AI search tools such as Perplexity, ChatGPT search, Google AI Mode and Copilot answer a question in a paragraph with citations, instead of giving you a list of links to read. That saves a lot of time on research, but the answer is only as good as its sources, and AI search tools still get those wrong surprisingly often.
No AI search tool is clearly better than the others, and most browsers now have one built in, so the tool matters less than knowing when to use it.
When you need an answer that is spread across several pages:
When you already know what you are looking for:
Tip: You don't have to switch your default search engine to get both. Most browsers let you add a search engine with a keyword (a "site search" shortcut), so you can type the keyword in the address bar to send just that query to the other engine.
AI search makes citation mistakes with full confidence. In a 2025 Tow Center study of eight AI search tools, more than 60% of answers about where a news excerpt came from were wrong, and even the best tool was wrong 37% of the time. Some tools linked to pages that didn't exist.
Before you rely on an AI search answer:
"According to Perplexity, the API supports 10,000 requests per minute."
❌ Figure: Bad example - Bad example - Repeating an AI search answer without opening its source
"The API supports 10,000 requests per minute (see the official rate limits page)."
✅ Figure: Good example - Good example - Using AI search to find the answer, then checking and citing the primary source
See Do you use AI responsibly? and Do you avoid automation bias? for more on fact-checking AI output.