The Most Searched Queries and AI Prompts Asked on Search Engines and LLMs in 2025

Introduction: The Age of Search is Splitting in Two

For over two decades, the world’s questions have begun the same way: typed into a search bar, answered by an index of billions of web pages. Google defined the grammar of curiosity; Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and Yandex followed in its shadow. But in 2025, curiosity looks different. Search engines still process trillions of queries each year, but they now share the stage with large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Meta AI.

Where search engines return lists of links, LLMs respond with answers, narratives, or even code. And while people once searched for keywords, they now “prompt” in natural language. The result is a cultural and technological split: what we ask search engines is not always what we ask AI models—and increasingly, those questions reveal what people value most in an information-saturated, AI-assisted world.

This article explores the most searched queries on traditional search engines and the most common prompts given to LLMs right now, analyzing how they differ, what they reveal about user behavior, and how this shift will redefine the future of knowledge.

Part I: What People Still Ask Search Engines

Despite predictions of decline, search engines remain the backbone of the internet. Google alone fields over 8.5 billion searches every day, according to industry trackers. The questions most often typed into search engines today fall into four dominant categories:

1. Transactional Queries

These are searches with intent to act—buy, sign up, or locate.

• “Best smartphone 2025”
• “Flights from New York to London”
• “Restaurants near me open now”

Search engines are still unrivaled in transactional queries because they integrate maps, shopping indexes, and local services. LLMs can suggest a product, but they cannot yet replace real-time databases of availability and pricing.

2. How-To and Informational Queries

A staple of the web since the early days.

• “How to lose weight fast”
• “How to start a blog in 2025”
• “How to fix a leaking tap”

Google’s dominance here is reinforced by YouTube integration—searchers want video walkthroughs, something LLMs cannot yet produce natively.

3. Health and Wellness Searches

One of the most sensitive and highest-volume categories.

• “COVID symptoms 2025”
• “Best diet for PCOS”
• “Is coffee bad for anxiety?”

Here, Google faces competition: LLMs can provide nuanced, conversational health advice. Yet regulation and trust issues keep most users searching for official medical sources.

4. Breaking News and Real-Time Events

This is where LLMs lag significantly behind.

• “Pakistan election results 2025”
• “Apple event live updates”
• “Stock market crash today”

Search engines, powered by live indexing, remain the first stop for real-time information. AI models still rely on training data, updates, or plugins.

Part II: What People Ask LLMs Instead

While Google and Bing serve as gateways to the web, LLMs have become personal assistants, creative collaborators, and problem solvers. Their most popular prompts reveal a different layer of user behavior—less about finding links and more about generating answers.

1. Productivity and Work Prompts

• “Write me a professional email to my boss requesting remote work.”
• “Summarize this PDF into bullet points.”
• “Draft a marketing campaign for a SaaS product.”

Unlike search, where users look for templates, LLMs generate the finished work. This shift transforms productivity into automation.

2. Learning and Education

• “Explain quantum computing in simple terms.”
• “Create a Python script that scrapes websites.”
• “Teach me SEO in 30 days with a daily plan.”

LLMs act as tutors. Rather than searching for tutorials, users ask for personalized, step-by-step learning paths.

3. Creative Assistance

• “Write a bedtime story for a 6-year-old about space travel.”
• “Compose a poem in Shakespearean style.”
• “Brainstorm YouTube video ideas for a gaming channel.”

This is a category search engines could never fulfill. Creativity is becoming AI’s defining use case.

4. Personal Growth and Advice

• “Give me a morning routine for productivity.”
• “Help me plan a healthy diet based on vegetarian foods.”
• “What career should I pursue based on my skills?”

These resemble traditional self-help queries but framed as conversations. Users no longer want 10 blog links—they want an answer distilled for them.

5. Code and Technical Prompts

One of the most explosive use cases.

• “Debug this Python error.”
• “Generate SQL queries for database analysis.”
• “Write an HTML landing page for a startup.”

For developers, LLMs are replacing Stack Overflow and technical forums. The immediacy of problem-solving outpaces traditional search.

Part III: The Cultural Divide in Curiosity

The divergence between search queries and AI prompts reflects not just technology but psychology.

• Search = Discovery. People search when they want options, perspectives, and live updates.
• LLMs = Delegation. People prompt when they want answers, drafts, or creations done for them.

In effect, search keeps us browsing; LLMs keep us building. One leads to exploration, the other to execution.

Part IV: The Hybrid Future of Queries

The boundaries between search engines and LLMs are already blurring. Google integrates Gemini directly into search. Perplexity.ai merges web indexing with AI summarization. Microsoft’s Copilot blends Bing results with natural language answers.

In the near future, the distinction between “search query” and “AI prompt” may vanish entirely. Instead, users will simply ask questions, and the system—whether engine or model—will decide whether to deliver a web page, a generated answer, or both.

For now, however, the dual landscape offers a fascinating mirror of our digital lives.

Comparison Table: Search Engines vs. LLM Prompts

Category	Most Common Search Queries (2025)	Most Common LLM Prompts (2025)
Transactions	“Best laptop under $1000”	“Compare two laptops and recommend the best”
Learning	“How to learn Python fast”	“Teach me Python with exercises”
Health	“Headache causes”	“Explain my symptoms and possible conditions”
Productivity	“Best email templates for job applications”	“Write a job application email for me”
News	“Election results live”	“Summarize today’s headlines in 5 bullet points”
Creativity	“Song lyrics generator”	“Write a song in Taylor Swift’s style”
Technical Help	“Fix WordPress upload error”	“Debug my WordPress PHP code”

Expert Insight: Why This Matters

Industry analysts suggest that search engines will remain dominant in commerce, navigation, and news, but LLMs will capture education, productivity, and creativity. The real battle is not about replacing search—it is about redefining how humans interact with knowledge.

MIT researchers frame it this way: search engines taught us how to find information; LLMs teach us how to command it. That subtle shift from finding to commanding may be the biggest transformation in human curiosity since the invention of the web itself.

FAQs: Most Searched Queries and AI Prompts in 2025

1. What is the most searched query on Google right now?
According to recent trackers, real-time topics like elections, sports events, and celebrity news dominate daily search spikes.

2. What is the most common prompt asked to ChatGPT and other LLMs?
Work-related prompts—writing emails, generating code, and summarizing documents—are currently among the most frequent.

3. Do people still trust search engines more than AI?
For breaking news and health information, yes. For productivity and creativity, people increasingly trust AI.

4. Will AI replace Google?
Not entirely. AI may transform Google, but search engines remain essential for live, real-world indexing.

5. Which is better for learning—Google or AI?
Google provides a library of sources; AI acts as a personal tutor. Many learners now use both in combination.

Conclusion: A World with Two Gateways to Knowledge

Search engines and LLMs are not enemies—they are complementary gateways to human knowledge. Search engines excel at live, authoritative, transactional discovery. LLMs shine as personal assistants, turning questions into ready-made answers.

The shift in what we ask—and how we ask it—signals a deeper cultural moment: humans no longer just look for information, they expect collaboration from machines. The future of queries is not about typing keywords or prompts. It is about how seamlessly technology can translate curiosity into clarity, action, and creativity.

In this dual world, one truth holds: the questions we ask define not just what we learn, but who we become