This groundbreaking change has already begun. It will threaten business, media and our wallets

• Google is introducing a groundbreaking change to its search engine, powered by artificial intelligence. Instead of traditional links, users will get topic summaries and the ability to have conversations with AI.
• The new features are already having an impact on the media and advertising market. Analyses conducted in the US show a drop in traffic to publishers' sites, which could threaten their advertising revenues.
• Experts predict further tensions and inequalities. The rise of AI in search engines could lead to high subscription fees, restricted access to content, and conflicts with creators whose work is used by AI systems.

Not by browsing links, but in the form of a conversation with an AI-powered chatbot – this is how Google believes we will search for information on the internet in the future. The company has already taken the first steps in this direction. As experts argue, this will completely change the way we use the internet . And – for business and media – also the way we make money on the internet.

A Copernican Revolution in the Way We Use the Web

Before we talk about Google, let's take a small step back. Back in February 2023, Microsoft announced changes to its Bing search engine. The company leveraged its partnership with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT , and introduced artificial intelligence to Bing. According to the announcements at the time, it was to be a Copernican revolution in the way we browse the internet . The company announced that the search engine would be able to directly answer Internet users' questions.

Experts at the time assessed it as a truly revolutionary change , but they highlighted one snag – Bing had only about 3 percent of the market share dominated by Google.

- As long as we are talking about Bing, which has a small percentage of market share, the matter is not settled; I do not think there is an internet service for which traffic from Bing is a matter of life or death. But when Google, which has over 90% of the market, launches its AI? Then we will hear weeping and gnashing of teeth - commented Łukasz Kotowski, co-host of the Technology Channel for "Dziennik Gazeta Prawna".

That day has come. Two years later , Google is introducing exactly the same tools, beginning a fundamental change in its products . AI is to be not just an add-on, but the backbone of services.

AI will soon summarize, talk and do shopping

The first to go were the so-called AI Summaries. These are short notes that can already be found in the Google search engine. They have been available in the US for a year, in Poland - from March 2025. Unlike traditional fragments of highlighted texts, which quote information from a single website, the tool combines data from many sources and also adds direct links to the details.

Analyses from the American market, cited by the wirtualnemedia.pl portal, indicate that the introduction of this tool has reduced traffic flowing to publishers . Previously, links displayed by Google were signposts to the full content for users, now the traffic has decreased – by as much as a quarter. This is significant because – as the portal reports – in the case of "The New York Times" the share of traffic generated from the Google search engine is 32.5 percent. For "Forbes" it is as much as 72 percent.

However, according to Google, the summaries were well received by users, so the company decided to go a step further – launching AI Mode .

What's the deal with the government scandal? AI will generate an answer

This means that users (for now only in the United States) will be able to type something like "what's the deal with Watergate?" into the search bar. Instead of giving the searcher entire pages filled with links to sites that discuss the issue, the machine will analyze them. Then, based on them, it will provide a summary of the topic. And that's not all, because users can ask follow-up questions to deepen their knowledge of the topic, and the system will also provide links to websites with news sources.

The feature appears as a new tab at the top of the search page and in the Google app search bar. Users can switch between traditional search mode and AI Mode as needed. AI Mode is powered by a customized version of Gemini 2.5, Google's most intelligent model, which offers advanced reasoning and multi-modal capabilities. You can add audio and images to your searches. AI Mode will offer personalized suggestions based on previous searches and can connect to other Google apps, including Gmail.

In the future, the AI ​​Mode tool will also be able to autonomously purchase tickets to events, make restaurant reservations, or schedule meetings on the user’s behalf.

Google digs holes, but will it fall into them itself?

The presented functionalities have stirred up a lot of discussion . Among other things, it concerns the issue of income for content creators . Without redirecting traffic from Google, they simply will not earn money from advertising.

Interestingly, ads displayed alongside content are also the largest part of the Cupertino giant's revenue. Alphabet's (Google's owner) consolidated revenue in the first quarter of 2025 increased by 12% year-on-year (which is 3 percentage points less than the increase recorded in the same quarter of 2024), reaching $90.2 billion.

Paweł Nowacki, an independent media consultant and board member of the Association of Digital Transformation Practitioners, believes that there is still a long way to go before AI-based tools conquer the market .

I don't think that changes will happen overnight. Google would kill a very large part of its business in this way - says the expert, adding that the company must have a much longer-term plan in this respect.

- AI is an expensive technology, it consumes a lot of resources. It is no coincidence that companies such as Microsoft or Google announce investments in their own nuclear power plants. The company will have to provide them with some financing. That is why it cannot deprive itself of income from advertising - he argues.

The share of revenue from the giant's cloud services is already growing. However, according to Nowacki, the introduction of AI in search engines may end up deepening inequality . In his opinion, access to the best and, for example, ad-free tools will only be possible after paying a high subscription fee. The trailer is out today - for the Google AI Ultra package, which includes the company's latest services, you have to pay $ 249.

- The problem is that providers of content used by AI can quickly realize that these tools pose a threat to them and put a stop to the use of their content. And then the quality of what the Internet user gets in a conversation with the AI ​​chat will be lower and lower, or the services of the giants will be worse and worse, because the algorithm will have nothing to learn from - adds Nowacki.