What the Digital 2027 report means for South African businesses

Digital 2027 shows a digital world that is bigger but harder to win. Global internet users reached 6.15 billion, generative AI users jumped 57.2 percent in a year to 3.24 billion, and social media identities reached 5.81 billion. At the same time, web traffic is falling, search is slowly losing share of brand research to AI and social, and no single channel reaches even a third of buyers on its own. For South African businesses, the actions are clear: stay strong on search, make your content easy for AI tools to find and quote, focus on one or two social platforms done well, and rebuild email, which more than 95 percent of South African online adults now use every month.

Report scope: Unless a figure is labelled South Africa, it is a global figure from the report. These numbers show the direction customers are moving; they are not South African statistics.

The 2027 digital world in six numbers

• 6.15 billion people use the internet, 73.9 percent of the world population
• 5.86 billion unique mobile users, 70.4 percent of the world population
• 5.81 billion social media user identities, up 2.7 percent in a year, close to 70 percent of the world population
• 3.24 billion active users of generative AI platforms, 38.9 percent of the world population, up more than 1.2 billion users, or 57.2 percent, in 12 months
• 19 hours 18 minutes a week is the average time people spend on social media and online video, up 42 minutes in a year
• 76.4 percent of online adults used email in the past 30 days, the highest level in this dataset, and in South Africa the figure is in excess of 95 percent

The audience is not shrinking. The way the audience finds, checks and chooses businesses is changing.

Finding 1: AI use has surged, but people still make the decisions

More than 1 in 3 people in the world now use generative AI every month. ChatGPT is still the clear leader, with roughly twice as many monthly users as any other platform, but Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude have grown very fast, with Claude mobile app users up 17 times in a year.

Why do people use AI? Finding information is first, at 60.4 percent of active AI users. Getting advice on problems is second, at 40.6 percent. Learning or improving skills is third, at 38.4 percent.

For your business, the buyer journey finding matters most: AI now ranks sixth for brand research, with 26.0 percent of online adults using AI tools to research potential purchases. That is real, and it is growing fast. But the report is clear that people are not handing decisions, let alone purchases, to AI agents yet. Shoppers still research, compare and choose themselves. AI helps them make sense of the options.

What to do: Make sure your business is one of the options AI can make sense of. Clear service pages that answer real questions in plain language, consistent business details, real reviews and proof, and content that states facts about your prices, areas and services in a way a machine can quote. That is the same discipline behind good SEO, now applied to AI search as well. We call it being findable in both places, because your customers now use both.

Finding 2: Search is still number one, so do not move that budget yet

With all the AI growth, it would be easy to panic and move your whole budget. The data says do not.

Search engines are still the top channel for brand discovery, at 32.0 percent of online adults, ahead of TV ads at 30.6 percent and social media ads at 30.4 percent. For brand research, search is even stronger: 45.3 percent of online adults use search engines to research a purchase, well ahead of social networks at 41.8 percent and brand websites at 32.9 percent. People are still 74 percent more likely to visit a search engine for brand research than an AI platform.

Search is slowly slipping, not collapsing. The share using search engines for brand research fell from 51.0 percent in Q2 2024 to 45.3 percent in Q2 2026. The report author, Simon Kemp, makes the budget point directly: search is forecast to take the largest share of digital ad spend in 2026, at US $376 billion, and on current data that is still justified. His warning is about the longer term: SEO and AI search optimisation budgets need a closer look for the years ahead, not a knee-jerk cut next quarter.

What to do: Keep search at the centre of your plan for 2027, in paid media and in content. Then fund AI visibility from growth and testing money, not by gutting the channel that still brings the most buyers.

Finding 3: Your website will get less traffic, so every visit must count more

Across the world top 10,000 websites, total monthly visits are down 6.8 percent over two years, and down more than 10 percent since ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Total time spent on those sites is down 11.2 percent in two years, and the average visit is now about 7 and a half minutes, down from just under 8 minutes.

The report is careful about causes. The rise of AI is not the only reason, and probably not the main one. Mobile apps taking activity away from the mobile web is likely the bigger driver: mobile web visits fell 11 percent in two years, while desktop visits fell less than 1 percent and have recently grown. Mobile still accounts for 57.5 percent of web traffic.

There is one countertrend worth knowing: people who do visit view more pages, 7.18 pages per visit, up close to 10 percent in two years. Fewer visits, deeper visits.

What to do: Stop judging your website on traffic alone. Judge it on enquiries per 100 visits, and make every page earn its place: fast on mobile, clear in the first 5 seconds, with one obvious next step. A smaller number of serious visitors is worth more than a bigger number of casual ones. This is also why we check reported conversions against real enquiries on every account we manage.

Finding 4: Nobody finds you in one place any more

The typical online adult now uses an average of 5.82 channels to discover new brands, and 3.8 channels to research a purchase. No single channel, not even search at 32.0 percent, reaches a third of buyers for discovery.

Age changes the mix, not the principle. For 16 to 24 year olds, social networks are the top brand research destination at 46.9 percent. For people over 65, search is dominant and social ranks only sixth.

