Google Search now includes AI chat

Google Search users now see AI overviews, followed by an "Ask Anything" search bar that launches AI Mode, a chatbot interface. Millions of people unwittingly became acclimated to this new chatbot reality.

AI Mode has reached one billion monthly users

Google's AI Mode has racked up more than one billion monthly users, the company says, a figure rivaling the estimated one billion monthly active users of ChatGPT in May, according to Sensor Tower.

Google moved fast after lagging behind

At the beginning of the AI arms race, Google lagged far behind upstart competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic. But by aggressively implementing AI tools into its dominant search engine, Google is arguably doing more to bring AI into people's everyday lives.

AI Overviews now appear in forty percent of searches

In twenty twenty-four, Google began rolling out AI summaries called AI Overviews above classic blue links. These are now shown in forty percent of U.S. Google searches, according to Similarweb, and more utilized by the public.

AI Mode users behave completely differently

When users enter AI Mode, they write queries three times longer than traditional searches and search for different things: brainstorming essays, building study guides, planning trips, and seeking financial advice.

Users trust AI Mode answers too much

AI Mode users exhibit high trust in answers and stay inside the interface rather than exploring the web. Kevin Indig, a strategy advisor, says users will get an answer and barely go out of their way to verify it.

“They will get an answer, and they'll barely go out of their way to see if it's correct. That means very few clicks.”

Google is pushing users toward AI Mode

Google has implemented design changes directing searchers into AI interfaces. The "Ask Anything" search bar is often no longer hidden under a "Show More" button, and the company has placed an AI Mode button on the Google Search homepage for many users.

Pichai declared Google would be AI-first in twenty sixteen

These shifts culminate a decade-long strategy from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who declared in twenty sixteen that Google would be an "AI-first company." In April, Pichai told TIME that AI is the most profound way to advance Google's mission.

“I view AI as the most profound way we can make progress against that mission.”

Publishers face a fifty-eight percent traffic drop

U.S. web traffic to roughly one hundred of the top news sites fell from above seventy million visits in twenty twenty-four to forty-seven point six million visits this July. An Ahrefs study found AI Overviews were associated with a fifty-eight percent reduction in clickthrough rate.

AI companies worry about a doom loop

Newly unsealed court documents from The New York Times' copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft included worries from both companies that their AI content strategies had started a "doom loop" that would hurt the entire web and present an "existential threat" to publishers.

“doom loop”

Google's dominance may prove hard to challenge

Kevin Indig says the dynamic could play out like when Snapchat threatened Instagram: Instagram simply implemented similar features and maintained dominance. Google has this advantage because younger generations prefer ChatGPT but still use Google for product research.