It has been a year since Google, the king of search, introduced AI Mode, a natural-language AI search feature, in May last year. AI Mode, which offers Gemini-based conversational answers instead of showing search results as links, was seen in parts of the tech industry as a prelude to the decline of the open web. Forecasts also spread that publishers who have depended on traffic coming in through Google Search would find it harder to make a living.

Google's push toward AI-centric search continued even after it rolled out AI Mode. Google recently revamped its search box for the first time in 25 years, allowing users to add photos and videos to queries and adding a feature that lets AI agents search on a user's behalf.

What changes has this brought to the Google search ecosystem? If nothing else, it seems clear users are spending more time on Google than ever.

According to a recent New York Times report that combined three research papers released by various researchers, users stay in AI Mode 1 to 9 minutes longer than in traditional Google search. A study published in October last year by Growth Memo, a search and marketing newsletter, found that in about 75 percent of all user sessions, users did not leave AI Mode and move to a website.

For media companies, businesses and banks that have made a living that way, concerns that AI Mode would sharply reduce traffic appear to be becoming reality. Those companies say Google users are now not leaving Google after searching and are only reading AI-generated answers. As a result, fewer people are visiting their websites and search-driven inflows have declined, the New York Times reported.

The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel (닐레이 파텔) said, "Google Zero, where traffic through Google search effectively disappears, has already become reality for publishers." He added, "It was only after AI Mode appeared that people realized the change that had been slowly under way has now reached a tipping point."

Google's position is different. Google disputes claims that it is threatening the open web.

Liz Reid (리즈 리드), a vice president in Google's search division, said in a blog post in August last year, "The company's core philosophy has not changed, and even now we are sending a relatively steady flow of clicks numbering in the billions to external websites." She added that reports saying search traffic is declining are "inaccurate" and based on "flawed research methodology."

As it expanded AI features in search, Google also introduced features aimed at encouraging users to move beyond AI Mode and onto the web. They include website previews in some AI answers and a feature that, if users set "preferred sources", makes the AI cite those newspapers or news outlets more often. It also rolled out a profile feature to help publishers and content creators surface their content more effectively in search.

As AI-driven search spreads, figures also show that fewer users are visiting websites directly. Cloudflare said more than 50 percent of total web traffic is now generated not by people but by AI bots or automated programs.

Human traffic visiting corporate websites in finance, publishing and retail fell about 40 percent from June 2025 to April 2026. Cloudflare warned that the web's fundamental economic model has already changed and that the open web could be at risk if chatbot-style search services like Google spread unchecked.

In the past, someone who searched for a football player's performance at the World Cup would click a sports site or a social media post to check commentary and reactions. Now, AI bots roam the web, gather the necessary information and provide player records directly to users, and users do not leave Google, the New York Times reported. The Wall Street Journal reported that as AI answers are integrated into search, website clicks could decline, prompting some companies to review their advertising relationships with Google.