SEO Stats in USA: AI Search Trends in 2026

This page collects the SEO stats in USA markets that survive checking. Every one of these 61 figures was read inside its source document — an SEC filing, a government release or a published study — and credited to the organisation that produced it. The sources are the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve Board, Alphabet, IAB with PwC, and Pew Research Center, published between July 2025 and May 2026.

Two things stand out in the 2026 data. Search advertising revenue hit a record while its growth rate slowed sharply. And US business AI adoption sits near 19%, far below the figures circulating in trade press — a gap this page explains rather than glosses over.

The search advertising market

The IAB and PwC report is the thirty-year benchmark for US digital advertising. Its 2025 edition records a record total alongside the sharpest slowdown in search growth in years.

• $114.2 billion was US search advertising revenue in 2025, including AI search, the largest share of any format.
• 38.8% of total US digital advertising revenue went to search in 2025.
• 11% was the year-on-year growth rate of US search advertising revenue in 2025.
• 15.9% was the year-on-year growth rate of US search advertising revenue in 2024, meaning growth slowed by almost five percentage points.
• $294.6 billion was total US digital advertising revenue in 2025, a record and a 13.9% increase year on year.
• 1996 was the year the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report was first issued, making the 2025 edition its thirtieth.

Source for all statistics above: Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2025, IAB.

Google's search economics

Alphabet reports Google Search & other as a quarterly segment in its SEC filings. These are global figures unless labelled otherwise, and they show search revenue accelerating even as click behaviour shifts.

• $63,073 million was Google Search & other revenue in the quarter ended 31 December 2025.
• $54,034 million was Google Search & other revenue in the quarter ended 31 December 2024.
• 17% was year-on-year growth in Google Search & other revenue in the December 2025 quarter.
• $402,836 million was total Alphabet revenue for 2025, passing $400 billion for the first time.
• $194,229 million of Alphabet's 2025 revenue came from the United States, up 14% from $170,447 million in 2024.
• $16,597 million was Alphabet's total traffic acquisition cost in the December 2025 quarter.
• $7,828 million was Google Network revenue in the December 2025 quarter, down from $7,954 million a year earlier and the only advertising line to fall.
• 750 million monthly active users had the Gemini App as of Alphabet's February 2026 results announcement.
• $175 to $185 billion is Alphabet's anticipated capital expenditure range for 2026.

Source for all statistics above: Q4 and Fiscal Year 2025 Results, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, Alphabet Inc.

What AI Overviews do to clicks

An AI Overview is a generated summary placed above the traditional links on a results page. Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of structuring content so it is cited inside those answers rather than merely ranked beneath them.

Pew Research Center's browsing-panel study is the most rigorous public measurement of what AI summaries do to clicking. It is US-measured, which makes it directly applicable here.

• 18% of all Google searches in the 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 sample.
• 88% of AI summaries cited three or more sources in March 2025, while only 1% cited a single source.
• 6% of sources linked in AI summaries were .gov websites in March 2025, against 2% in standard search results.
• 15% of sources listed in AI summaries were Wikipedia, YouTube or Reddit, against 17% of sources in standard results.

Source for all statistics above: 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.

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

US business AI adoption

The Census Bureau surveys roughly 1.2 million businesses on a biweekly cycle, which makes its Business Trends and Outlook Survey the best available read on how many US firms actually use AI. The answer is lower than most coverage suggests.

• 19.8% was the national US business AI use rate as of 3 May 2026.
• 17% to 20% was the range of US business AI use across the six months from December 2025 to May 2026.
• 20% to 23% of US businesses expected to be using AI within the following six months, across that same period.
• 37% of US firms with at least 250 employees reported using AI in the collection period ending 3 May 2026.
• 32% of US firms with 100 to 249 employees reported using AI in the collection period ending 3 May 2026.
• Under 20% of US firms with four or fewer employees reported using AI between December 2025 and May 2026.
• 39.7% was the AI use rate in the US Information sector as of 3 May 2026, the highest of any sector measured.
• 33.9% was the AI use rate in the US Finance and Insurance sector as of 3 May 2026.
• Around 14% of US Retail Trade businesses were using AI as of 3 May 2026, with about 17% expecting to within six months.
• 15 business functions are measured by the second Census AI supplement, which began collecting data on 17 November 2025.

Source for all statistics above: Large Firms With at Least 20 Employees Biggest AI Users, U.S. Census Bureau.

Why three surveys give three different AI numbers

Three federal or federally analysed surveys report AI adoption at 18%, 41% and 78%. All three are correct. The Federal Reserve's April 2026 note explains why, and the explanation matters for anyone quoting a number.

• 18% of US firms had adopted AI as of December 2025, measured firm-weighted in the Census Business Trends and Outlook Survey.
• 41% of US workers reported using generative AI for their job in November 2025, measured in the Real-Time Population Survey.
• 78% of the US labour force works at firms that have adopted AI, measured employment-weighted in the Atlanta Fed Survey of Business Uncertainty in November 2025.
• 54% of the US labour force works at firms that use large language models, on the same November 2025 employment-weighted measure.
• 95% of US firms have between 1 and 49 employees but account for just 26.6% of employment, which is why firm-weighted and employment-weighted rates diverge.
• 50% of the US population reported non-work generative AI use in November 2025.
• 12% of US workers used generative AI daily in the week before the November 2025 survey, against 35.2% who used it at least once.
• 5% to 40% was the range of work-related AI adoption estimates across 16 surveys reviewed as of mid-2024, showing the measurement problem is not new.
• 68% was the growth in the US firm AI adoption rate over the year to September 2025, before the Census revised its question wording.

Source for all statistics above: Monitoring AI Adoption in the US Economy, FEDS Notes, Federal Reserve Board.

AI adoption by industry and firm size

Adoption is concentrated in cognitive and analytical work rather than in commoditised services, which is where the buying audience for AI-related content sits.

• 33% and 30% were US AI adoption rates in the professional services and financial sectors respectively in late 2025.
• 8% was the US AI adoption rate in Accommodation and Food Services in late 2025, the lowest of the major sectors measured.
• 63% and 62% were work-related generative AI adoption rates among US financial and professional services workers in November 2025.
• 70% of US Information sector workers reported work-related generative AI adoption in November 2025.
• 10% to 11% of Census survey respondents answered that they did not know whether their firm used AI, in the four surveys to year-end 2025.

Source for all statistics above: Monitoring AI Adoption in the US Economy, FEDS Notes, Federal Reserve Board.

Where the digital ad dollar goes

Search is no longer the fastest-growing format in US digital advertising. Social, video and commerce media all outgrew it in 2025, which is the competitive context for any search budget conversation.

• $117.7 billion was US social media advertising revenue in 2025, up 32.6% year on year.
• $78 billion was US digital video advertising revenue in 2025, up 25.4% year on year.
• $162.4 billion was US programmatic advertising revenue in 2025, up 20.5% and gaining $27.6 billion in new spend.
• $63.4 billion was US commerce media revenue in 2025, up 18.0% year on year.
• $81.6 billion was US display advertising revenue in 2025, up 9.8% year on year.
• $37 billion was US creator advertising spend in 2025, projected by IAB to reach $44 billion in 2026.

Source for all statistics above: Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2025, IAB.