AI Now Preferred Over Google for Marketing Research, Survey Finds
A majority of marketers – 53% – are now turning to artificial intelligence tools for information gathering, surpassing traditional search engines like Google, which is used by 35% of marketers for the same purpose. This marks a significant shift in how marketing professionals conduct research and make decisions, according to a new report.
The findings, released on February 3, 2026, come from CoSchedule’s report, “After the AI Shift: What Marketers Are Prioritizing In 2026,” based on a survey of 900 marketing professionals across various industries. The report details how the increasing adoption of AI is reshaping marketing performance, channel effectiveness and team priorities.
“We’re witnessing the end of Google’s dominance as the default research tool,” said Garrett Moon, CEO of CoSchedule. “Instead of sorting through search results, marketers are turning to AI for direct answers and faster decisions.”
The shift indicates a growing preference for AI’s ability to provide direct answers rather than requiring marketers to manually sift through numerous search results. This change represents a fundamental alteration in the research process, streamlining decision-making and accelerating the pace of marketing work.
Beyond the shift in information discovery, the CoSchedule report also examines areas where marketers perceive performance to be stable, declining, or requiring strategic adjustments to maintain competitiveness in the rapidly evolving landscape. The complete report is available on the CoSchedule website.
The findings come as marketers increasingly grapple with concerns about content saturation. A separate statistic from the CoSchedule report reveals that 29% of marketers identified the overabundance of AI-generated content as their top concern for the industry in 2026. This concern significantly outweighs other issues, such as proving ROI (4%), budget cuts (6%), and measurement challenges (3%).
This saturation is driving a need for differentiation, with marketers seeking ways to create content that stands out in a crowded digital environment. According to the report, marketers are focusing on mastering product positioning and developing strategies to ensure their work feels meaningfully different, builds trust, and sustains value.
AI is already deeply integrated into the daily workflows of most marketers, with 80% reporting daily usage. The vast majority view AI as highly effective, with over 80% rating its helpfulness between 8 and 10 out of 10. Content creation is the most widely adopted application of AI, followed by data analysis and customer research.
CoSchedule provides AI-powered marketing management tools to over 50,000 marketers worldwide and has been recognized by Inc. 5000, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, and G2. The company aims to help marketing teams organize work, deliver projects on time, and demonstrate their value.
