This study seeks to determine the principal determinants influencing the overuse use of AI search engines across multiple dimensions. A total of 355 young participants in Vietnam have been surveyed and considered suitable for quantitative analysis utilizing PLS-SEM. The results demonstrate that personality traits such as openness to experience, neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness significantly influence trust in AI, leading to strongly increased reliance on AI search engines. Moreover, digital literacy and social influence substantially impact both technological compatibility and the overuse use of AI search engines. Ultimately, techno-stressors significantly affect overuse usage of AI search engines, while having no effect on technological compatibility. The research offers significant implications for both theoretical and practical domains to regulate overuse usage, control technostress, and advance digital literacy among young Vietnamese users. The study’s novelty lies in its ability to offer a deeper and more thorough knowledge of overuse usage of AI search engines across a range of various domains