A Hoverboard AI study involving 1,097 U.S. adults reveals that close to half rely on AI for significant life choices as confidence grows in healthcare, finance, and legal domains.
Consumers are now turning to AI answer engines to help them make decisions on what products they buy, what companies they hire, and what services they use. ”— Mike Perez, Founder of Hoverboard AI
Hoverboard AI has published The 2026 AI Answer Engine Trust & Search Behavior Report, a study exploring how U.S. consumers engage with and place confidence in ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other AI answer engines when deciding on purchases and major life events.
The research surveyed 1,097 U.S. adults aged 18 to 65 and found that 77% of participants use at least one AI answer engine. Close to half (49%) turn to these tools to investigate costly purchases or important life decisions, while 43.8% of AI users employ them for shopping and product-related choices.
Notable results include:
• ChatGPT leads in both usage and trust. Over 64% of respondents use ChatGPT, compared with 50% for Google Gemini. Among those who trust at least one AI platform, 59.9% identified ChatGPT as their most trusted for critical life decisions, versus 20.3% for Gemini.
• Trust is growing. More than 53% said they have greater trust in AI answer engines now than one year ago, while fewer than 16% reported decreased trust.
• Adoption rises with income. AI answer engine use reached 92% among participants from households earning $150,000 or more, compared with 70% among those earning $50,000 to $74,999.
• Consumers rely on AI for high-risk questions. The survey found that 56.8% expressed confidence in AI’s accuracy for health-related choices, 46.3% would likely depend on AI for financial research and guidance, and 46.6% agreed they would trust AI for precise legal information.
“More than ever before, consumers are now turning to AI answer engines to help them make decisions on what products they buy, what companies they hire, and what services they use,” said Mike Perez, founder of Hoverboard AI. “Brands that optimize their visibility in answer engines like ChatGPT and Google Gemini have a huge advantage over their competitors .”
The study also found that AI answer engine usagee is spread across multiple platforms. Respondents used an average of 2.3 answer engines, underscoring the need for brands to understand their visibility across more than one model.
For marketers and business owners, the findings point to a fragmented search journey in which traditional search, reviews and AI-generated answers all influence consideration. Google Search remains the most widely used research channel for major decisions, but AI answer engines have become part of that process for nearly half of respondents.
Hoverboard AI conducted the survey between April and June 2026. The sample included 1,097 U.S. adults ages 18 to 65. At a 95% confidence level, the approximate margin of error for full-sample figures is plus or minus three percentage points. Results are self-reported and intended to describe directional behavior among surveyed U.S. adults rather than audited platform usage.
The full report, including additional findings and methodology, is available at https://gethoverboard.com/the-2026-ai-trust-search-behavior-report/.
About Hoverboard AI
Hoverboard AI is an AI search analytics and answer engine optimization platform that tracks millions of prompts and answer engine responses. Companies and agencies use Hoverboard AI to track how brands are mentioned, cited and framed across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and other AI models. Learn more at https://gethoverboard.com.
Mike Perez
Hoverboard AI
mike@fluxality.com
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