AI search engines have evolved. For years, tech leaders like Google have used AI to help enhance the online search experience. Now, though, AI isn’t just helping to determine which links and websites you should see first when you search for something online. It’s playing an increasing role in directing the entire search experience.
Why? Because the sheer volume of information on the web means actually finding the results you need is becoming more complex. The latest AI search engines can prevent you from spending hours browsing links and navigating spam to find what you’re looking for.
Even better? They can customize and personalize your search responses based on your specific needs. AI solutions are a dream come true for those of us who spend a lot of time using search engines for research or education.
Here, we will introduce you to the benefits of AI search engines, explain how they differ from regular search engines, and share some of our top picks for the tools you should use daily.
What are AI Search Engines?
AI search engines are platforms that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to interpret natural language “queries”, and help you find the relevant information you need from the web. They work a lot like traditional search engines (in some ways). For instance, an AI search engine needs to crawl the web, index pages, and centralize valuable data before it can do anything else.
After that, however, these search engines use natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand the data within web pages. They evaluate the quality and content of web pages, organize the information they collect into databases, and draw on those databases throughout the search process.
When a user types a query into an AI search engine, the system uses large language models and NLP to understand the intent behind the question. It analyzes the meaning of each individual word and the relationships between them.
This means they can more effectively tell the difference between what customers are looking for if they search for “best AI search engines” or “What is an AI search engine”. In some cases, AI search engines can collect data about each user to personalize future experiences. For instance, they can store information about search history and the links users click on to adapt to their preferences over time.
How Are AI Engines Different to Regular Ones?
So, what makes AI search engines different from traditional search engines? As mentioned above, regular search engines use AI, too, particularly when figuring out how to “rank” web pages and suggest them to customers.
Regular and AI search engines are designed to provide users with valuable answers to their questions. However, they go about this process in different ways. For instance, with a regular search engine (like the standard Google search), when you input a query, you’ll get a list of links to webpages that may include the answer you’re looking for.
AI search engines don’t force you to scan through links. They summarize information from various sources into a concise answer, just like a generative AI bot like ChatGPT. Usually, they will also include links in their response citing where they got their information from, so you can do some fact-checking yourself.
Additionally, AI search engines are designed to constantly learn and adapt to new data and user interactions, improving the quality of their results. Alternatively, regular search engines start from scratch with every new query.
Another key difference is that regular search engines primarily depend on matching keywords in a query to the terms included in a webpage to deliver accurate results. AI search engines focus more on “semantics,” considering the broader meaning of your words. This enables them to provide a more relevant, contextual response to each request.
More advanced AI search engines can even consider multiple forms of input when generating results. For instance, you could add documents, images, and audio to a search.
The Top AI Search Engines to Explore Today
The number of AI search engines available to users is growing. Even leading companies in the generative AI space, like OpenAI, are experimenting with new search-focused applications. For instance, OpenAI’s SearchGPT promises a more “conversational” and straightforward searching experience, similar to interacting with ChatGPT.
The right solution for you will depend on your specific needs and use cases. We checked out some of the most popular AI search engines to create this list of some of the best options you might want to consider for your search journey.
1. Perplexity AI: The Top AI Search Engine
Widely considered to be the ultimate AI search engine by many users, Perplexity.AI is one of the better-known tools in the enterprise landscape. It was built with AI from the ground-up, swapping the traditional search experience of scanning through links with a chatbot-like interface that allows you to converse with a bot that guides you through your search journey.
When you enter a query into Perplexity AI, the system scans the web to find the most valuable information and summarizes it into a response. You can choose between quick responses or more in-depth, detailed answers. After you’ve received your response, you can follow up and ask additional questions naturally.
You don’t have to re-enter information every step of the way. Perplexity will remember the context of your conversation and build on it. It even allows you to browse through threads of previous searches and save collections of pages to share with teams.
Although, like other generative AI tools, Perplexity can make mistakes and suffer from “AI hallucinations,” it generally delivers more accurate, trustworthy data than most alternatives. You also get the added benefit of included citations for all search results, so you can fact-check anything the bot tells you.
2. Google AI Overviews: The Simplest Solution
Google’s AI Overviews solution is another AI search system that most people will be familiar with today. Powered by Google Gemini, this solution basically combines the benefits of traditional search with AI search engines. You don’t need to download anything to use this tool. Just enter a query into Google, and you’ll see the AI overviews section at the top of the page.
The results you get for a query will be based on a basic overview of everything the search engine has found on the web. They’ll also include a handful of links to high-ranking, reputable web pages. Even if you don’t get the answer you want from the summary, you can quickly scroll down and continue searching the web like you would anyway.
One good thing about Google’s AI overviews is that they don’t appear for all search queries. They only deliver facts and information from sources they can confirm as “accurate.” However, the search solution isn’t perfect. It’s still figuring out how to identify whether the answers it finds on web pages are popular because they’re “accurate” or not.
