Embracing AI: How Legal Consultant Anja-Sara Lahady and Others Shift from Google to ChatGPT for Everyday Solutions
The Shift from Search Engines to AI: Anja-Sara Lahady’s Journey
In this rapidly evolving digital age, our relationship with technology is constantly changing. A beacon of this transformation is Anja-Sara Lahady, a lawyer and legal technology consultant from Montreal, Canada. She mirrors the sentiments of many who once relied heavily on traditional search engines like Google, but have now found a more efficient alternative in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
A New Assistant in Everyday Life
For Lahady, the dawn of AI has meant a paradigm shift in how she navigates daily tasks. “I’ve always been an early adopter,” she explains. “In the past year, I have started using ChatGPT for just about everything. It’s become a second assistant.” For her, this means asking for interior decoration ideas, choosing outfits, or figuring out what to cook with limited ingredients. The mental bandwidth saved by letting AI handle these small, yet time-consuming tasks has been invaluable.
“I don’t want to spend 30 minutes thinking about these admin tasks. They aren’t my expertise; they just make me more fatigued,” Lahady shares. This change reflects a broader trend, as an increasing number of individuals turn to LLMs to address everyday queries and recommendations.
The Rising Popularity of AI
ChatGPT has captivated users, boasting around 800 million weekly active users—an impressive surge from 400 million within just six months. Despite this growth, traditional search engines still command significant market share. According to research by Datos, LLMs accounted for nearly 6% of desktop browsing searches in mid-2023, a substantial jump from the previous year.
Why the shift? Professor Feng Li from Bayes Business School attributes it to the way LLMs lighten cognitive load. “Instead of juggling 10 links with search, you get a brief synthesis that you can edit and iterate in plain English,” he explains. Tasks like summarizing documents and drafting emails become smoother, offering practical advantages that can’t be ignored.
Limitations and Challenges
Despite their advantages, LLMs aren’t without limitations. Lahady expresses caution about using AI for legal tasks that require nuanced reasoning. “I won’t use LLMs for anything that needs legal reasoning,” she states. Professor Li echoes this sentiment, reminding users that outputs from LLMs must be verified due to the potential for errors and hallucinations.
Traditional search engines are responding to this wave of change, incorporating AI-enhanced features to retain their relevance. New tools like AI Mode, which allows more conversational queries, and AI Overviews, which summarize search results, demonstrate an adaptation to user preferences. Yet, the drop in Google search frequency, especially noted during an antitrust trial, indicates shifting behavior.
The Future of Search and Marketing
Looking ahead, it’s clear that the digital landscape will evolve towards a hybrid model—a coexistence of traditional search and AI. Professor Li believes that while LLM usage is on the rise, it will stabilize as people continue to use both methods for different objectives, such as transactions and verification.
This transformation is sparking shifts in marketing strategies as well. Companies are tasked with understanding which sources LLMs deem authoritative, as insights gleaned from AI are increasingly driving consumer behavior. Leila Seith Hassan of Digitas UK highlights that referrals from LLMs often lead to higher-quality sales conversions.
Conclusion
As Anja-Sara Lahady’s experience illustrates, AI is becoming an indispensable tool in simplifying our lives. The increasing preference for LLMs over traditional search engines points to a future where AI will play a critical role in managing daily tasks and influencing consumer decisions. While challenges remain, it’s clear that embracing AI technology not only enhances efficiency but also reshapes our interactions with information in profound ways.
As we move forward, it will be exciting to see how this technology continues to evolve and what new roles it will play in our everyday lives.