Stop Googling. Start Using AI to Search — Here’s How

Google gives you links. AI search gives you answers. Once you’ve experienced the difference, it’s hard to go back.

For most research tasks, Google still works fine. But if you’ve ever typed a complex question into Google and ended up digging through six different websites to piece together an answer, you’ll immediately see why AI search tools have become so popular.

Here’s a practical guide to the main options and when to use each one.

Perplexity: the best AI search tool right now

Perplexity.ai is the tool most serious researchers have switched to. It searches the web in real time, synthesises the information, gives you a direct answer, and — crucially — cites its sources so you can verify everything.

It’s particularly useful for finance-related research:

• “What are the latest IFRS changes affecting project accounting?”
• “What are analysts saying about Oracle’s AI strategy this quarter?”
• “What’s the current thinking on AI in financial planning and analysis?”
• “What discount rate assumptions are investment banks using for AI infrastructure plays?”

You get a synthesised answer with sources in about ten seconds. That used to take 30 minutes of reading.

ChatGPT with search turned on

ChatGPT now has a web search mode built in. It’s similar to Perplexity but with the added benefit that you can continue the conversation and ask follow-up questions. Good for when you want to research a topic and then ask the model to do something with the information it finds.

Example workflow: search for recent news about AI in ERP systems, then ask it to draft a one-page briefing note for your CFO. All in the same conversation.

Claude and direct document analysis

Claude (by Anthropic) is less of a search tool and more of a document analysis tool. It doesn’t search the web by default, but it’s exceptional at working with documents you paste in or upload. Drop in a 40-page report and ask it to summarise the key findings, pull out the financial implications, or compare it to another document you’ve uploaded.

For finance professionals, this is enormously useful. Board packs, board reports, analyst reports, contracts, regulatory guidance. Paste it in, ask what you need, get the answer in seconds.

Microsoft Copilot: AI search inside your work

If your organisation has a Microsoft 365 licence with Copilot, you’ve got AI search built into Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook. Ask it to find that email from three months ago about the budget approval. Ask it to surface all documents related to a specific project. Ask it to summarise everything said about a topic across your Teams channels.

This is genuinely useful for finance teams and it’s already sitting inside your existing tools. If you haven’t tried it, start there.

When to still use Google

Google is still better for: finding a specific website, checking real-time prices or stock data, finding contact details, or any search where you want to see a list of sources and choose which ones to read. It’s also still more reliable for very recent news (within the last few hours).

The practical approach: use Google when you want links, use AI search when you want answers.