than in any year since FY22. That is the commercial weight behind every click-behaviour number above.

$19.8 billion was the Australian internet advertising market in FY26, up 14.0% year on year.
$8.6 billion was spent on search advertising in Australia in FY26, a financial-year record and 43% of all internet advertising spend.
13.2% was the year-on-year growth in Australian search advertising spend in FY26.
$2,335 million was Australian search advertising spend in the June 2026 quarter alone, up 13.4% year on year.
$5.9 billion was spent on video advertising in Australia in FY26, up 18.8% and now 30% of total internet advertising spend.
13.7% is the six-year average annual growth rate of the Australian internet advertising market, which FY26 exceeded.

Source for all statistics above: Internet Advertising Revenue Report, FY26, IAB Australia.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of Australian searches go through Google?

94%. The ACCC found Google held 94% of the Australian general search market in August 2024, unchanged from its September 2021 measurement. Bing, the nearest rival, held 4.7%. Google was also the pre-set default on 91% of Australian mobile browsers. (Source: ACCC)

How many Australian searches end without a click?

43%. ACCC analysis of Similarweb data covering Australia's 1,000 most popular search queries found 43% were zero-click searches between August 2023 and July 2024. Studies the ACCC reviewed from other markets put the range higher, at 50% to 65%. (Source: ACCC)

Do AI Overviews reduce click-through rate?

Yes, on the best available evidence, though none of it is Australian. Pew Research Center found US Google users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits, against 15% without one. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary. (Source: Pew Research Center)

How many Australian businesses use AI?

12%. The ABS Business Characteristics Survey found 12% of Australian businesses reported using AI in 2024–25, up from 1% in the previous cycle. Industry surveys report far higher figures because they use broader definitions and different populations, so the numbers are not comparable. (Source: ABS)

How much is spent on search advertising in Australia?

$8.6 billion in FY26. IAB Australia reported that search took 43% of the $19.8 billion Australian internet advertising market in the 2026 financial year, a financial-year record and up 13.2% year on year. (Source: IAB Australia)

Are Australians using AI chatbots to find information?

A minority are, so far. The Digital News Report: Australia 2026 found 9% of Australians used AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for news. Almost half of those users (49%) use them to explore stories in greater depth rather than as a replacement. (Source: University of Canberra)

Which Australian industries have adopted AI fastest?

Information, Media and Telecommunications leads at 38% in 2024–25, up 30 percentage points from 8% in 2021–22. Professional, Scientific and Technical Services and Financial and Insurance Services follow at 24% each. Transport, Postal and Warehousing is lowest at 1%. (Source: ABS)

Do Australians trust AI-generated answers?

Largely not. 49% of Australians said they distrust news delivered through AI platforms in 2026, and 51% said the same of social media. Overall trust in news sat at 43%, rising to 54% for sources people choose themselves. (Source: University of Canberra)

Raaquib Pathan

SEO and AI Search Consultant, Dubai

Raaquib Pathan is an SEO and AI search consultant based in Dubai. He has worked in search since 2019 across agency, in-house SaaS and independent consulting, helping brands grow organic traffic and get cited inside AI answers.

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