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Since 2013, Ad’s up Consulting has been examining the changes taking place in French people’s search and purchasing habits. After significant developments in 2017 and 2021, this new 2025 edition, conducted with IFOP, confirms a major shift: generative AI is becoming part of the customer journey, Google is losing its central role, and brands need to rethink their visibility strategies.
The survey, conducted among a representative sample of 1,002 people, paints a clear picture: fragmentation of channels, growing trust in AI, rise in the prescriptive power of automatic recommendations… Online search is no longer linear. It is becoming conversational, personalised and driven by technologies capable of anticipating intentions.
The study reveals a historic upheaval: Google has lost two-thirds of its market share in ten years in online shopping-related usage. An undisputed monopoly in 2013 with a 93% share of voice, it fell to 49% in 2021 and then stabilised at 32% in 2025, now closely followed by Amazon (34%), but above all by new entrants: social networks (18%) and generative AI (2%).
This decline marks the end of the historic duopoly: purchasing journeys are becoming fragmented, and brands must now contend with multiple spheres of influence — TikTok, Instagram, ChatGPT, Gemini…
Tomorrow, we will no longer buy what we find, but what is suggested to us.
One in two French people (54%) say they are willing to buy based on an AI recommendation, a figure that rises to 72% among those under 35, 67% among higher socio-professional categories, and 69% in the Paris region. Buyers no longer want to search: they expect personalised, fluid, concise suggestions. AI is becoming an influential intermediary, capable of guiding purchasing decisions.
86% of French people still use a traditional search engine to find information, but 35% of 18–24 year olds already prefer to use generative AI — nearly three times the national average. Among younger people, access to content is no longer limited to search engines, but is organised around interaction with AI, in a conversational and synthetic manner.
82% of French people continue to trust search engines, but 26% now consider AI to be reliable or complementary. More than a third of 18–24 year olds and 30% of higher socio-professional categories already adopt a mixed approach.
The hierarchy of trust is changing. For brands, this hybridisation means they must invest in both fronts to remain visible.
64% of French people believe that AI will one day replace traditional search engines. Generative Search Optimisation (GSO) is therefore becoming an essential complement to SEO/SEA.
In an ecosystem where responses now take precedence over results, brands must make themselves visible in other ways — through language models, conversational interfaces, and AI engines.
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