People are flocking to Bing after Microsoft rolls out AI-powered search
Bing's AI chatbot is big, but can't rival Google just yet
Microsoft’s search engine Bing has crossed 100 million daily active users, a month after announcing its AI-assisted search tool.
Chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi revealed the new stats in a blog post, and said a third of the million users who signed up to Bing’s AI preview are new to the platform, adding it was a “validation” of the company’s view that search is “due for a reinvention”.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Bing goes big
😮 Bing has hit 100 million daily active users
🤖 The surge in users is partially fuelled by its new AI chatbot
🐣 New users have been particularly keen to try it out
🤏 But Microsoft’s search engine is still dwarfed by Google
“This is a surprisingly notable figure, and yet we are fully aware we remain a small, low, single-digit share player,” said Mehdi. “That said, it feels good to be at the dance!”
Market and consumer data specialist Statista reports Bing accounted for 8.85% of the global search market in January 2023 next to Google’s 84.69% dominance. But despite the recent increase in users, that figure is unlikely to have changed drastically. Google attracts a hefty one billion daily active users, dwarfing Bing’s upsurge.
Still, Bing’s on a healthy trajectory and Medhi says interest in Bing’s AI chatbot has fuelled more people to conduct traditional searches using the platform.
It doesn’t look as if interest in the AI version of Bing is slowing down, either, as Mehdi adds: “roughly one third of daily preview users are using Chat daily. We’re seeing on average, roughly three chats per session with more than 45 million total chats since the preview began.
“And 15 percent of Chat sessions are people using Bing to generate new content demonstrating we are extending search to creativity.”
Microsoft has made a few adjustments to the Bing chatbot since its launch, including rolling out personality options that can make it less snarky. Users can now select between creative, balanced or precise answers to dictate how free-flowing the AI’s generated responses appear.
A recent update also brought the AI engine to the Windows 11 taskbar. Although it’s made it easier to access the chatbot, it acts as little more than a shortcut that boots up Edge to automatically redirect to Bing.
It’s little surprise that engagement with Bing has shot up in recent weeks. Artificial Intelligence models have become the industry’s latest fad, appearing in everything from chatbots in Snapchat to tools for YouTube content creators. It remains to be seen just how far Microsoft can ride that wave of interest, though, especially as Google is developing its own chatbot search rival.