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Summary
As consumers increasingly turn to large language models for information, their wider online behavior may change in ways that affect search engines, publishers and advertisers. This MSI Working Paper analyzes detailed browsing data to examine what happens after users adopt LLMs. The researchers find that traditional search activity eventually declines by more than 20%, visits to smaller and education-related websites fall, and exposure to display advertising decreases. The findings suggest that LLMs are becoming substitutes for some established online activities while potentially concentrating traffic among the web’s largest platforms.
