Search Trends in 2026 - by the numbers

Hosted by Dawn Anderson, Trey Grainger, and Doug Turnbull

Mon, Jun 1, 2026

2:00 PM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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AI-Powered Search: Modern Retrieval for Humans & Agents
Trey Grainger and Doug Turnbull
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What you'll learn

How do users actually search in 2026?

Detailed analysis of emerging search trends in 2026

Which users use AI search functionality?

Is there a generational gap in AI search? In what domains should you prioritize chat-based search?

Ground product planing in reality

Market statistics on what users actually want out of search beyond hope and wishful thinking

Why this topic matters

Teams that build search can learn a lot from SEO + Digital Marketing world. For example, would that that AI agent actually solve for how users search in 2026? SEO+Digital Marketing consultant Dawn Anderson will discuss market trends she sees in user search behaviors. Given these trends you can make a more informed plan beyond just the latest test gizmo + zeitgeist.

You'll learn from

Dawn Anderson

Founder, Berltey. SEO Consultant.

Digital Marketing strategist and international SEO consultant. Dawn is the founder and Managing Director of Bertey, a digital marketing and SEO agency in Manchester, UK, established in 2012, Dawn also lectures periodically on search and digital marketing strategy at Manchester Metropolitan University and supervises Master dissertation students. She is also a trainer and speaks regularly at UK wide and international SEO conferences including State of Search, Brighton SEO, Ungagged, MozCon, SMX

Trey Grainger

Author, AI-Powered Search

Trey Grainger is lead author of the book AI-Powered Search (Manning 2025) and founder of Searchkernel, a software consultancy building the next generation of AI-powered search. He also serves as a technical advisor at OpenSource Connections.

He previously served as CTO of Presearch, a decentralized web search engine, and as Chief Algorithms Officer and SVP of Engineering at Lucidworks, a search company whose technology powers hundreds of the world’s leading organizations. Trey is also co-author of the book Solr in Action (Manning 2014), as well as over a dozen other publications including books, journals, and research papers. Trey has 18 years of experience in search and data science focused on building self-learning search platforms integrating the most successful AI Search techniques.

Trey teaches AI Search in the course AI-Powered Search: Modern Retrieval for Humans & Agents with Doug Turnbull.

Doug Turnbull

Co-Author, AI-Powered Search

In 2012, Doug got bit by the search bug and he's still trying to keep up. From full-text search, to Learning to Rank models, to search agents that generate their own code, he knows the endless landscape first hand. Yet Doug wants to deeply understand the what / how / why, and help teams use these technologies practically, distinguishing hype from reality.

He’s led search at Reddit, Shopify, and Wikipedia, authored Relevant Search and AI Powered Search, and advised 100+ organizations over the years - all in pursuit of the same question: how does search actually work?

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