Nikkei (Japan's leading business daily) posted the result of one of its own surveys on its X account on the night of August 14.
The headline was "Half of people in their 20s don't use search engines when researching." Looking at the numbers, it's no exaggeration.
Half of People in Their 20s Have Turned Off Search
The digital transformation (DX) support company Nile (ナイル) surveyed 2,000 men and women aged 20 to 60 online in May 2026.
38.3% of all respondents said they "never use a search engine when researching." By age group, people in their 20s were highest at 48%, followed by 39.6% in their 30s and 32% in their 40s (Nikkei's X post, published at 16:30 KST on August 14, 2026 / article).
When those who still use search engines were asked why, "because I'm used to it" came first at 53%.
"Someday, Research Will Be Done With AI": 30% Agree
The survey went a step further. It asked, "Do you think research could be completed with generative AI alone in the future?"
30.3% said "probably," and 28.3% said "probably not." The rest withheld judgment.
It wasn't split exactly in half, but it means slightly more people think AI can replace search.
From SEO to AEO: What to Prepare
For content and marketing practitioners, the meaning of these numbers is clear. The audience for whom optimizing search engine results pages (SERPs) alone is not enough has already grown to nearly half.
What to check in practice narrows to three things.
First, structure your content so chatbots can easily cite it when building answers, which means question-and-answer formats and clear figures with sources.
Second, track how much your content shows up in AI search and chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude (AEO, Answer Engine Optimization).
Third, don't abandon existing SEO. Even in this survey, half of people in their 20s still use search engines.
Half of 20-Somethings Gone? Look at the Sample First
This statistic comes from a private company's own survey, Nile's, not government statistics or a large panel survey. A sample of 2,000 may not be large enough to represent all Japanese people aged 20 to 60.
Also, "never use a search engine" does not necessarily mean "replaced it with generative AI." They may have moved to social media or communities. The original article had no additional data clearly separating these two flows.
Rather than applying it as is to other markets, it's safer to cross-check against your own local data to see whether a similar trend exists.