Google boosts its search engine with AI: for better or for worse?

Google rethinks its most iconic and lucrative product, adding new AI features to search. The most important change in the history of the "Search Engine" since its launch in 1998.

Google search is about to undergo fundamental change. To align itself with the latest advances in artificial intelligence, and spurred on by competition from newcomers like ChatGPT, the company's flagship product is being totally revamped. That means more personalized and boosted by artificial intelligence. Indeed, Google said it is changing the way its search function works, providing users with AI-generated answers to their questions rather than directing them to other websites. The summaries will be generated by Google's Gemini artificial intelligence. According to Gerrit De Vynck, AI reporter for the Washington Post, this could have huge consequences for the Internet.

Google boosts its search engine with AI

At its annual I/O developer conference in Mountain View, Google VP Liz Reid outlined these changes, marking her imprint from the start of her tenure as Google's new head of search. The message is clear: AI now underpins almost every Google product, and the company still plans to accelerate this change." In the age of Gemini, we believe we can make a huge number of improvements to search. People's time is precious, isn't it? They're dealing with difficult things. If technology offers the opportunity to help people get answers to their questions, to simplify their work, why wouldn't we want to pursue that?" said Liz Reid in an interview with the media outlet Wired.

These changes to Google Search have been in the pipeline for some time. Last year, the company created a "Search Labs" section, allowing users to try out new experimental features, as part of the Search Generative Experience.

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"AI Overview: Google takes control

While Google claims to have created a customized version of its Gemini AI model for these new search functionalities, the company declined to share any information on the size of this model, its speeds or the safeguards put in place around the technology. We do know, however, that this Gemini search-specific version will power certain elements of Google search, such as AI insights, which Google has already been experimenting with in its labs. AI-generated summaries will now appear at the top of search results. Liz Reid said AI insights will be reserved for complex questions. "If you search for Walmart.com, you just want to access Walmart.com," Reid explains. "But if you have an extremely personalized question, that's where AI will come in." For each query, Google will attempt to make an "algorithmic value" judgment as to whether it should offer AI-generated answers or a conventional blue link to click on.

Other announced updates include an advance planning function. With planning features directly in Search, you'll be able to get help organizing your meals or your vacations.

"So you can ask for anything you can think of or need to do - from research to planning to brainstorming - and Google will take care of the tedious work," reads the Google blog. For example, it will now be possible to ask Google to plan your meals or find a Pilates studio near your location that offers a class with an introductory discount. Thanks to AI, the search engine will identify studios, give you a summary of reviews and reviews, and can even calculate your travel time to get there.  

If you're looking for the best place to hold a birthday dinner in the Dallas area, Google should no longer be redirecting you to gastronomic or culinary sites, or the sites of passionate bloggers. In an example provided by Liz Reid, Google first proposed a page with a few filters such as "Dine-In", "Takeout" and "Open Now" to refine the results. Underneath, we can see a few sponsored results (Google Ads), then a grouping of what Google considers "birthday-worthy restaurants" or "romantic steakhouses".

AI previews are currently being rolled out to all Google users in the US. The feature will be available in more countries by the end of the year, Reid said, meaning for more than a billion people. The same will apply to AI-powered video search. With Google Lens, you'll soon be able to point your smartphone's camera at an object, like a record player, and ask how to fix it.

"Let Google search for you"

Google's search overhaul comes at a time of growing criticism of what some see as a "degraded" search experience. While the competition, by which I mean Microsoft and OpenAI, explains the firm's acceleration, the switch to the "all AI" era is worrying professionals. Indeed, the priority given to AI-generated responses instead of links to websites could have serious consequences. What's more, while the risk of the spread of fake news and information manipulation is very real, these new developments are likely to directly impact the business model of many information sources (media, newspapers and other publishers), as well as companies, which risk experiencing a loss of traffic. "One of the most important changes happening in search with these AI models is that AI is actually creating a kind of informed opinion," says Jim Yu, executive chairman of BrightEdge, a search engine optimization company that has been closely monitoring web traffic for over 17 years. "The paradigm of search over the last 20 years was that the search engine extracted a lot of information, passed the sources to you and then left the choice to you. Now, the search engine does all the searching for you, summarizes the results and gives you formative feedback."

Beyond that, this paradigm shift seems to be moving away from keyword research towards natural language discussions with a search engine. Faced with concerns about the future of websites and SEO, Sundar Pichai has sought to reassure. In an interview, the CEO of Google and Alphabet said: "The only thing that's different is the technology itself". According to Pichai, artificial intelligence will "not only improve the user experience, but also continue to add value to the work of SEO professionals."

Google shapes the future of Internet search with artificial intelligence

According to research firm Gartner, by 2026, the volume of traditional search engines would decline by 25%, as a more "agent-driven" approach to search, in which AI models retrieve and generate more direct answers, takes hold. "Generative AI solutions are becoming surrogate answer engines, replacing user queries that could previously be executed in traditional search engines," said Alan Antin, analyst vice president at Gartner. "This will force companies to rethink their marketing channel strategy." What does this mean for the Web? "It's a change in the world order," BrightEdge's Yu tells Wired media. "We're at a point where everything in search is starting to change with AI."

Doped with AI, the Google ecosystem as we know it could simply disappear. The question is: to what end? How will sites be remunerated for the content used to produce AI summaries? Will the conditions under which AI generates responses be transparent? How will Google motivate publishers and other content creators by offering them less visibility? Will the world's most widely used search engine still be as relevant as ever if many sites disappear and it only feeds on Wikipedia and the major media? But that's not all: what about Mountain View's advertising-based business model? So many questions that remain unanswered to this day...

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