The last few posts on our blog have been on the discussion of the latest AI development that has taken the world by storm – Chat GPT. We have spoken about what this language model is, where it is going and how the world’s second-largest search engine (Bing) has collaborated with Open AI to create the all-new search engine experience; the AI-powered Bing. If you would like a quick update though, you can do so here. 

 

To keep in line with all the AI news that has been discussed on our blog, this latest instalment will be discussing how the incorporation of a chatbot into Bing’s search tool has led to exponential growth in users of this platform, possibly creating a threat to Google’s market share as well as the start of an AI war.  

 

Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft reported phenomenal growth in Bing user engagement, and for the first time ever, this search engine is experiencing 100 million daily users. Additionally, Bing is seeing multiple usage in a day, leading to the conclusion that the search engine has become more relevant than ever before. The mobile app has seen a growth of 600%, with the Apple app store reporting Bing ranking at #24 for productivity apps. I guess gone are the days when Bing’s leading traffic is attributed to people actually only searching for Google.

 

So what has led to this growth and exponential desire to become a Bing user? 

 

Microsoft has reported that this growth is being driven through the new AI-Powered Bing (Bing + Chat GPT). This collaboration has led to the reinvention of the search experience for users: search that is personalised but most importantly search that is answered in a concise and fast manner. 

 

In short, the way in which Bing has achieved this is through a chatbot (Chat GPT) reading through content on the internet, and generates an answer for you, as opposed to you having to do this on platforms such as Google. The search experience on Bing is therefore arguably everything users have possibly wanted. 

 

It is expected for Bing’s growth to continue with the introduction of new capabilities and technologies to the AI-powered Bing, such as Chat GPT 4 and something else that is exciting, Co-pilot, which will be discussed later in this post. 

 

Chat GPT 4 is the upgraded version of Chat GPT 3.5 and is a platform that is stronger, smarter and more creative than its predecessor. The AI can now generate visual responses through graphs, infographics, videos and even something as creative as artwork. The emphasis on this upgrade has really been from a creative sense, where the tool can now generate long text answers in order to create content from the text it has been given as a question. The tool can also now generate answers from images or videos, for example, asking Chat GPT what to bake by using a picture you have taken of your pantry as your question. 

 

Now you might be asking yourself where you can access this all-new Chat GPT 4. Well, you could pay for it on Chat GPT’s platform, or you can use it for free on Bing. Bing Chat however does not have access to the feature of using visual aids as questions. What is important to note however, is the language model Bing Chat uses, has become more powerful and accurate in search and has really captured the essence of a new type of search experience, something that is more immersive, personalised and best of all, specific and fast. 

 

It is clear by now, that the growth and increase in Bing’s relevancy is grounded in search results, which is Google’s biggest revenue stream. Search is the reason Google is the world’s leading tech giant today and monopolises this industry, as it is responsible for 97% of the world’s search traffic. 

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, search is so powerful that “it has become the most profitable category on the planet”. I think it also logical to say that the main place that users are leaving and replacing with Bing, is Google and taking into consideration how valuable the search industry has become, it is no surprise Bing is fighting to take some of this market share by using powerful and innovative AI. 

 

So naturally, the next question to ask is, what is Google doing to ensure they remain relevant and keep up with this new and somewhat unexpected competition? 

 

Earlier this year in February, Google launched their AI language model (Bard) in order to compete with Chat GPT and remain relevant. The premise of this model was that it was a launchpad for curiosity, and much like Chat GPT, was created in order to simplify complex searches on the internet. 

 

The launch of Bard was rather abysmal where in the demo, the chatbot got a very simple fact incorrect. This mistake led to Google’s shares dropping by $100 million. Microsoft then tactfully announced the exciting venture between Chat GPT and Bing which led to an increase of 3% in their shares. 

 

This was evidently an embarrassing double blow for Google. Google has however very recently and quickly announced the arrival of “Claude” to replace Bard, another AI similar to that of Chat GPT. 

 

Claude has been marketed as being easier to use as well as less likely to produce harmful results than its competitor, Chat GPT. Whether or not Claude will be a success, is something we will have to wait and see, however Google having the ability to build something similar to that of Chat GPT, but only after the flaws of the chatbot have been discovered might give Google the upper hand in this AI war for a change. 

 

On top of Google’s new AI chatbot developments, the company announced that AI will be incorporated into Google Cloud, specifically in Google Docs and Gmail. The AI will be based on writing tools where users can use AI to draft emails or documents quickly and easily. 

 

Additionally, this tool has also been developed in order for small-scale AI developers to further develop any of Google’s latest language models in order to strengthen them. Developers will also be able to access Google’s AI in order to help them in their own AI endeavours and to push Google’s agenda of “AI should be easily accessible to everyone”. Ultimately, we believe this announcement has come as a shield against Microsoft’s (similar) soon-to-be-launched “Co-Pilot”. 

 

Co-Pilot has been marketed as an all-immersive and seamless experience of the Microsoft suite as Microsoft has brought the side-bar back into fashion. In short, Co-Pilot will be using Bing Chat in a sidebar form, as a tool in order to do tasks in Microsoft suite such as writing emails for you in Outlook, finding data inconsistencies in Excel, or even creating an entire presentation for you in PowerPoint. Bing Chat will also be usable during Teams in your meeting to help you remember what the most important points were or to take minutes for you. 

Why do we care?

After having read all about these exciting new developments in the world of AI, as well as this back-and-forth between Microsoft Bing and Google, you might be thinking to yourself how does this affect you and why should you care? 

 

Firstly, we believe it is always important to keep up to date with developments that could seriously impact the future, and at CleverClicks, that is exactly what we are doing. The rise of AI such as Chat GPT, rings reminiscent to that of the rise of the internet and the insane change that caused. AI is definitely here to stay and will probably only get smarter and more relevant than it was today. It is therefore important to understand how could your sphere of work, specifically SEO and PPC, be impacted by AI? However, that goes far beyond the scope of this blog post. 

 

Ultimately what this AI war post alludes to, is that it is becoming more important to become relevant on Bing and no longer just Google alone. In a practical sense, this boils down to starting off with making sure your business does not only have a Google profile, but a Bing profile too. To add to this recommendation, I think it is also important to not go into panic stations just yet. Bing has not won this war and Google is not even close to becoming the next Yahoo! From this unforeseen competition however, comes exciting developments to keep an eye on and to ultimately incorporate into your digital marketing efforts.