THE CHANGING WEB • 02
Whose web is changing?
The way people find information is changing, but not everyone is changing in the same way. We’re interested in what that means for businesses trying to serve people with different habits, expectations and levels of trust.
21 SEPTEMBER 2026 • TCB MEDIA
Imagine two people landing on the same accounting firm’s website with the same question: do you work with sole traders? One opens the menu, chooses Services, then Business Accounting, then Small Business. After four clicks, they find the answer.
The second person looks for a search box. There isn’t one, so they return to Google and try another phrase. Someone else may never visit the website at all. They might ask an AI assistant to find a local accountant who works with freelancers.
The question is the same, but the route to the answer is different. That makes the question from Article 01 more complicated.
People are not changing together
In our first article, we asked whether new search habits might change what people expect when they arrive at a business website. If someone is becoming accustomed to asking a question and receiving a direct answer, will they remain willing to work through menus and pages?
That question still matters, but it assumes that people are developing the same habits at roughly the same speed. Australian research from YouGov suggests a much less orderly picture.
YouGov surveyed 1,002 Australian adults between April and May 2026. Among people who looked for information online at least once a week, 68 per cent had used a search engine in the previous 30 days. AI assistants or chatbots had been used by 35 per cent.
Search remains the most widely used option, while AI has become part of a broader group of tools that includes social media, video, maps and marketplaces. People are not moving together from one way of searching to another. They are adding more options and moving between them.
Age changes the picture
The differences become clearer when the results are separated by generation. YouGov asked online searchers how often they started new queries with an AI assistant. Among Gen Z, 59 per cent said they did so at least once a day, compared with 14 per cent of Baby Boomers and older Australians.
That is a substantial gap. It suggests that some customers are getting much more practice with conversational search than others, which may affect what feels natural when they look for information.
But a generational result can only take us so far. Two people of the same age may have different levels of confidence online, use different tools or place their trust in different sources. The same person may also change their approach depending on what they need.
We could replace one imaginary average customer with four imaginary generational customers and still miss the person using the website.
The task changes the route
YouGov also asked people where they usually started when looking for different kinds of information. Search engines led for most of the tasks tested, but the next most common option changed with the job.
When people wanted to ask a specific question, 23 per cent started with an AI assistant. When they wanted to find a local place, 25 per cent started with a map or navigation app.
That feels familiar. Someone looking for an accountant nearby may open a map, while someone trying to understand a tax term may ask an AI assistant. A person who already knows the firm’s name may go straight to its website.
This gives businesses a more useful question than whether their customers are young or old. What are people trying to find out, and which route feels most natural for that task?
AI is part of a longer journey
The report also challenges the idea that people who use AI have left other forms of search behind. Among Australian AI searchers, only 16 per cent described AI as their starting point. The largest group, at 43 per cent, said they used it alongside other sources.
An AI answer was rarely the end of the journey. Only 15 per cent said they most often stopped searching after receiving one. Others clicked through to supplied links, checked another source or made their next move according to the topic.
Trust appears to be one reason for this. YouGov found that 63 per cent of Australian online searchers trusted information from search engines, compared with 39 per cent for AI assistants. Trust in AI rose to 49 per cent among people who already used it.
We find that part especially relevant to the business website. A person may use AI to understand a topic or narrow their options, then visit another source to check the detail. A website may be where they confirm a price, look for evidence or decide whether the business seems credible.
What this changes for a website
A business website now has to work at several points in the journey. It may introduce the business to someone who is browsing, answer a visitor who arrives with a specific question or provide confirmation for something found elsewhere.
Navigation still helps people explore. Clear page titles and everyday language help people who know what they want. Dates, sources and contact details help visitors decide whether they can rely on what they have found.
Consider the accounting firm again. The firm knows that sole traders belong under Business Accounting, but a prospective client may describe themselves as a freelancer or as self-employed. If none of those words appears on the page, the answer becomes harder to find.
A sentence such as “We work with sole traders, freelancers and self-employed professionals” gives several visitors a way into the same information. It can be recognised on the page, found through a search engine and understood by an AI assistant.
The change is small because the problem is specific. The firm has listened to the language its customers use and made an important answer easier to reach.
We need to watch what people do
Most businesses are too familiar with their own websites to experience them as a new visitor does. We know where the information lives and understand the labels because we helped create them.
Customers arrive without that knowledge. They may also arrive from a search engine, map, social post or AI-generated answer, each carrying a different amount of context.
The only reliable way to understand what happens next is to watch. Choose five questions that real customers have asked, then give them to a few people outside the business. Ask them to find the answers on the website without helping them.
Notice where they begin, what language they look for and when they choose another route. The useful moments will probably be the ones where their expectations differ from yours.
That will not tell us how every customer uses the web. It can show us whether a website works for the people trying to use it.
This is where we’re heading next. We’re going to test these questions on an information-rich website and share what we find.
Source
YouGov, Searching for answers: How AI is changing online discovery in 2026, Australia, July 2026.
The survey was conducted online from 21 April to 29 May 2026. The Australian sample comprised 1,002 adults aged 18 and over and was weighted to be nationally representative. Findings about online searchers use a base of more than 950 respondents. Findings about AI searchers use a base of more than 700 respondents.