What to do: Build a mix, but a focused one. Search, one or two social platforms, your own website and email will cover most South African buyer journeys. Five channels done properly beats ten channels done thinly, and the report warns that returns drop off fast once a business tries to be active on more than three or four social platforms.

Finding 5: Social keeps growing, and five platforms take almost all the time

Social media identities reached 5.81 billion and are expected to pass 70 percent of the world population in early 2027. More than 97 percent of online adults used a social network or messaging platform in the past month.

Time is heavily concentrated. By total time spent in apps, YouTube is first, WhatsApp is close behind at 96.3 percent of YouTube time, Instagram is at 96.2, TikTok at 79.8 and Facebook at 61.9, and no other platform scores above 10 on that index. By daily time per user, TikTok leads at 1 hour 55 minutes a day, then Instagram at 1 hour 40 minutes and YouTube at 1 hour 28 minutes. WhatsApp has the most monthly app users. Instagram is the world favourite platform, named by 17.8 percent of social users, ahead of WhatsApp at 17.1 percent.

What to do: Pick platforms by objective, not by headlines. WhatsApp for frequency and direct conversation, which matters enormously in South Africa. YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for attention and discovery. Facebook for reach in older and broader audiences. Then commit. One or two platforms, done consistently, is the report recommendation and it is ours too.

Finding 6: Email is back, and South Africa is near the top of the world

This is the finding most businesses will miss. Monthly email use is at its highest level in this dataset: 76.4 percent of online adults globally, and 86.6 percent if China is removed. Nigeria leads at 98.4 percent, South Africa is in excess of 95 percent, and Brazil is third at 94.7 percent. Even 16 to 24 year olds report 78.9 percent monthly email use.

The report makes the strategic point plainly: with web traffic falling and social and AI algorithms acting as black boxes, email is one of the few channels a business actually controls. If you are not using email in your mix, the report suggests you re-explore it for 2027.

What to do: Treat your customer list as an asset again. Collect email addresses at every sale and enquiry, send useful mail your customers actually open, and connect it to your offers and your content. Unlike reach on someone else's platform, your list cannot be taken away by an algorithm change or an account purge.

Finding 7: Voice is coming, but it is not here yet

Big Tech is investing in voice interfaces again, and OpenAI describes voice as one of the most natural ways to use software. Actual weekly use of voice assistants to find information or complete a task is still only 23.1 percent of online adults worldwide. Worth watching, especially for hands-free and in-car moments. Not worth a budget line of its own for most South African businesses in 2027.

Your 2027 action list, in order

1. Protect search. Paid search and SEO stay at the centre while search remains first for discovery and research.
2. Become quotable by AI. Use clear, factual, well-structured content on your own site, with prices, areas, proof and answers stated plainly.
3. Fix conversion before buying traffic. Fewer visits are coming to every website. More enquiries from the visits you get is the growth lever.
4. Focus social. One or two platforms, clear objectives for each, posted consistently, with paid support behind what works.
5. Rebuild email. Grow your list, mail it well, and measure it. In South Africa, your customers are demonstrably on email.
6. Measure honestly. Blend platform reports with real enquiry and sales data, especially as AI and zero-click results make traffic numbers harder to read at face value.
7. Ignore silver bullets. The report closes on this warning, and so do we: be wary of anyone promising that one new tool or channel changes everything.

Frequently asked questions

What is Digital 2027?

Digital 2027 is the latest Global Digital Report from We Are Social and Meltwater, published in October 2026, covering global internet, AI, search, social, mobile and e-commerce adoption and behaviour, with data from partners including GWI and Similarweb.

Is AI replacing Google search for shopping research?

Not yet. In Digital 2027, 45.3 percent of online adults use search engines for brand research, compared with 26.0 percent using AI. AI is growing fast and already ranks sixth, so businesses should be visible in both, but search remains first.

Why is my website traffic falling?

You are not alone. Visits to the world's top 10,000 sites fell 6.8 percent in two years. The report links this mainly to activity moving into mobile apps, with AI search playing a part. Focus on enquiries per visit, not visits alone.

Is email marketing still worth it in South Africa?

Yes. Digital 2027 reports monthly email use in excess of 95 percent in South Africa, among the highest in the world, and email is a channel your business controls, unlike social or AI algorithms.

Which social platforms should a South African business focus on in 2027?

Choose by objective and audience. Globally, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook take the great majority of social time. For most SA businesses, one or two of those, done well, beats being thinly present on many platforms.

Plan 2027 on data, not on hype

Tell us where your customers come from today, and we will map your search, social, content and email plan against these Digital 2027 findings, with the numbers in plain language.

Contact Wassp: wasspsolutions@wassp.co.za | +27 11 450 4634

Next step: See Paid Media, Content Marketing, Organic Social, and Seria Analytics.

Source: Digital 2027 Global Overview Report, We Are Social and Meltwater, October 2026, analysis by Simon Kemp.