For instance, in the past, Google’s AI system has been criticized for telling searchers to add glue to pizzas to stop cheese from falling off. Still, on the plus side, it’s free to use, and it’s straightforward to get started.
3. SearchGPT: The Best AI Search Prototype
SearchGPT from OpenAI is now officially available within ChatGPT. The solution combines the strengths of OpenAI’s proprietary AI models with information from across the web to help users access fast, accurate answers to their queries.
Using SearchGPT is similar to interacting with ChatGPT. You enter a search query into a chat box, and the system scans the web for you, suggesting relevant information and including links you can use to explore your responses more deeply.
Like Perplexity AI, SearchGPT also allows you to ask follow-up questions about the responses you get. For instance, if you ask the tool what Microsoft is doing in AI, and it surfaces an answer about Copilot, you could ask about the different types of Copilot or how it works.
One good thing about SearchGPT (at least for marketers) is that it doesn’t try to direct people away from visiting websites and reading articles. The tool aims to answer questions quickly but also drive customers towards valuable resources and information elsewhere on the web.
4. Microsoft Bing Search: Best AI Integration
Microsoft’s Bing search engine, like Google’s, has relied on AI for some time now. Like Google, Microsoft has decided to take its AI search focus to the next level in recent years by infusing Copilot into the search experience.
Copilot is an incredibly intuitive and competitive chatbot. It can source more up-to-date data from the web, even if you’re using the “free” version of the solution.
Microsoft developed Copilot with the help of OpenAI, which also means you get access to some of the latest large language models in the industry – like GPT-4. With Copilot in Bing, you can easily streamline your search journey when you’re looking for any information. Additionally, you can choose how much you want to rely on AI within your search experience with Copilot.
You can expand the AI-generated results on the Bing search engine or ignore them completely and comb through the standard search results instead. If you don’t want to dive too deeply into a full “AI search engine experience” just yet, Bing could be the perfect option.
5. Arc Search: The Best Mobile App
Arc Search combines a search engine, mobile browser, and artificial intelligence into a comprehensive mobile browsing experience. If you’re sick of the complexity of using mobile-based browsers, this could be the perfect solution.
Arc automates the journey you’d typically go through with a standard search engine – such as opening links, collecting information from sources, and organizing everything into a document. When you search the web with Arc, the bot creates a new web page containing all the information it discovers.
You can also click on the links included in Arc’s results to explore the data’s original sources. This is an excellent tool when you don’t have the time and energy to manually check out each search result with multiple tabs on your smartphone.
Of course, like the other AI search engines mentioned here, Arc can make mistakes, too. It can sometimes surface inaccurate or irrelevant information, like telling you about a company’s biggest releases in 2023 instead of 2024. However, you can always “regenerate” results to boost your chances of getting the right answer.
Other Notable Options
The top five options listed above represent the cream of the crop for an AI search engine experience. However, there are some other worthwhile options you might consider, such as:
- Brave Search: Brave is a privacy-focused web browser with an integrated AI search engine. It’s excellent for enhancing the overall search experience with the power of generative AI. Plus, if you’re using the Brave browser, you will benefit from the blockers included for ads and spam on websites. However, Brave’s AI isn’t as great at sharing “up-to-date” information as some of its competitors – it can ignore facts that take place after 2022, for instance.
- You.com: You.com was one of the first search engines to introduce new AI features in 2022. Since then, it has become more of an AI assistant tool, with multiple modes depending on your queries. For instance, you can use the “Research” mode for longer responses or the “Genius” mode for images. However, the search index isn’t as up-to-date with the latest information as some competitors.
- Andi: Andi is a free tool that functions as a chatbot and a search engine. Similar to ChatGPT, it can answer user questions, explain topics, and navigate the web. You can also customize how the platform displays search results, choosing between list, feed, or grid layouts. However, For the most part, Andi feels more like a chatbot than a full AI search engine.
- Komo: A professional, ad-free search engine, Komo is powered by a proprietary LLM (Sunshine). It gives you four different searching modes: ask (For a chatbot experience), search, research, and explore. The Ask feature gives you the most advanced generative AI-style search experience but lacks in-depth citations.
- Phind: Created for software developers, Phind is connected to the internet and can access a user’s code database (if they choose to allow it). The platform is mostly an AI bot that can answer tech-related questions with included citations and links to other resources. It can streamline the search experience for developers, but its use cases are limited.
Exploring the New Era of AI Search Engines
As you can see above, AI search engines are becoming pretty commonplace in today’s world. Perplexity AI is still leading the pack as perhaps the most comprehensive solution. However, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and many others are also beginning to introduce some great competitors.
One important thing to remember before you start exploring AI search engines is they do have their limitations. They’re excellent at helping you find rapid answers to complex questions. But they don’t always provide as much access to up-to-date data and information as a standard search engine.
For the most part, as they are today, AI search engines are an “alternative” solution for browsing the web that excels at very specific use cases. They’re not replacing the need for traditional search engines (yet). They’re just giving us another, more intelligent way to look for information.
