Are search engines evolving into personal assistants?

Generative AI is bringing profound changes to the search landscape, making it more conversational, assistive, and agentic, according to a new report.

Analysis by Forrester found search engines including Google, Bing, and ChatGPT are subsequently evolving into personal assistant-like tools, impacting all areas from B2C and B2B marketing to commerce and cognitive search. 

As part of the report, Forrester outlined three ways search is evolving with key examples across each criteria.

The report found that search’s gen AI-powered transformation goes beyond search engines. It impacts how users search vendors’ sites, retailers’ apps, and companies’ intranets. Users expect back-and-forth interactions with agents that act like personal assistants across B2B, commerce, and cognitive search. 

As a result, search experiences “cross-pollinate”, the report said, changing search marketing (B2C and B2B), commerce search, and enterprise knowledge strategies by making experiences more dynamic, relevant, and personalised.

Forrester’s senior analyst Nikhil Lai, said: “Generative AI makes search more conversational, assistive, and agentic. Search engines lead this transformation, but it impacts all search experiences.