Google’s New “AI Mode”. Is traditional search dying?
I Just Tried Google’s New “AI Mode” — My Take on the Future (and Possible Death) of Search
An email popped up in my inbox just a couple of hours ago. Google. Subject: Something about AI Mode and Search Labs. Honestly, I barely remember signing up for whatever beta or experiment this was, but there it was.
The email pitched “a new search experiment where you can get AI-powered responses, ask follow-up questions, and explore more on the web.” My immediate reaction? “Wait, isn’t that… just the definition of AI?” It sounded less like a revolutionary feature and more like Google finally catching up to describe what AI does. Still, curiosity got the better of me. What exactly is this AI Mode, and what does it tell us about where search is headed?
Let’s dive into what I found.
First Impressions: It’s Google Search, But With an AI Assistant Glued On
Firing up this new AI Mode felt… oddly familiar, yet different. At its core, it’s the Google Search we all know, but with a significant AI layer integrated.
Naturally, my first test was a bit of vanity searching — Googling my own name, “Kasigazi Emmanuel.” The results page flickered a bit (maybe a beta quirk?) then settled, showing the usual stuff: MIT links, podcasts I’ve been on, my digital breadcrumbs. Pretty standard.
Then I tried something more practical, inspired by the cashews I was munching on: “Are cashews healthy?”
This is where AI Mode revealed itself. Alongside the familiar list of blue links, there’s now a clear option — sometimes a button, sometimes a dedicated section — inviting you to get an AI summary. Clicking it takes that exact question, “Are cashews healthy?”, and feeds it to an AI. Right there on the results page, it generates a summarized answer, often pulling from and citing the top results. It even showed my recent search history nearby.
It’s Google Search, undeniably, but with AI bolted on. My immediate thought? This feels exactly like Perplexity AI. It’s that same model: ask a question, get a synthesized answer with sources, bypassing the need to click through multiple links yourself. It seems Google is taking a direct shot at integrating this increasingly popular AI-search approach.
Déjà Vu: Didn’t Bing Already Do This (and Then Mess It Up)?
Using Google’s AI Mode gave me serious déjà vu, specifically throwing me back to Bing in early 2023. Remember when Microsoft first integrated AI (what eventually became Copilot) into Bing search? Back then, the execution felt genuinely slick.
You could search for something random, like “ideas for using nuts in yogurt” (sounds weird, I know, but it was a test!), and if the standard web results weren’t enough, you could seamlessly flip to an AI chat mode right there. It used your exact search query and gave you an AI response without kicking you to a new tab or making you copy-paste. It felt integrated, fluid.
But try that now? As I ranted about in the video below, Bing Copilot often throws you into a completely separate, clunky interface now. It loses the context, feels disconnected, and frankly, is just annoying. What the hell happened? It was good!
The irony? Google’s new AI Mode feels uncannily like Bing’s old, superior implementation. It’s bizarre. Microsoft was arguably ahead, they had this seamless flow, and then… they seemingly downgraded it. Now Google is rolling out what Microsoft fumbled. It’s a strange cycle of product development.
The Elephant in the Room: Is Traditional Search Kicking the Buc…?
This AI Mode isn’t just Google adding a shiny new toy. It feels like a response to a much bigger, more uncomfortable reality: Traditional Google Search, the bedrock of their empire for over two decades, is in trouble.
Seriously, ask yourself: When was the last time you implicitly trusted the first page of Google results? As I was saying angrily in this blog from December 2024 (and I stand by it!), I reached a point where I couldn’t trust Google Search anymore.
“I can no longer trust anything Google shows me cuz you’re very sure the first whole page someone paid to be there. It’s not the legit thing, it’s what the most money guy paid… I’m not getting the right answers. I’m just getting the rich answers.”
That’s the crux of it. The top results are so often choked with ads, sponsored placements, and sites hyper-optimized for SEO rather than quality information. We scroll past novel-length recipe intros, affiliate-link-stuffed reviews, and clickbait listicles. Finding a genuine, unbiased answer feels like panning for gold in a river of mud.
Search isn’t dying because we stopped needing information. It’s struggling because the signal-to-noise ratio got terrible.
AI-powered search offers a potential escape route. The promise (at least for now) is a shortcut to the answer, a summary synthesized from multiple sources, potentially cutting through the SEO and ad sludge. Google sees Perplexity rising, they see ChatGPT changing user habits. They know this shift is happening. AI Mode is their defensive play, their attempt to adapt before becoming irrelevant.
Why You Should Care: Adapt or Fade Away
The tech world is ruthless. Google built an empire on search, a decades-long dominance. But as I realized while exploring this AI Mode, that dominance can evaporate shockingly fast.
“It’s a thing that made Google… built this thing and it just dies in three years… if you don’t iterate, if you don’t evolve, if you don’t innovate… you disappear. You can disappear that fast, that quick.”
Google’s AI Mode isn’t just innovation for innovation’s sake; it feels like a move driven by the fear of obsolescence. It’s them acknowledging that how we find information is undergoing a seismic shift.
Here’s my quick take:
- AI is Invading Search: Google is now directly embedding AI summaries into results, playing catch-up (or leapfrog?) with Perplexity and early Bing.
- Search Results Feel Broken: I’m tired of ads and SEO games dominating results, and I don’t think I’m alone. Trust has eroded.
- We Want Answers, Not Just Links: AI promises faster, synthesized answers. The appeal is undeniable (though I worry about how they’ll monetize it without ruining it).
- Evolve or Bust: Even Google isn’t immune. They have to adapt as we increasingly turn to AI for information.
What’s Next?
This AI Mode is still labeled a “preview” — I literally just got access today. It’s not clear how widely available it is or what the final version will look like. Will it replace traditional search results as the default? How will they stuff ads into AI summaries without making us hate it all over again? These are the big questions.
For now, AI Mode is a fascinating glimpse into Google’s strategy. It suggests a future where “Googling” might mean getting an AI answer first, with the familiar blue links relegated to backup sources. It’s a huge potential shift, driven by AI’s relentless march and the slow decay of traditional search’s reliability. Whether it saves search or just paves the way for the next disruption, only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure — the game is changing, fast.
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