This pathway has resulted in millions of people—who never intended to use AI in the first place—unwittingly becoming acclimated to a new chatbot reality. Google Search usage hit an all-time high this year, and much of that activity involves AI. Google’s AI Mode has racked up more than 1 billion monthly users, the company says, a figure rivaling the estimated 1 billion monthly active users of ChatGPT in May, according to Sensor Tower.
AI Mode is just the latest step in a gradual series of AI integrations. In 2024, Google began rolling out AI summaries in response to users’ searches called AI Overviews, above the classic blue links. These AI Overviews are now more prevalent—shown in forty percent of U.S. Google searches, according to Similarweb—and more utilized by the public. This summer, a Pew poll found that more Americans read AI summaries at the top of search engine results than use chatbots (60% to 49%).
But Indig says that when users are in AI Mode, they behave completely differently. They write much longer queries—three times the length of traditional search queries. And they search for different kinds of things. They brainstorm essay ideas, build study guides, plan trips, and even seek financial advice.
This year, many Google users have expressed skepticism or distaste for AI. But Google has increasingly implemented design changes that direct its searchers into AI interfaces. For instance, the “Ask Anything” search bar which triggers AI Mode is often no longer hidden under a “Show More” button. More recently, the company has placed an AI Mode button on the Google Search homepage for many users.
Read More: How Sundar Pichai Pushed Google To the Front of the AI Race
These new types of search encounters could be habit-forming, says Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “People need to have something 10 times better to really switch behavior,” he told TIME in April. “And they have something that’s actually really pretty good, but it doesn’t need to be the best.”
Dangers to Creators
For instance, the world of online shopping is radically changing. The percentage of people who use AI to shop online has doubled in less than two years—a shift that can leave retailers with much less information about their customers. “You lose the direct relationship with customers,” Indig says.
At least some AI leaders are aware of the problem. Earlier this month, 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 performance of our models and the entire web at the same time,” and present an “existential threat” to publishers.
“It is critical to our vision to remain the connective tissue to the web,” Stein says. “Users want to hear from experts. They want to be able to verify and feel good about the content they’re seeing.”
Home-field advantage
“Younger generations prefer ChatGPT. But when people do research on ChatGPT for products, they will go to Google and look for the brand,” says Indig. “So Google still has an important utility.”
At the beginning of the AI race, Google was criticized for moving too slowly. Four years into the generative AI boom, its bet on converting its built-in usership to AI has paid off. It remains to be seen, however, if the publishers and content creators Google relies on for quality information will be able to withstand the changes Google has implemented.
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