One year after launching AI-generated search results via AI Overviews, Google has unveiled AI Mode—a new feature it claims will redefine online search.
Functioning as an integrated chatbot, AI Mode allows users to ask complex questions, receive detailed responses, and continue with follow-up queries, eliminating the need to click through traditional links.
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai described it as a ‘total reimagining of search,’ noting significant changes in user behaviour during early trials.
Analysts suggest the company is attempting to disrupt its own search business before rivals do, following internal concerns sparked by the rise of tools like ChatGPT.
With AI Mode, Google is increasingly shifting from directing users to websites toward delivering instant answers itself. Critics fear it could dramatically reduce web traffic for publishers who depend on Google for visibility and revenue.
While Google insists the open web will continue to grow, many publishers remain unconvinced. The News/Media Alliance condemned the move, calling it theft of content without fair return.
Links were the last mechanism providing meaningful traffic, said CEO Danielle Coffey, who urged the US Department of Justice to take action against what she described as monopolistic behaviour.
Meanwhile, Google is rapidly integrating AI across its ecosystem. Alongside AI Mode, it introduced developments in its Gemini model, with the aim of building a ‘world model’ capable of simulating and planning like the human brain.
Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis said the goal is to lay the foundations for an AI-native operating system.
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