AI research assistant search trends
Miles FosterOwner and tester, RankDude
Search interest▼ Fallingand 90% below its June 2026 peak
- Google Trends, year on year
- -78%
- US searches vs October 2025
- -87%
- From the five-year peak
- -90%
This page follows one Google search, “ai research assistant”, over five years. Interest is 78% lower than a year ago, 90% below its peak in June 2026.
Below: the five-year chart, searches month by month, country by country and the searches people make around it.
Google Trends via DataForSEO (pulled 2 November 2026); search volume and visits via DataForSEO · not a ranking
AI research assistant search trends: the key numbers for October 2026
The numbers that sum up searches for “ai research assistant”. Tap one for the detail below.
Interest in “ai research assistant” is down 78% on a year ago: 10 out of 100 on Google Trends in October 2026, against 45 a year earlier. The five-year peak was 96, in June 2026.
People search for it about 6,600 times a month worldwide, 1,900 of them in the US (29%). In September 2026, US searches were 480, 87% fewer than in October 2025.
3% of visits to the tracked AI research assistant sites come from the US, down from 4.4% a year ago. India, Canada and the United Kingdom come next.
Five years of interest, worldwide and in the US
WorldGoogle Trends interest, worldwide (0–100)
Source: Google Trends, 100 = peak week.
USGoogle Trends interest, United States (0–100)
United States only, same scale.
Miles explains
Here’s how I read these two lines. They don’t show how many people search, only when interest rose and fell. Worldwide, it peaked in June 2026 and sits at 10 now, lower than a year ago. In the US it’s lower than a year ago, and the Google Ads numbers below tell the same story. When you see a sharp spike, think news story, not new customers. The baseline between the spikes is the demand I actually care about.
What the term is worth, month by month
USSearches a month for "ai research assistant", United States
Source: Google Ads via DataForSEO.
WorldSearches a month for "ai research assistant", worldwide
Worldwide, same source.
Miles explains
This is the number I’d plan with: September 2026 had 480 US searches, 87% fewer than in October 2025. Google Ads rounds these figures into steps, so a small move from one month to the next usually means nothing.
The US against 9 other countries
Searches a month for “ai research assistant” in each country with a Google Ads figure, twelve-month average; countries with none are left out. The United States is 28.8% of the worldwide figure; the next 3 countries together are 31.2%.
- United States1,900
- India1,300
- Philippines590
- Canada170
- Australia170
- United Kingdom110
- Germany70
- France20
- Netherlands20
- Brazil10
Miles explains
The top five countries are United States, India, Philippines, Canada and Australia. Worldwide, people search for it about 3.5 times as often as in the US alone, so roughly 71.2% of the searches happen outside the US.
The searches around the term
| Search | US / month | Worldwide / month | US share |
|---|---|---|---|
| “ai research assistant” | 1,900 | 6,600 | 29% |
| “ai for research” | 4,400 | 40,500 | 11% |
| “ai tools for research” | 720 | 8,100 | 9% |
| “ai research tools” | 1,300 | 4,400 | 30% |
| “best ai for research” | 2,400 | 18,100 | 13% |
| “ai literature review” | 720 | 5,400 | 13% |
| “ai paper summarizer” | 70 | 260 | 27% |
| “ai for academic research” | 170 | 1,600 | 11% |
| “free ai research assistant” | 40 | 210 | 19% |
| “ai research paper finder” | 40 | 210 | 19% |
Search
- “ai research assistant”
- US / month
- 1,900
- Worldwide / month
- 6,600
- US share
- 29%
- “ai for research”
- US / month
- 4,400
- Worldwide / month
- 40,500
- US share
- 11%
- “ai tools for research”
- US / month
- 720
- Worldwide / month
- 8,100
- US share
- 9%
- “ai research tools”
- US / month
- 1,300
- Worldwide / month
- 4,400
- US share
- 30%
- “best ai for research”
- US / month
- 2,400
- Worldwide / month
- 18,100
- US share
- 13%
- “ai literature review”
- US / month
- 720
- Worldwide / month
- 5,400
- US share
- 13%
- “ai paper summarizer”
- US / month
- 70
- Worldwide / month
- 260
- US share
- 27%
- “ai for academic research”
- US / month
- 170
- Worldwide / month
- 1,600
- US share
- 11%
- “free ai research assistant”
- US / month
- 40
- Worldwide / month
- 210
- US share
- 19%
- “ai research paper finder”
- US / month
- 40
- Worldwide / month
- 210
- US share
- 19%
Source: Google Ads, 12-month averages. A dash means no volume reported.
Miles explains
The biggest related search is “ai for research”, at 40,500 searches a month worldwide, more than “ai research assistant” itself.
Where the visitors to the tracked sites come from
USShare of visits that come from the US (%)
US share of worldwide search visits to all tracked sites, month by month, DataForSEO estimates.
WorldVisits a month from outside the US
Visits from outside the US a month, all tracked sites.
- India97.5%64,004,451
- Canada0.9%566,318
- United Kingdom0.7%431,249
- Australia0.4%239,026
- Germany0.3%170,168
- Brazil0.2%137,449
- France0.2%108,494
Source: DataForSEO, October 2026.