Baidu: AI Generates 11% of Search Results

Posted by By Dan Taylor 2 Min Read

During Baidu’s Q1 2024 earnings call, founder and CEO Robin Li revealed that AI generates 11% of Baidu’s search results.

Although the AI restructuring work is in its early stages, Li believes search services will be a key application in the AI era.

Baidu’s “Ernie Bot” has over 200 million users, with 200 million daily API calls.

Additionally, Baidu has launched several lightweight large language models and development tools, such as Agent Builder, App Builder, and Model Builder, to promote AI technology.

Baidu’s Q1 2024 total revenue reached 31.5 billion RMB, with core business revenue at 23.8 billion RMB and a net profit of 7.011 billion RMB, a 22% increase year-on-year.

Baidu App’s monthly active users reached 676 million, with online marketing revenue at 17 billion RMB.

AI Technology Application and Financial Performance

Baidu’s ongoing investment in AI has shown significant results. The widespread application of the Ernie model and the introduction of new tools highlight Baidu’s efforts in promoting AI technology.

Baidu’s financial performance has exceeded market expectations, demonstrating its strong capability in innovation and market adaptability.

Baidu anticipates that AI technology will play a crucial role in more fields, further enhancing user experience and business growth.

Dan Taylor
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Dan Taylor is the founder and editor of International Search Insights (ISI), the publication behind ReadIsi, and a Partner and Head of Innovation (Search & AI) at SALT.agency. He has worked in search for more than a decade, in-house and agency-side, and is regarded as one of the West’s leading voices on search engines beyond Google, including Yandex, Baidu, Naver and Cốc Cốc. On ReadIsi, Dan covers the engines and AI answer platforms that English-language coverage tends to miss: Baidu and ERNIE, Yandex and Alice AI, Naver, Cốc Cốc, Shenma, Sogou, WeChat and Weibo search, plus DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen. He also keeps dated records of documented changes, such as the Yandex, Baidu and Naver algorithm update histories and the DeepSeek, ERNIE and Qwen model update histories. His approach is to take learnings from global search engines and apply logic with a high evidence threshold. A claim needs a source, patterns seen in one market are treated as a hypothesis until they are checked in another, and where the evidence is thin he says so. For brands, that means advice built on what can be shown, with measurement that separates being cited from being chosen. Dan is credited with coining the term “edge SEO” and won the inaugural TechSEO Boost research competition in 2018 for his work on CDN and edge changes for SEO. In 2026 he was credited with coining “Infinite Tail” to describe how keyword research is changing with AI search. He is the author of AI Search Marketing For The Travel Sector, writes for Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land and Travel Marketing Guy, and has advised technology, SaaS, travel and enterprise ecommerce brands, including Cloudflare, GitLab and Airbnb. He has given multiple talks and panels at the International Search Summit in Barcelona, and has also spoken at Optimization Moscow, brightonSEO, Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Asia in Bangkok, Athens SEO and the Asia SEO Virtual Summit 2026, where his talk looked at how Baidu, Naver, DeepSeek, Tencent, Cốc Cốc and Yandex built their own AI answers.
Founder & Editor