ORLANDO, Fla. — Nov. 12, 2026 — Scrunch, a Sitecore company, today released research showing that four in ten (40.8%) sessions with AI assistants involve no web search before the conversation and no click afterward, revealing a shift in how consumers discover brands that website analytics alone may not capture. The results show that AI sessions are nearly twice as likely as traditional search sessions to stay entirely self-contained.
The study, “The New Shape of Search: What the Digital Customer Journey Looks Like in the AI Era,” was released on the second day of the annual Sitecore Symposium conference. It also found that about 91% of the increase in website visits following an AI brand recommendation arrives without an identifiable AI referral source.
To understand this issue, Scrunch Labs, the company’s data science arm, analyzed user activity across standalone AI assistants, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude, linking those interactions to the same people’s web searches and page visits.
Key Study Findings:
- Four in 10 AI sessions are entirely self-contained within chatbots, with no web search before the conversation and no clicks afterward. By comparison, only 21.5% of traditional search sessions remain self-contained.
- AI’s influence is often invisible in referral data: About 91% of the lift in website visits following an AI brand recommendation arrives without an AI referral source. These visits may appear in direct or organic channels, leaving AI’s contribution unrecognized.
- Webpages are source material: While ~60% of AI sessions involve web activity, users tend to browse the web first and consult AI second. Specific details from a recently visited webpage are nine times more likely to appear in a user's next AI prompt.
- AI introduces brands without being asked for recommendations: 77% of AI responses that name specific brand options do so without the user asking for recommendations.
A self-contained AI session does not necessarily mean the customer never visits a website. AI can influence a choice within a conversation and prompt website activity later, without an identifiable AI referral source connecting the two. Measuring only direct referrals from AI assistants can understate their role in brand discovery.
When AI recommends a brand to someone who has not engaged with it recently, that person becomes more likely to search for the brand, visit its site, and view its products within a week. However, because most of the increase in visits arrives without an identifiable AI referral source, marketing teams may not recognize AI’s contribution through standard web analytics.
“If your dashboard can’t see AI’s influence, your budget won’t reflect it, and you’ll keep investing in the channels that get credit while overlooking the ones shaping customer choice,” said Chris Andrew, CEO of Scrunch, a Sitecore company. “Brands need to compete to be recommended before the customer ever reaches their website. That means knowing where AI includes you, where it favors a competitor, and what you can do to change the answer.”
Explore the full study, “The New Shape of Search: What the Digital Customer Journey Looks Like in the AI Era”.
Methodology
The study evaluated an opt-in panel of users across two countries, linking conversations in standalone AI assistants to web searches and page visits. A session was defined as a period of activity with no gap longer than 30 minutes. Most results cover data gathered between July and Sept. 2026, comparing individual behaviors against control groups.
About Scrunch
Scrunch, a Sitecore company, is the Agent Experience Platform (AXP) that helps marketing and growth teams reach customers through AI search. Teams use Scrunch to observe what AI agents say and do, in AI platforms and on their own sites; optimize their web presence for agent consideration and selection; and deliver what agents need to understand, reference and recommend their brand. Learn more at scrunch.com.
About Sitecore
Sitecore is a global leader in AI-enabled digital experience software. Its next-generation platform, SitecoreAI, helps brands plan, create, personalize, and deliver content across every channel — websites, apps, social, and beyond. By unifying content management, customer data, and personalization into one intelligent system, it makes marketing faster, smarter, and more connected. At its core are agentic tools and studios that let marketers and developers collaborate with AI responsibly and effectively. Learn more at sitecore.com.
Media Contacts: Dani McCarthy Sitecore dani.mccarthy@sitecore.com
