Neural search tools are becoming more popular among users, especially on Yandex. Over the past year, usage of Yandex’s Neuro Button—a tool that gives AI-generated answers based on web data—has grown by nearly 1.5 times.
Launched in April 2024, the Neuro Button started with around 7.4 million daily users. As of April 2025, that number has risen to 10.5 million.
Alongside this growth, more users are also diving deeper into answers. Yandex reports a 30% increase in how often users open and study the full versions of AI-generated responses. This suggests that habits may be shifting, with users relying more on neural tools to tackle complex queries.
The number of people using neural networks multiple times per week has also doubled in the last year. However, the share of clicks from AI answers to the original source websites has stayed the same, even with the increased usage.
Search activity overall has climbed. Yandex saw a 9.9% rise in total search queries year-over-year. In the same period, the number of questions asked to generative AI tools exceeded 6.7 billion.
This trend follows global patterns. Google’s AI Overviews feature is now present in about half of all search results. Back in March 2025, analysts noted that fewer users were clicking on traditional top-ranking links because AI summaries already provided the needed answers.
Yandex’s financial results also reflect this increased activity. In Q1 2025, the company posted revenue of 306.5 billion rubles, up 34% from the same period in 2024.
