Google CEO Sundar Pichai Is OK With AI Mode Replacing Classic Search via @sejournal, @martinibuster

In a recent interview, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed that sources and links will always be a part of the AI answers and when asked how he feels about a decline in the use of Classic Search  in favor of AI Search, he mentioned that Google will survive on a blend of subscriptions and advertising.

Google On The Future Of Links And Sources

Google’s CEO acknowledged that people still want to connect with what’s on the web. He also shared that Google is creating a seamless transition from classic search to AI Mode and that according to their internal metrics, people are satisfied with it.

In response to an interviewer question as to whether Google is at some point going to transition away from the ten blue links and classic search, he said that the process is a “continuum,” which means a gradual transition, not a “rip the band-aid” type change.

The question the interviewer asked:

“I think a lot of people expect that at some point, the kind of normal Google sort of classic search interface goes away. The 10 blue links maybe go away and you just kind of have this AI mode as the default.

…Do you think that goes away at any point that you sort of rip the band-aid off and just go full AI mode?”

Sundar Pichai confirmed that sources and links won’t always be a part of Search:

“You know, I think it’s important to bring users along the journey as well as making sure the product is working for their expectations.

So, you know, I try not to get ahead of that.

I think it is very clear as we evolve through these changes, people are responding positively. We can see it in the long-term metrics of the product in such a clear way. And so I think we understand that. But people want search to be fast.

I do think through search, people are looking to connect with what’s out there on the web, so that’s important to us. It’s all of that.

So I think you’re seeing us evolve the product.

And I think you’ll continue to see it be methodical, but we didn’t have AI Mode a year ago. But now a lot of people are experiencing it. I think we have made it more seamless to go there than before.

And so it’s a continuum.

But I don’t see…

Sources and links will always be there as part of it.”

Pichai says people want to connect with what is on the web and that sources and links remain part of the experience. But he also says AI Mode is becoming more seamless and widely used, which actually impacts referrals.

Visibility Is Not The Same As Referrals

The idea of evolving classic search so that it’s seamlessly transitioning to AI Mode is not going to be popular with publishers and SEOs. The reality of “links” and “sources” in AI Mode is that visibility is not the same thing as referral traffic. So when Pichai’s AI Mode offers visibility with one hand, it’s also diminishing referrals with the other.

This ties directly with the concept of Google Zero. Google Zero is the big brand calculation that referral traffic is dwindling to zero. So in order to survive, businesses must promote and monetize as if Google referrals will one day be zero, Google Zero.

The reality of AI Mode is that Google is preserving the appearance of attribution while diminishing the economic value of clicks.

Google Says Users Are Responding Positively

The other important point in his answer is that Pichai says Google can see positive user response to AI Mode in their long-term metrics. But people are increasingly concerned about data center use, the record amounts of water that they use, and the harm that does to the environment as well as to the cost of energy, which affects the cost of everything from the clothes you wear to the dinner on the table.

The interviewer even mentioned how college graduates across the United States booed at the very mention of AI. So with all of the negative public sentiment against AI, Pichai still insists that people are happy with it.

Google Is Okay With Replacing The Search Advertising Model

One of the two interviewers gestured to his co-interviewer and commented that he had told him that he hadn’t done a traditional Google Search in a year and asked Pichai if he’s okay with people abandoning search in favor of pure AI queries.

He asked Pichai if he’s okay with users who don’t use classic search :

“When you hear that, are you cool? Like, this is the kind of user that I want right now, or does it send you a little chill because the traditional search ad business is a pretty good one for you.”

Pichai’s answer seemed to suggest that there may in the future be a blending of subscription and advertising revenues.

He responded:

“Well, I think we will, if anything, in the AI mode, in an agentic… these things are going to do a lot more for you than what we were able to do for users 10 years ago.

I think the economic value is always a function of the total value you’re giving users. All of us would say over time, the value we are providing users increases, there’s more competition, there are more choices.

So I feel comfortable between a combination of subscription and ads that the right models will continue to be there.”

That’s maybe the first time someone at Google has mentioned a blend of subscriptions and advertising as a way of monetizing the AI web. Where does that leave publishers?

When asked about the negative economic future that many feel AI is bringing, he compared AI to the introduction of the spreadsheet and how that revolutionized financial analysis, to how it will make coding easier, and how it will enable doctors to spend more time with patients.

All of those analogies and comparisons sidestep the damage to the web ecosystem that non-referring visibility brings.

His answer:

“I think people are going to be more productive. They will have more time for leisure. All of that will simultaneously be true.”

Pichai is confident that the web ecosystem can subsist on visibility, and that Google will be fine if people stop using classic search. But where does that leave the web ecosystem? Pichai all but recommended eating cake.

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