For the first decades of the internet, “doing a search” meant one thing. Whether you used Google, Bing, Yahoo, or an alternative, search engines were the way we navigated the vast landscape of online content.
But what is changing now that AI is available? Artificial intelligence represents a new — and often more efficient — way to find what we’re looking for. Whether you’re planning your next vacation or looking for the care instructions for an esoteric garden plant, AI is making it easier to find answers. Meanwhile, some still see AI as a buzz word, without a clear use case. Let’s look at how AI is changing search and introducing new users to the tech.
The History of Search — with AI
Search has always been tied to artificial intelligence. Google’s search dominance came from AI advancements as the company used machine learning and advanced algorithms to understand search intent and efficiently order results. The company’s early AI research also helped deliver image matching and language translation, making Google one of the earliest AI companies.
In 2017, Google engineers published a paper called “Attention is All You Need,” which was the first to propose “transformer” architecture. This underlying structure evolved into the Large Language Models (LLM) we primarily use today, first popularized by ChatGPT in November of 2022. It’s not really a surprise, then, that much of search and AI tools blur together in experience and functionality.
The Search Experience
It has been clear since the early days of AI that many users prefer an artificial intelligence experience for finding answers over traditional search engines. Users report that it’s easier to prompt, and more pleasant to read, a “plain language” response. So it makes sense that many search engines are integrating AI-generated answers into their search results.
As with many things search related, this is best exemplified by Google. Even before the landing of “AI” into our everyday life, Google had been using the technology to deliver search results in new and dynamic ways. Google Search Engine Results Pages (or SERPs) have shown a variety of results over the years, most added to the top of the results page and pushing the list of 10 blue link results farther and farther out of sight. What we see instead is a collection of other resources that Google (often correctly) assumes we will find more helpful. These include ad results, business and map results, videos and image resources, knowledge “cards,” “Featured Snippets,” and the “People Also Ask” (PAA) blocks.
More recently, Google has included AI overviews, which are blocks of text that briefly answer the search query, much as a traditional AI chatbot would. These Google-generated answers include sources for the references used to generate your response along with the ability to ask follow-up questions in a more conversational format. Highly accessible and easy to use, AI Overviews are delivering the AI experience to unsuspecting search users.
In late 2024, Google began rolling out the separate “AI Mode,” which is essentially search in an entirely AI experience. Now available for all users, AI Mode is available as a separate tab at the top of your results page, and users make this the default page result when doing a search if they prefer to receive AI responses versus the traditional link resources. These responses include links to the references used to generate the response, but do not include any of the traditional search or other SERP page content. AI Mode arguably is no longer search but a specifically targeted AI experience.
The End of Search?
Does this mean that traditional search is over? If “traditional search” is defined as a page with 10 results that link to sources, then the answer is probably yes. But that form of search has also been going away for a while, replaced with paid ads, videos, and other content that has been shown to be more preferred by users.
And Google is hardly the only one challenging the old order. Perplexity AI is a generative AI tool specifically designed for search using AI, with quick access to sources inline to the response, and with the traditional link listing available in a sidebar. An AI solution dedicated to tackling the search experience underscores just how closely they are tied. And while Google has traditionally maintained a massive market share of search, its position in AI is not as defensible.
Unfortunately, at this point the user numbers for artificial intelligence versus search are still tricky to untangle. For example, while we can look at the number of prompts submitted to a particular AI site, and we can get data on the number of times a search engine tool has been used, there is no single source for comparison data on how many users are utilizing these tools. These are still considered two separate industries, and are counted as such. And even as recently as late 2025, Gartner reported that users lack confidence in the “reliability and impartiality” of AI responses, suggesting that even those using AI for search are doing so selectively.
While the data and confidence may come with time, for now search remains an important pillar of internet use for a huge portion of the population. But, at the end of the day, most of our searches are seeking answers, not just results. It’s a subtle difference, but one AI can deliver. And make no mistake: AI is coming for search.
