Is ChatGPT replacing Google?
No, not yet, but the ground is moving. People who use ChatGPT still use Google 2, and Google now answers questions itself with AI Mode. What has changed is the click: two in three US searches now end on the results page, and the share rises every year. Search is splitting into two layers, one that ranks your pages and one that reads and cites them.
Mr Tan still ranks. His phone rings less.
Mr Tan's accounting firm still ranks near the top for "accountant Tanjong Pagar". His phone rings less anyway.
A few years ago the chain was simple: someone searched, clicked his site and called. Now the same person reads Google's own AI answer, or asks ChatGPT for three firms that handle a small company's year-end and reply within a day. Two in three Google searches in the United States now end without a click 1. Mr Tan has not lost his ranking. He has lost the visit that came after it.
So the question is not whether ChatGPT replaces Google. It is whether the answer, wherever it is written, names you. Is that already happening to your firm? Are competitors named where you are not?
The click first: 49% of US searches ended without a click in 2019, 60% in 2024, and 68% in the first four months of 2026 1. "Without a click" means the searcher stayed on Google's own page, on an AI Overview (a summary Google writes above the results), a map, or a box with the answer already in it. The United Kingdom was at 70% in the same four months, France 65%, Canada 64%, Italy 63% and Germany 62% 9; the European Union was at 60% in 2024 10.
We found no equivalent figure for Hong Kong or Singapore, so we do not give one. The products behind the number, AI Overviews and AI Mode, are the same ones on a phone in Wan Chai or Tanjong Pagar. The dashed line is the last two years' pace carried forward. It is arithmetic, not a forecast, and the line does not know it is a trend.
We scanned 21 small sites: the two layers move separately
That leaves two questions. Can classic search find and rank your pages? Can an AI assistant such as ChatGPT read your site and cite it? We score them separately; the rubric is public.
On 9 September 2026 we scanned 21 small-business sites, 6 in Hong Kong and 15 in Singapore, one visit each. The Search median was 64 out of 100 and no site reached a B. The AI score was published for 18 sites and withheld for 3 where too little of the rubric could be measured. The widest gap was one site at 40 on Search and 84 on AI: readable to AI, nearly invisible to classic search.
Doing well on one layer tells you little about the other.
People did not leave Google. Google split itself
Similarweb, a web-traffic measurement firm, asked the direct question. Its answer: 95% of ChatGPT users also use Google, in September 2025 and again in May 2026 2. People added ChatGPT. They did not drop the search engine.
Google saw the same thing and moved first. AI Mode, where a Gemini model built for Search writes the answer, went from a US experiment to over 200 countries and territories in October 2025 3. By May 2026 it had passed a billion monthly users, and its query volume had more than doubled every quarter since launch 4.
The AI layer is fragmenting too
Inside the AI layer there is no single door either. Between June 2025 and May 2026, ChatGPT's share of generative AI web traffic fell from roughly 76% to around 53%, Gemini rose from under 9% to around 27%, and Claude went from about 2% to close to 9% 5.
Being readable to all of them is the strategy.
What not to do, and what to check instead
Do not rewrite your site for the machines. Google's guide says no special writing style is needed ("just for generative AI"), because those features "are rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems" 6.
The work is hygiene, an afternoon for a web person. Does the page show its text without JavaScript? A crawler that does not run your script sees only the HTML the server sends, so a page assembled in the browser can arrive empty. Does your robots.txt, the plain text file at the root of a site that tells bots what they may fetch, let Bingbot in as well as Googlebot? Is the business named once, and the same way everywhere? Is there an author on what you publish? Are hours and prices text, not a picture?
The same fixes serve both layers. We did not test whether any one of them makes an AI cite a site more often; the scan measures whether a site can be read, not whether it is chosen.
Ranking still works. It returns less each year
So, is ChatGPT replacing Google? No. But the old chain, rank then click then call, delivers a smaller share every year: 49% of searches without a click in 2019, 68% now 1. His ranking still reaches the third of searchers who click, and only them.
Moving a site so that it is also read and cited, without breaking what ranks, is the work we do. The free scan scores both layers on your own site, so you can see which one is leaving you out.
Questions people ask
Will my website traffic fall?
Some of it may, if your pages answered short questions that an AI Overview now answers on the results page. The visits that remain are more decided: the person has read the summary and wants you specifically. Measure both layers before you conclude anything from a traffic chart.
Should I stop doing SEO?
No. Google's generative features sit on top of its ranking systems 6, and the AI assistants outside Google fetch pages the way a crawler does. Clean structure, real content and a clear identity still decide whether you are found.
Is AI Mode available in Hong Kong and Singapore?
Google took AI Mode past 200 countries and territories in October 2025 3, and Gemini in Chrome reached Singapore in April 2026 7. Google's posts do not list every market, so check on your own phone: type a question into Google and look for the AI Mode button.
Which AI assistant matters most for my business?
Nobody can say for your customers without asking them. Across generative AI sites, Similarweb's May 2026 split was roughly ChatGPT 53%, Gemini 27% and Claude 9% 5, and it moved a great deal in a year. Be readable to all of them; the fixes are the same.
Where does ChatGPT get its search results?
OpenAI says ChatGPT search "sometimes partners with other search providers" and points readers to Microsoft's privacy statement for how those queries are handled 8. A site that Bing cannot crawl may be missing from answers even when Google ranks it. Check your robots.txt for Bingbot as well as Googlebot.
How do I know whether an AI assistant cites me?
Ask it. Put your service and your district into ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and see who is named. The free scan tells you first whether your site is readable to an AI assistant at all; the AI-Ready package then runs a citation baseline over a fixed set of questions.
Next: How does AI read your website, and what can it see?
Sources
- SparkToro, In 2026, less than one third of Google searches still send a click, 9 June 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Similarweb, Is AI replacing search?, 4 August 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Google, AI Mode is now available in more languages and locations around the world, 7 October 2025. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Google, How AI Mode is changing and expanding the way people search, 19 May 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Similarweb, Generative AI statistics, 29 July 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, 10 July 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Google, We are expanding Gemini in Chrome to users in Asia Pacific, 20 April 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- OpenAI Help Center, Searching the web with ChatGPT, undated. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- SparkToro, Zero-Click Searches: Highest in the UK, Lowest in Germany, and France has the Most Efficient Searchers, 16 June 2026. Accessed 13 September 2026.
- SparkToro, 2024 Zero-Click Search Study: For every 1,000 EU Google Searches, only 374 clicks go to the Open Web. In the US, it's 360., 2 July 2024. Accessed 13 September 2026.
Our own counts come from our batch of 9 September 2026, 21 sites, one visit each, scored with the published rubric. Not a market survey.