AI Assistant vs. Search Engine

Are Bing and Google paving their way to self-destructing with the introduction of Copilot and Gemini? Will AI Replace Search Engines?

Today, AI is making technological breakthroughs that seemed distant a few years ago or were just movie tropes. Whether it’s writing intricate lines of code for a website or app, generating hyperrealistic visual representations of historical moments that were never captured, effortlessly composing SEO-optimized articles in mere minutes, generating countless personalized video variations from a single sample, resurrecting the voices of departed singers to breathe life into new songs, or even replacing new anchors from TV channels, the possibilities are limitless.

No industry has been left untouched by the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, yet none has seen an influx of AI Tools as profoundly as information technology and the marketing industry. While we’ve grown accustomed to voice assistants like Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Bixby, which use underpowered AI.

Now the AI game has been taken to a whole new level with the arrival of dynamic AI chat assistants like Chat GPT, along with the exciting newcomers from search engine giants Copilot (earlier known as Bing Chat) and Gemini (earlier known as Google Bard). With these AI assistants, get ready to witness a quantum leap in AI-powered chat interactions that will make your conversations confident and entertaining!

These chat assistants are everything current search engines are and more.

Which brings a big question should we still use Google, Bing, or any Search Engine when we can get results in a more human-like language? 

What does the rise of AI assistants mean for the future of search engines? The debate of AI versus humans has taken a backseat for SEOs; the real buzz right now is all about AI Assistants taking on Search Engines. And if we dive into the nitty-gritty, it’s the epic showdown of Copilot vs Bing and Gemini vs Google! Let us explore these AI assistants by Google and Bing and how they will revolutionize our search behavior.

For better or worse, AI assistants have made their intriguing debut and got massive early adopters. After all, an AI assistant GIVES you the “answers” to your question while a search engine tells WHERE TO FIND the answers. This difference might look meager on paper, but it was substantial enough for AI Assistants to replace Search Engines for lots of work.

AI assistants are being used for many purposes. Here are some examples of applications where they have replaced search engines:

Students are usually the most curious ones, and adopt new technology in its earliest phase. The same happened with this technology as well. They not explored it but also showed the path to the abilities the AI Assistants. Students are using AI assistants for — writing essays, completing assignments, writing research papers, and more.

These tools have been successful in creating engaging headlines. They also create a well-structured content framework. This helps to get work done quickly and efficiently.

This technology is still in its early experimentation phase and has limitations in fact-checking. As a result, using these tools to complete the whole work will lead to questions about its quality.

Coding assistants are gaining in popularity just like their chat counterparts. Some of the most widely used by engineers and designers include AlphaCode and OpenAI Codex, which are still in beta mode. Both tools seem to have some benefits, specifically OpenAI Codex, which is touted as being effective when doing any type of programming. Likewise, AlphaCode has performed impressively with claims that it can outdo its human counterparts in programming. 

Nonetheless, both tools have their limitations as users have found that they might increase productivity and efficiency but can’t entirely replace humans. Plus, some issues need to be resolved regarding security and laws pertaining to intellectual property.

Using AI assistants for content and copywriting have its own set of perks and issues. On the surface, most AI assistants only require basic information about the topic, style, tone, headings and subheadings, keywords, and so forth. You first input the instructions, and then the tool generates a formatted article. 

Another function of an AI assistant relates to creative writing across various genres. For instance, you can request song lyrics, a poem, or a short story. Again, you give the tool specific details about what you want, and in a few seconds, you have the finished product. And for more precise writing, Google has introduced “Help me write” in several Google products ranging from Gmail to Docs it utilizes AI capabilities of Gemini. On the other hand, Microsoft has integrated Copilot in Windows.

One of the most touted features of AI assistants has been the summarization of a webpage. Of course, you would expect these highly sophisticated tools to comprehend, if not analyze, the content. As an illustration, an AI assistant can summarize an entire article or even just a part of a page/article. Likewise, it can tell the user if the content is an ad or other type, along with an overview. 

While this is an incredibly useful feature for grasping the essence of TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) articles, it’s important to note that it’s not entirely foolproof. There is a possibility that certain parts of the content may be overlooked or that sarcasm and satire (if present in the article) may be misinterpreted. Nonetheless, the tool’s overall effectiveness remains commendable, aiding in quicker comprehension of lengthy texts.

While both AI assistants, Copilot and Gemini, come with their unique set of pros and cons, looking at how they stack up against the Search Engines will help you understand why search engines are falling behind in the AI vs. search engine battle.

While the rise of AI undoubtedly plays a role, the underlying reasons behind the waning popularity of search engines run deeper. In the past, users were left without a worthy alternative, forcing them to tolerate the monopolistic nature of search engines, despite their inherent drawbacks and limitations.

Here are some problems with current search engines, particularly, Google, as it dominates global searches with more than 93% search engine market share in 2023*.